Bodrum, Turkey

June 14, 2023

Hi - another country on the list of places visited! I had never been to Asia either! (Carsten had been).

Bodrum, Turkey

We did not have an excursion today so we headed out for the walk to Bodrum Castle. This castle was built in 1402 by the Knights of St. John as the Castle of St. Peter or Petronium. The castle was completed in the 15th century, only to be taken over by the Islamic Ottoman Empire in 1523. The chapel was converted to a mosque, and a minaret was added. The castle remained under the empire for nearly 400 years. Now home to the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology.

Amphora Exhibit (an amphora is a container)

the mosque and minaret

An albino peacock - there was a colorful one as well and they were super loud, calling back-and-forth to each other.

This is a headstone. They often depicted scenes from ordinary life or hobbies or profession.

The walk to the Castle from the Cruise Terminal is about 1 kilometer. All along the way there are shops - this is the spice shop where we made a small purchase. Carsten tried Turkish Delight and loved it (surprising no one) and of course had to buy one for the road.

Stopped in for a quick glass of wine at this seaside café with a view of the castle.

Bodrum was quite a pleasant surprise! It was very nice and not terribly crowded. The people we encountered were very friendly but not pushy!

Today we are in Mykonos, Greece. Carsten and I had an excursion to Delos, Birthplace of Apollo and Artemis - children of Zeus (not with his wife Hera). Hera was not a fan of his philandering and so the baby momma had a hard time finding a place to give birth. Delos welcomed her because it was kind of a nothing place ... good move, it became a thriving place to live.

This is the coast as we approach the island.

This is an intact mosaic floor that is over 2000 years old. This would have been a large room in a large house. There would have been at least one floor above the columns. The houses were sometimes as large as 5000 sq ft. The houses had a bathroom with water and sewer. The island has little ground water, most water was rain water that was caught and stored in cisterns. There were both private cisterns and public ones. There were channels in the ground that were used to move both clean and dirty water (separately one hopes) as needed.

This is an olive press carved from marble.

This window, framed by granite, faced the street. This was unusual and in addition, the holes at the bottom show that this window had bars for security. It is thought that this was a bank or some sort of trading post where valuable were stored and/or used as a place for commerce.

This is a large cistern.

The ampitheatre. Euripides and three other poets were the writers of comedy and tragedy staged in theatres like this one. Theatre and Democracy were both born in the 6th century and really grew hand-in-hand. The plays/poems staged shined light on the issues of the time. Plays were considered part of the education system in fact. People saw the play and this prompted discussion of the issues of the day.

ok, this is a little hard to see but on the left side of the picture, carved into the stone is a phallic symbol. This was carved into the side of the house to ward off all sorts of evil; envy, pride, avarice, etc. The tour-guide even told us the origin of the word phallic in Greek - from the g

Greek "fallow" meaning to bloom. So, I think I need one of these on my house.

These are the most famous marble lions on Delos. There were five of the original 16 (they think). These are from the 6th century BC.

Another beautiful mosaic floor.

After our excursion we went back to Mykonos by ferry. We then spent a lot of time walking around the city. Trying to outdo our 15,000 steps from Bodrum.

We stopped for a quick bite to eat and drink. We ordered a nice appetizer and lunch to split. When we ordered, the waiter rolled his eyes and told us that what we had ordered was for children and we should have the fish (it was 90 euros - $95 - ummmm, no). Momma had a similarly pushy experience in a shop. Very strange considering there were four cruise ships in port ... plenty of money being spent!