Another beautiful day - we are in Kusadasi today. We went to Ephesus again today - there just wasn't enough time last week to see all the things we wanted to see. We had a chance to spend a bit more time in the terrace houses. We took the ships tour and once again there were only 14 people and we had an excellent guide named Levant. He had lived in the states for 6 years and obviously enjoyed being a guide. Fortunately it was not nearly so hot as last week, nor as crowded. Clouds are coming in now and it looks as if it may rain this afternoon – I hope not for the sake of the folks going to the concert at Ephesus tonight.

I finally have had to break down and do laundry today. The laundry rooms on Voyager are not as nice as the ones on Mariner – no seating area, no flat panel tv, and no mighty Rowenta irons. Another dose of reality was the appearance of the disembarkation form with this mornings paper and invitations. I have decided not to even think about having to leave.

The internet speed seems ok so I will try once again to post some pics.



On the Bosphorus cruising past Dolmabahce Palace



The Egyptian Obelisk at the Hippodrome. Built in 1500BC!!!! It was brought to Istanbul by Constantine around 330AD - every emperor needs trophies from his foreign lands.



The Blue Mosque



The ceiling of the Blue Mosque – so called because of the predominantly blue color of the tiles. The photos don’t even begin to capture this place – I was standing where a number of the different domes intersect and shooting straight up – no flash.



The Blue Mosque from the promenade connecting to the Hagia Sophia – you can get a feeling for how big it is and also of the overlapping domes that make up the roof.