Ninth Day of Cruise — Ephesus/Izmir
Today we don’t get into Ephesus (port city is Izmir), until 11:30 a.m., so everyone is sleeping in. We all got to bed about 10 p.m., and I got up just before 7 a.m. and headed to the pool for a swim. It was a good quiet time at the pool. I got in 10 freestyle laps, 10 breaststroke, and 10 laps that were backstroke down and butterfly on the return.
There was one lady swimming when I got there, and another guy joined us, then the lady left. He struck up a conversation with me, asked me if I knew when the pool opened. I told him I assumed it was 24 hours, but he said he’d seen a net over it earlier. We got to talking, until I learned his name was Dale, he was a high school teacher (History and Art), apparently doesn’t have kids, and grew up in Shawnee Mission, KS, from the ages of 3-10. He was born in Illinois (Indiana?) and now lives in San Diego.
Today’s tour to Ephesus was a lot better than expected. We were on bus 16 with Mom and Dad, the Gillespies were on bus 20. There were over 500 people taking the Magnificent Ephesus tour.
There was an hour ride to the site, during which our tour guide, Ilker, gave us history of the 4 different Ephesus sites, and of course, all the wonderful history of Turkey and the Turkish people.
Once on the site, we used the tour company’s (Tura Turizm — www.tura1966.com) wireless radio receivers to hear the commentary of our tour guide. It made the tour a lot more flexible and easier to keep up with. He related a lot of the various things we saw to passages in scripture.
For instance, on the way there, we learned that Izmir was Biblical Smyrna.
On the way back we stopped for a tour of a Rossini leather outlet, and got a leather fashion show. Interesting, but something we really would have just as happily skipped. They did serve us refreshments during the show.
Returning to the ship I took a swim and then we dressed for supper. It was the 6 adults at 7 at Windows. The kids split by gender. The girls dressed and dined at Windows. The boys did Raffles. Now we are catching up our writing before going to tonight’s show — a presentation by the Norwegian Spirit Production Cast called “On Broadway” featuring numbers from recent Broadway shows. We will see how much we enjoy and like it, based on the shows we have recently seen.
The boys are telling us about playing Chutes N Ladders today. So sounds like they are having fun playing games — even “kids games”.
The Broadway show was good, but loud. The earplugs were very helpful.
After the show Nathan and I went up to Raffles for a snack. While there, I saw Dale eating and talking to someone. I gestured in his direction and he responded in kind. I think he said the first word, and I came over and we talked. He introduced me to his travelling companion, Jorge, and then we had a rambling conversation of at least 30 minutes about his growing up in Santa Claus, Ind, near Abraham Lincoln’s place, our tours and excursions, New York State and the Finger Lakes, etc. He talked about the art presentations they are giving in the art gallery on the ship, and how they are helpful for him in teaching art appreciation.
Found out they are in a cabin on deck 10 with a window. We discussed my interior cabin and sleeping 4, and how it actually was larger than it looked in the online photos of the same.
He was talking of getting up for a 7 a.m. swim, until Jorge reminded him that their excursion was set to start at 8 a.m.,
At The Rainbow 