Our first visit of the day was to the ancient city of Troy and I don't think I've ever visited a more aptly described "pile of old stones" - I really struggled to find the enthusiasm to take any photos at all. I'm sure Göksel fed us lots of fascinating information about what we were seeing but nothing much stuck, other than they're still excavating lots and there seems to have been 7 different versions of the fortress city over time (as the inlet it was built on kept silting up and so they rebuilt further along the coast). The first city dates back to the time of Homer's Iliad and the Trojan Horse but the excavations we saw where of the 6/7th incarnations and these are Roman. The excavations were started in 1871 by a German self made millionaire and he illegally removed many of the treasures he discovered; his wife even wore some of the jewellery.
Clearly the silting up has continued over the centuries and we're now standing 4kms from the water.
Might be more interesting if they reconstruct some of it.
This monstrosity is the museum opened in 2018
Statue of Aphrodite, Goddess of Beauty.
I'd quite like these for my glass bottle collection.
This Trojan Horse replica is the subject of much controversy with many finding it completely out of place whilst others find it a pleasant frivolity at an otherwise dull museum. Apparently you can climb inside it but unfortunately for us it had been taken away for refurbishment.
And a still photo for when I turn this into a Kindle book.
This video was also playing in the museum.
Lunch today was included and
Göksel took us to a lovely restaurant situated on the edge of the Aegean.
The food was no surprise - lentil soup following by grilled sardines and salad - but it was delicious and a glass of wine was included so on the basis I can't drink bad white wine, I ordered red and it was beautifully chilled and very delicious.
I've no idea what this contraption is about but the waiter was delighted to see me photographing it and promptly plugged it in. I expected bubbles and smoke at the very least, but nothing happened.
Snapped from the coach window we've seen a couple of planes in strange places - this one had been repurposed as a restaurant.
No idea what's going on here.
To reach our next destination of Pergamon involved driving through the busy market town of Bergama - I'd have liked to have stopped and wandered around as there were quite a few shops which looked interesting.
The ruins of the Acropolis tower are 300m (1,000ft) above the town and reached by cable car. There were 6 of us in the pod and it took ages to reach the top and although logically I know it can't be true, the pods coming down moved considerably quicker than we did. It was only Ian's second time in one (the first being Switzerland in thick mist) so I was a little concerned as to how he'd feel, but he was OK although felt sometimes that we were a little too close to the ground and the drop when we went over a pylon was quite noticeable.
Beautiful Ipomea but sadly no ripe seeds for harvesting.
Photo opportunity - chargeable no doubt - not sure if the dog is included.
Model of how Pergamon used to look.
I think these self supporting brick arches are very clever.
These are remains of the Temple of Trajan, completed during Hadrian's reign. German archaeologists have re-erected some of the columns so whether the site qualifies for UNESCO status I don't know, but personally I find it much more interesting/enjoyable if I can see how the place might have looked.
This is the most steeply inclined theatre in the ancient world, it has 80 rows of seats and could accommodate 10,000 bottoms.
Never mind the wind blowing his cap off, I think without the 4' wall he would have been blown away too!
Göksel then led us to a stop below the main construction where he said the most amazing photos could be taken. One by one he made people hand over their phones whilst he took pictures; maybe ones on mobiles were OK but as you can see from ours he didn't have a clue how to use a camera or even shoot straight.
So I asked the only other "photographer" in the group if he'd mind doing the honours - much better.
One old ruin propping up another!
Temple of Zeus.
I took this to show just how steep the hillside was.
A couple of views from the cable car on the way down.
Ooops - I hope that is not a crashed pod!
We then had a 1 1/2 hour drive to our overnight stop in Izmir arriving at the Movenpick Hotel just as it was getting dark. I think it might be Halloween!
Just a bog standard city hotel with very little character and so we killed off a couple of hours before dinner and had an early night.
