Best of Ephesus Tour, Türkiye

We had booked the Best of Ephesus Tour for Monday which was great.  We were the only two who had booked so we actually ended up on a private tour with our guide Mehmet.  

Our first stop was at a big statue of the Virgin Mary. 

After that we headed to Meryemana, the House of the Virgin Mary, which is about 6 km (3.7 miles) from Ephesus and 17 km (11 miles) from Şirince.  The house is surrounded by pine and olive trees.  It's a Catholic shrine and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

A bedridden Augustinian nun in Germany, named Anne Catherine Emmerich, had visions, about the Virgin Mary.  One was a description of the house that the Apostle John had built for the Virgin Mary where she lived out the rest of her life.  An author spent five years transcribing the nun's visions, before she passed away, and a book was published in 1852.

Two expeditions completed in 1891, discovering the match between the location and the nun's visions.  While the Roman Catholic Church has never officially proclaimed the validity of the site, multiple popes have given blessings and visited the house.  Each year on 15 August, pilgrims come to celebrate Mary's Assumption.  In 2004, Pope John Paul II beatified Anne Catherine Emmerich.

On the way to the shrine, you pass a key hole-shaped baptismal pool.

Outside of the house is a "wishing wall" where people write their wishes on paper or fabric.

There is a spring under the house which pilgrims believe to have healing properties.  There are fountains that people can drink from. 

I had to make sure to light a candle for my grandmother.  She would have loved that I came here. 

It was then on to Ephesus which was a city in Ancient Greece located 3 km (2 miles) southwest of Selçuk, 8 km from Şirince, 20 km (12.5 miles) north of Kuşadasi, and 70 km (44 miles) south of Izmir.

Ephesus was built in the 10th century BC.  It was one of the 12-member cities of the Ionian League and became part of the Roman Republic in 129 BC.  It's believed that the Gospel of St. John may have been written here.  

The city was conquered by numerous empires over the centuries and it was completely abandoned by the 15th century.  Ephesus is home to one of the largest Roman archaeological sites in the Eastern Mediterranean and the ruins were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015.

The most impressive ruin has to be the Library of Celsius.  It was built in around 125 AD in memory of Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus who served as governor of Roman Asia.  He paid for the library from his own money and he is buried in a sarcophagus beneath it.  The library was the third-largest in the Greco-Roman world and was home to 12.000 scrolls.  

The library was no longer in use after 400 AD.  The facade was damaged by an earthquake in the 10th or 11th century but archaeologists re-erected it from 1970 to 1978.

The Great Theatre could hold an estimated 25.000 spectators and dates back to the Hellenistic period (3rd-1st century BC) with extensive renovation during the Roman period.  It's believed to have been the the largest theatre in the in the ancient world.

As it was just the two of us, our guide Mehmet used the opportunity to show us everything in great detail.  It would never have been possible with a larger group.

Ephesus was famous for the Temple of Artemis which was nearby.  The temple was completed around 550 BC and it was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.  The temple was destroyed by 401 AD.  The only thing left of the temple is a single pillar.

The Basilica of St. John, or rather what's left of it, sits on the slope of Ayasluğ Hill, in Selçuk, about 3,5 km (2.2 miles) from Ephesus.  It was built in the 6th century but was damaged when Turks invaded in 1090.

Many believe that the basilica was built on the tomb of the apostle.  

There's a fortress on the hill above the cathedral but we didn't visit it.

From the basilica you can see the İsa Bey Mosque.  The mosque was built from 1374-1375.  Unfortunately it is currently closed for renovation so we only got to view it at a distance.

Temple, mosque, basilica, and fortress

Hustopeče, Czech Republic

Kája's birthday was three week ago but we've been busy with work so we decided to celebrate later.  I surprised him with a wellness weekend in Hustopeče.

Hustopeče is a town about 30 km (~19 miles) southeast of Brno, located between Brno and Břeclav.  It is home to about 6.000 people and it is known for almonds and wine.

The area was settled by Germans in the 13th century who called it Auspitz and its first mention was in 1247.  The Germans brought viticulture to the area.  From the start of the 14th century to 1599, Hustopeče was owned by St. Thomas's Abbey in Brno.

In 1572, Hustopeče was given town status by the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II.  It belonged to the House of Liechtenstein from 1599 to 1848.  In the mid-18th century, Hustopeče was Moravia's largest wine-growing municipality.   

Following WWI, and the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the area became part of the newly independent Czechoslovakia.  After the 1938 Munich Agreement, which gave the Sudetenland to Germany, the Nazis took over.  It then became part of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.  

The 1910 census indicated that most of the town's inhabitants were ethnic Germans.  After WWII, the German-speaking population, even those who lived here prior to the Nazis, were expelled due to the Beneš decrees.

Almond growing is not that common in Central Europe.  It dates back to the 17th century.  In an effort to supplement food during Communism, the first large-scale orchards were planted in 1949.  

A lot of the almonds goes to making mandlovice (almond brandy).  The almond version of slivovice.  

There are three versions - normal, coffee-flavoured, and cherry-flavoured.  The original mandlovice is my favourite of all of the Czech "-ovices", followed by merunkovice, hruškovice, slivovice, and jablkovice (Calvados).

The town's main landmark is the Church of Saints Wenceslaus and Agnes of Bohemia.  The church was built in 1994 on the site of the original church that dated back to the early 14th century.  

The Baroque plague column dates back to 1736.

