plane2port
Level 2 Member
Our second port stop was Kusadasi, Turkey. Most people visiting here come to see the Roman ruins at Ephesus. They are fabulous, but we had seen them already on a previous port day, and wanted to visit some older Greek sites. There are the remains of three Greek cities dating back from before the 6th C BC, and they all can be visited in a day. At least that's what our research led us to believe. Tour companies offer one-day guided visits to these sites, and independent travelers reported that they had visited all of these sites in one day via rental car. We rented a car via internet from Lion Car Rentals in Kusadasi for 18€/day. Before we left Kusadasi, we put 70L (about $25) of gas in the car. We headed south on good roads to the first site at Priene.
We left Priene and drove across the flat-as-a-pancake Meander River Valley to the town of Didyma. The temple of Apollo was not marked on Google Maps, and it took us at least a half-hour to find it. Statues from the site date back to the 6th C BC, and the site held a ritual connection to the large town of Miletus to the north. Religious processions started in Miletus 10 miles away and ended here at the Temple of Apollo. The fine carvings of the colossal column bases are well preserved.
We headed directly back to Kusadasi using GPS and Google Maps, but we got disoriented when we got confused as to where the port actually was. Kusadasi is a large city! Fortunately we stopped and asked directions from the friendly and helpful Turks, and finally arrived at the port area. Once there, we again got confused when we couldn't find the street where we were supposed to return the car. We finally found it about 30 minutes before the ship was set to leave. It was unfortunately a very stressful conclusion to an interesting and productive day. If I did this trip again, I would just just give a cursory visit to Priene, and spend more time at the other two sites.