Touring Knights

Being so close to Turkey and the ancient city of Ephesus was too irresistible for our insatiable curiosity to resist. So on Thursday we travelled by ferry to the city of Kusadasi from there we met a tour group Ephesus was built in the 10th century BC on the site of the Greek Arzawan capital. Ephesus particularly flourished during the roman occupation in the year 129 BC. The ancient city was abandoned in the 15th century AD. Ephesus was an important centre for early Christianity, the apostle Paul lived in Ephesus and during that time he worked with the congregation and organised missionary activity. It is also believed that whilst residing in Ephesus Paul wrote 1 Corinthians. L    It is also believed that John resided in Ephesus and possibly wrote the gospel of John whilst he was there. It is also believed that Mary resided in Ephesus during the last years of her life.   The city had one of...

Again our trusty scooter took us on another adventure, we travelled to the town of Pythagorio.  About a 30 - 40 min ride.  Previously this township was named Tigani, however in 1955 it was renamed to honour Pythagoras. Pythagoras was a Greek philosopher and mathematician most famous for his phythagoreon theroem.  He was born in 570BC in ancient Samos. The township of Pythagorio is built upon the ruins of the old city of Samos and  some of the ruins are incorporated into the current modern buildings. Our first stop was the Archeological museum of Pythagorio This museum was fabulous, every item was labelled clearly with its origins and date. Throughout the museum there were large information boards identifying the different periods of the items. These were amazing dating to around 550BC you can see in the front medical  equipment including a pair of tweezers. So finely made and so petite. The museum also included some r...

Samos is an Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, it is just 1.6km off the coast of Asia Minor  (Turkey)  In ancient times Samos was an especially rich and powerful island particularly known for its vineyards and wine production.  It was the home of Pythagoras who we all would have loved to have strangled in high school, well I know I did ... lol We are staying in the small fishing village of Kokkari,  whilst kokkari has now developed into a bit of a tourist haven with cafes lined up along the waters edge and a beautiful long beach to enjoy,        it has maintained its traditional appearance with white houses, small winding streets and lanes filled with flowers and friendly locals.  It is a quiet tourist destination with lovely bars to while away the hours    If you look at this image on the far right you can see two windows on the top storey, that is our l...

We arrived in Athens late in the afternoon. So there really wasn't a great deal of time to go sight seeing.  We settled into our room and then headed out for a wander and to find some place for dinner. The next day we rose earlyish and headed off to do meet up with the organisers of our tour.  We planned to do a tour of the sites around Athens city itself.   Our first stop was the Panathenaic Stadium    The first stadium to built on this site was in 330AD, it was rebuilt, totally in Marble,  in 144AD  after a time it was abandoned then in 1860 it was excavated and rebuilt and in 1869 it hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the first modern olympics. After this jumped back onto the bus and after a short period we were informed by our guide that we would not be able to do the city tour as a large part of the inner city was closed due to the presence of the French president.   The picture above shows the laos on the r...

Today was our last day in London so I dragged Gadget back to Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the guards I got a really good position up on the monument so I could take photos without trying to shoot over people's heads unfortunately about 30 mins before it started the police came and made us all get down , apparently it can get a bit crowded and people have been known to be pushed into the fountain . . .  Anyway I managed to get some good photos despite the number of selfie sticks waved above people's heads. The queens guard have been watching over the royal palaces since 1660.  The Changing of the Guard takes 45 mins and marks the handover between the Old Guard, who are nearing the end of their shift, and the New Guard, who are readying to relieve the Old Guard of their duties.  The old guard form up on the left side of the palace grounds ( looking from the Victoria monument) then with the marching band leading the new guard march through...