The Žumberák fountain dates back to 1595.  It used to be one of the town's few sources of drinking water.

Town Hall

The Neo-Renaissance town hall was built in 1906.  

Dům U Synků

The Dům U Synků is a Renaissance house dating back to 1579.  It was renovated in 2001and today the building is used for cultural purposes.  It is home to the City Museum and a Gallery.

The House of Lords of Vizovice was built from 1488 to 1492.  It was renovated in 2002.

At Calvary Hill is the Chapel of St. Rocha that was built in the 17th century during a plague epidemic.  It sits in a park overlooking the town.

T.G. Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia lived in Hustopeče from 1861 to 1868.  There is a 2 km (1.25 mile) trail that can be followed to see places associated with the family. 

His parents are buried in the town cemetery.

Near the town cemetery is the Red Army cemetery.  There are 101 individual graves and a total of 1.875 Soviet soldiers buried here.  Renovations that took place in 2005 were financed by Russia.

The earliest known Jewish community in Hustopeče was during the 15th century.  The Jewish cemetery dates back to 1886 with the last known burial taking place prior to 1942.  During the German occupation the cemetery was vandalised, and later the Communists removed all of the gravestones in the 1980s.  Now there is just a memorial plaque for the town's Jewish population that perished during the Holocaust.

The train from Brno to Hustopeče takes 45 minutes and we arrived at our hotel on Friday evening.  I booked us in at Hotel Amande and really enjoyed our stay.

The hotel restaurant was excellent and on Saturday we had the full wellness experience complete with a private relaxation room and massages.

I hear that from the second half of March to the beginning of April, the almond orchards are covered with pink flowers.  I'm sure that its beautiful and we'll need to make a return trip to visit some of the local wine cellars. 

Bilbao, Spain

Bilbao (Bizkaia in Basque) is located in north-central Spain; about an hour's flight from Madrid.  With about 347.000 inhabitants it is the country's tenth largest city.  Although the greater metro area is home to more than a million people.  Bilbao is also the largest city in the Basque Country. 

It was founded in 1300 by Diego López V de Haro.  It thrived as a port city for Basque wool and iron.   

Heavy industrialisation took place in the 19th and 20th centuries.

During the Spanish Civil War, Bilbao was bombed heavily by Spanish and German planes and then the city was besieged.  

Today, the city is an architectural mishmash of Gothic, Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Neo-Gothic and contemporary styles with 17 bridges and 18 public parks providing 200 ha (490 acres) of green space.  In 2014, Bilbao became a UNESCO City of Design.

Most of Old Town is a pedestrian zone.  In the middle is the Fountain of Dogs which dates back to the 1800s.  The water spouts used to resemble Egyptian-style lions but over the years they have faded and today look more like dogs.  

The Plaza Nueva was built in 1821.  There's a government building and the Royal Academy of the Basque Language. 

Santiago Cathedral was built in the 14th to 15th centuries and it was the city's main parish church.  It was declared a Roman Catholic cathedral in 1950.  In 1993 it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

The Teatro Arriaga is the opera house built in 1890.  It was destroyed in a flood in 1983 and rebuilt in 1985.

The Church of San Antón is a Catholic Church that was built in 1510.  Since 1984 is has been a Spanish National Historic-Artistic Monument.

Next to the church is the San Antón Bridge.  It is the city's oldest bridge dating back to 1318.  It has been rebuilt several times following floods and in 1937 it was rebuilt following damage during the Spanish Civil War.

The Ribera Market sits on the right bank of the Nervion River.  It is 10.000 square metres (110,000 sq feet), making it the biggest covered market in Europe.  There are more than 60 merchants selling meat, shellfish, produce, and cheeses.

The Bilbao City Hall building was completed in 1892.  

The Church of San Nicolás took 13 years to build and it opened in 1756.

The Zubizuri, "white bridge", was built in 1997.  The bridge has a curved walkway and the deck is made of translucent glass bricks.

Moyúa, "Elliptic Square", was built in 1876 and refurbished in the 1940s with French and English style gardens. It was rebuilt in  1997 following six years of construction of the city's subway.

The Iberdrola Tower opened in 2012.  It is 165 metres (541 feet) tall and is the tallest building in the Basque Country and the eighth-tallest in Spain.

The church of the Incarnation was consecrated in 1526. It is run by Dominican nuns and it also contains the Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art.

The Princes of Spain Bridge, also called the La Salve Bridge, was built in the 1970s.  

Mount Artxanda is one of the city's two small mountain ranges.  The funicular to the top opened in 1915.  

It only takes 3 minutes to go to the top where there is a park and great views of the city.

Maman is a bronze mama spider sculpture that was made in 1999.  It is almost 9 meters (about 30 feet) tall.  The original debuted at the Tate Museum in London and this is one of six on permanent display.

Puppy is a 12,4 metre (40.7 feet) tall still sculpture of a West Highland terrier carpeted with 38.000 plants.  The petunias, impatiens, marigolds and begonias get replaced twice a year.  It first exhibited in Germany in 1992 and in 1997 it was purchased for the opening of Guggenheim Museum.

The Guggenheim Museum was designed by Canadian architect Frank Gehry and it opened on 19 October 1997.  It cost $89 million to build and it is one of the biggest museums in Spain.  Its permanent collection focuses on visual arts of the second half of the 20th century and the present.

Here's a three minute video I found on YouTube about it.

©Rick Steves

Bilbao is a great town.  There's plenty to see and do.