Our final driving leg was from the Aegean resort town of Kuşadası to raucus Istanbul. Here is our route:
Before leaving the Aegean, we had one more stop and that was at the Basilica of St. John near Ephesus.
It is believed that the Apostle John traveled from Jerusalem to the city of Ephesus where he remained for the rest of his life. It was during his time there that Emperor Domitian exiled him to the Isle of Patmos, where he wrote Revelation (the Apocalypse). When Nerva became emperor John was pardoned and returned to Ephesus, where he lived the remainder of his days.
The basilica was built in the 6th century and not much remains from that time. This is the entrance to the basilica.
Inside you will see the believed tomb of St. John.
Also nearby is the baptismal pool where it is believed adult baptisms took place.
Otherwise not much to see here, just some interest if you are a believer.
From there we drove directly to Istanbul where we arrived at rush hour. It took us nearly two hours to get into central Istanbul to return our car and then get a taxi to our hotel.
We are staying at the same hotel, in the same room, as we did when we were last in Istanbul. The view from the room is outstanding!
Since we had been here before we didn’t do much sightseeing other than the Haya Sophia from which I’ll share pictures in a separate post.
We did take a ferry over to the Asian side for some antique shopping but it looks like the formerly expansive area for antiques has been reduced to one street and many shops were closed the day we were there.
No mind, though, the ferry ride across the Bosphorus was enjoyable at about 50 cents each way.
We walked Istiklal Street, which is the famous shopping street in Istanbul.
Saw the Istiklal streetcar, which has been running since the 19th century.
It’s more of a curiousity than practical but does add some charm to an otherwise busy shopping street.
We also took another run at the ancient Grand Bazaar.
There are over 4,500 shops inside the Grand Bazaar!
They love their olives in Turkey with 30 different kinds in this one shop in the Spice Bazaar.
We thought we’d go up to the top of Galata Tower but there was a line, it looked crowded and not Covid sensible so we just looked at it from the outside.
It’s called Galata Tower because the area used to be settled by the Galatian people. You may recognize that name from the Apostle Paul’s epistle to the Galatians, which is the 9th book in the New Testament.
We can also see it from our room. Here it is at sunset.
We are here for three full days and then fly home on the fourth. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
