Day 4 - Tuesday, Dec. 4 - Turkey Ancient Ruins

First, we are 7 hrs. ahead of EST time now and have finished our day in Turkey. We arrived in Antalyia, a resort, port city of southern Turkey with a population of 1.2 million, at 8 am this morning. Antalyia has become the Florida of Turkey with its warm weather and resort hotels. Turkey is a leading producer of pomegranates and textiles, with greenhouses abounding. It is Muslim country with a democratic government that includes Christians and Jews. The government subsidizes tourism and export businesses. Turkey is surrounded on 3 sides by water, Aegean Sea, Black Sea and Mediterranean. It shares a southeast border with Syria and Itaq and a eastern border with Iran. The total population of Turkey is 72 million. We went back in time to see ruins of civilizations 2-3,000 years ago. Paul preached in some of the city ruins we visited today and Appollonius, student of Archimedes (geometry) lived in Perge. Overall I think what impressed us the most was that we were seeing culture from 1500 BC in theater ruins and engineering marvels that indicate a wise and talented people though they did not have the education we normally associate with innovation. We visited 3 cities, Side, Aspendos and Perge. We had lunch at a resort hotel, Atlantis, in Belek which mimics the Atlantis in the Bahamas except they had to get rid of their casinos as the country is adhering more to Islamic traditions. AS an aside, I did not have to wear Islamic clothes in Turkey. The theaters in Side and Aspendos seated 12-15,000 - how did the people get there with no highways or cars to see cultural events? The theater in Aspendos still functions as a theater (think Shakesperean Festivel in Tahoe but with stone seats. Note in the pics below - are the Luckey's missing an orange cat? We found it in the theater at Aspendos and it just purred when I and several other cat lovers petted it. Then we saw its siblings outside the theater - 2 multi-colored black/orange and one black one. On the trip back to the harbour, after 8 hrs, we stopped at a Turkish carpet place which explained the Turkish rug process and showed us rugs that were made from silk, wool and cotton. The rugs are made in homes, not factories, and can take up to 2 yrs to finish (nice job for women who can't leave their homes for whatever reason. I didn't know what to expect from Turkey, but certainly not all the ruins we saw - both Jim and I really wanted to go to Istanbul which is not on this itinerary (maybe for future). See the pics of the arrival to Antalyia, ruins and villages below.

Tomorrow we visit Cypress in Greece. Day 1-3 We arrived in Rome at 9 am on the morning of Dec. 30 after a 7 1/2 flight from Philadephia. We got the rental car and headed for Boghese Art Gallery. The Borghese Art Gallery is the original villa of the Borghese family from 1400's. They were a patron of Bernini, the sculptor so many of his works are on display. While the pre-1400's paintings are not one of the Master's, the villa itself, the sculptors and the gardens were magnificent