On To Izmir

 

Up this morning about 7:30 – I know, we’re really getting lazy!  Again, SO fortunate with the weather, as it was supposed to be raining all day!  However, lovely and warm outside, and when we went down for breakfast about 9 am, some of the folks staying here were opting to eat outside!  Again, an excellent breakfast, and truly, the best tangerines I’ve ever had!  On the road about 9:30 and heading today to Sardis, which is an ancient city about an hour or so to the east of Izmir.

 

Sometimes in Turkish, they just sort of sound things out!

Photo of where a door jam was!  Obviously got a lot of use!

Entering into the bath/gymnasium area

Bath/gymnasia

It took about an hour and a half to get there, and we certainly had changing weather conditions along the way!  Sometimes it was very overcast with a little bit of rain, and sometimes brilliant sunshine – but at all times, the wind was picking up tremendously!  

 

We got to Sardis, and, as R said, it was the one-door-open-at-a-time rule, for sure!  Otherwise, we risked losing things in the gale outside!  We’d visited here some years ago, and it was nice to revisit – especially as there were very few people around.  A big bus did pull in as we were leaving, but basically we had the place to ourselves, which is always nice!

 

While there is evidence of habitation from the earliest times here, Sardis was one of the preeminent cities of the ancient world.  It was the capital of the Lydian empire that ruled western Anatolia after the fall of the Hittites, the birthplace of coinage, and the home of Croesus, whose name became synonymous with unimaginable wealth! (As in … Rich as Croesus…)  Additionally, it was a city exhibiting unusual urban planning and was ringed by the largest fortification wall outside Mesopotamia, said to be 30 feet thick.  Sardis houses one of the largest Ionic temples in the world, arguably the most picturesque Ionic temple surviving today, and its well-preserved Roman buildings include a monumental bath-gymnasium building and the largest synagogue of the ancient world.  Robert estimated that the wind was probably blowing something like 20 mph, as at some points, we could barely walk against it!  I’m thinking fall (I say winter! – R) may be moving in, but really can’t complain at all, as we have been so incredibly lucky with the weather!

Synagogue entry way

Beautiful mosaic

Layout of the entire Synagogue

 

Beautiful patterns outlining one of the walls

I love this drain cover!

Altar in the Synagogue 

Eagle on the side of the Altar

Mountain in the background

And a beautiful rainbow!  It was that kind of day!

The bath-gymnasium building, all two floors of it, is stunning, and I well remembered it.  And, the synagogue has really lovely mosaics.  One good thing that has happened since our last visit is that there is now a permanent cover over the synagogue, to help with preservation, and truthfully, it looks like the entire site is still under excavation and conservation, which is great to see!

 

From Sardis, we headed up the hill a short way to the Temple of Artemis.  This is the fourth largest Ionic temple in the world and is sited dramatically below the Tmolus Mountains.  Two of its columns have survived intact to this day, which makes for a very dramatic setting below the mountain.  

 

Only the two original columns still remaining upright!

Beautiful site for a temple!

From there, we decided to head to Izmir (3^rd largest city in Turkey…) and our DoubleTree hotel.  Actually did drive through some torrential rain getting here – in fact, in one town, as we were approaching a traffic signal, all the lights in town went out at the same time – so we just proceeded cautiously, and were able to make our way to the freeway (which isn’t free, but we have a transponder…) to head to the coast.  Traffic once we got to Izmir was really heavy, but we managed to get here – although it’s never exactly “fun” arriving in a rainstorm!  Nice man at the door got the luggage out of the car and did something with it – I’m thinking that there are enough things to do in Izmir, that we won’t need it until we leave on Monday morning to drive to Çanakkale!  We’re planning on take taxi’s to the Archaelolgocal Museum tomorrow, and a few other sites that we’d like to see – weather permitting, of course!

 

So now we’re in our Junior Suite, #911, and it looks to be clearing a bit.  Lovely, large room, with a separate seating area with two comfy chairs.  Only problem is that it’s so DARK!  It’s an older DoubleTree, and didn’t they know about lightbulbs??  Oh well!  Have warmth, and comfy bed, so shouldn’t complain!  R currently reading the NYTimes 36 Hours in Izmir article that came out some months ago – not sure that we’re really their target audience, but we’ll see if there’s anything there we might want to do!  At any rate, looking forward to dinner, so more later!

View from one of the windows

 

Much love,

m

xxx

 

Back from dinner – and Wow!  A really great meal!  We were the only ones in the dining room – granted, we went up [to the 11^th (rooftop) level] at 5 pm, but still … had the place to ourselves!  As R pointed out, though, we certainly didn’t have to worry about the noise level of the place – there wasn’t any at all to speak of!

 

R ordered their “butter” shrimp to start, following that with their sea bass with potatoes.  I started with the arugula salad to be followed by their steak with eggplant mash and potatoes, all washed down with two bottles of plain water and two glasses of a lovely dry red wine – which, for the first time on the trip, didn’t come freezing cold out of the refrigerator!  Yay!

 

First came a wonderful starter of a small plate of olives, a few pieces of mozzarella cheese, and some strips of marinated sun-dried tomatoes – all excellent!  R’s starter of shrimp was absolutely superb – nice, plump shrimp sauteed in some sort of garlic butter, nice and spicy but not too hot.  My salad (we shared both starters) was a beautiful bowl of arugula with artichoke hearts, pomegranate seeds and lovely slices of parmesan cheese, in a balsamic reduction dressing.  Everything was absolutely yummy!  

 

Our delicious "amuse-bouche!"

R's excellent butter shrimp

My arugula salad

R's sea bass

My steak on eggplant puree with chips and veggies!

Then came our main courses, which were also both really delicious!  R loved his sea bass – and he didn’t even have to bone it himself, which he thoroughly enjoyed!  And my steak, while NOT cooked rare, wasn’t totally done to death, and served on a bed of mashed eggplant, with sliced garlic cloves on top … also, served with a small container of mustard seeds, which was great.  Additionally, there were wonderful French fries, as well as a variety of perfectly cooked vegetables …. But for me, you could have stopped at the eggplant, for all I cared!

 

At any rate, we ate our fill and are now back in the room and I’m getting ready to blog!

So!  More tomorrow!

 

Much love,

m

xxx