After a long 12-hour flight (we had a guy who sat in our section (3 seats in a row) who was bigger than me. He was perfectly nice, but space was very limited). We arrived in Instanbul on time, and then crossed into Asia to fly to Izmir. Izmir used to be known as Smyrna, for those familiar with the game “Diplomacy”.
From Izmir we took a luxury bus to Kusadasi, on the Aegean coast south of Izmir. It’s a port city, with cruise ships and large hotels, plenty of shopping and places to eat. We checked out our room and were happy with the view.
We took a walk, since if we stayed in our room we would have slept through dinner, and then sat by the water. In the distance was a cruise ship, behind it the Kusadasi Kalesi, or Castle.
We had dinner with the group at the hotel, and retired for the evening, not having had more than an hour or two of sleep since we left Texas.
Tomorrow, the Smyrna Agora and ancient Ephesus where Paul started one of the early churches.