Bodrum - Wednesday, October 16

Today was a "free" day - we woke up in Bodrum, Turkiye. We had signed up for an optional tour of Miletus and Didyma. Our friends, Lu and Dave, signed up for an optional beach trip. Ruins or beach? I heard they had a really good time!

I have no idea why we stopped at this restaurant along the way. We didn't eat. We didn't drink. We didn't shop for souvenirs.

We did grab a photo. Mark and I are a part of the John Wesley class at our church. It is a very big class and there were quite a few of us on this trip. We were laughingly calling ourselves the JDub class and we were making up hand signals! Yes, we are old but sometimes we like to laugh and be silly. The tall guy on the back row and I are both teachers in the class. One of our class members stayed on the boat today due to her health.

We headed to see another theater! Let me tell you about Miletus -- in the archaic period, Miletus was known as the ruler of the Aegean and the birthplace of science and philosphy! It was on a major trade route but once again silt took over. Paul visited here on his third journey (I think that is correct). Also, Miletus was a port city at the mouth of the Meander river on the west coast of Asia Minor. 

The baths of Faustina -- the largest bath and sportss complex at Miletus in Roman times. It was established by Faustina the Younger, wife of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (1610180 AD).

These were like shower stalls - probably not really but that is what I'm remembering!! Actually, I just googled it and these (below) were the dressing rooms! I was close!!

This looks like the ruins of a pool, right?

Allen! Hey Allen! I'm so glad we all traveled together.

I found this info online -- The route of the bather is the following: From the cold room (frigitarium) placed to the east of ambulacrum, he proceeded to the warm room (tepidarium) and then he entered the hot room (caldarium), the large central hall of the baths, measuring 27,30Χ14,85 m., which included square and semi-circular swimming pools (natatio), and he finally reached the sweat chambers at the southeast corner of the complex. Inside the cold room (frigitarium, measuring 6,50X12 m.) there was a pool with water (natatio, frigida) decorated with statues, which served as fountains. The most remarkable among them is the statue of a river god, likely the personification of the Maeander, fragments of which have been found during the excavations. The heating system was situated at the east and north part of the complex. From there the heating was channeled through hypocast and clay pipes to the central hall of the baths and the other rooms of the complex.

I clearly remember the tour guide talking about the frigitarium, tepidarium, and caldarium!

Mollie riding the lion! Somewhere there is a picture of me on that same lion! You will see it in a few pictures . . .evidently not in order.

A really cool thing happened while we were in this theater. A pastor from a sister church was going to do a devotion BUT  a group of men entered from the center stage area below. They started to sing a cappella . . .in harmony . . .in a another language . . .and it was so beautiful. They, too, were travelers like us and we just happened to be there at the exact moment. We have no idea what words they were singing but you could tell they were singing from their hearts.

In the photo below, Amy is sitting on the throne! You can just barely see her. I texted this to her and said she would now be Queen Amy rather than Pastor Amy!

Here I am . . .riding the lion!

Laura and I have lots of selfies!

Here we are at another lunch! They served all of the salads! One day we had pickled seaweed and it was so good. I'm wondering if that is what is below.

The flowers were BEAUTIFUL! This was in an alleyway outside the restaurant.

There was a citrus tree growing on the alley, too.

Remember I told y'all about the stray cats! I watched this one . . .as soon as the folks moved away from their table, this one was poetry in motion as she jumped up and started eating the remainder of the fish from the bones! The person who worked there made her get down . . . she was hungry. I hope she hopped back up there!

More flowers - they were gorgeous!!

I'm assuming this was Mark's plate - I know it wasn't mine!

Give me all of the french fries, please. These weren't mine, but I'm sure I stole a few.

After lunch, we went to Didyma and toured more ruins.

Didyma is a sanctuary centered on the 2nd-century-BC Temple of Apollo, once among the largest in the ancient Greek world. Now reduced to giant broken columns and chambers, the temple once drew thousands of pilgrims who came to worship Apollo and consult its prophesy-giving oracle.

We viewed the remains of its 72 towering columns—all stumps except for the three still standing. Other areas include the inner courtyard—where the cult statue was housed—and surrounding, scattered fragments, including a much-photographed, gigantic stone head of Medusa.

I loved traveling with Debbie, too!

This is our executive pastor, started out back in 2005 as our youth pastor. He is an actual Olympian so this was the perfect photo set up!!

We were finding shade anywhere we could.

Guess what this is below?? These were Roman games carved into the stones!!

We probably shouldn't admit we did this . . .but Laura was the statue on top of the base. We didn't get caught! Aren't these cool photos of her?

Here we were walking back to our bus.

We could only look through a locked fence at the Sacred Way which was a road connecting Miletus to Didyma so that folks could walk to the temple of Apollo.

The sign below tells us that since the 7th/6th century BCE, the oracle of Didyma was connected with the city of Miletus by this road. Processions would follow this road.

When we got back on the boat, Brian did a talk on "A Dividing Wall in Ruins: Paul's Ministry to the Outsider."

He had a panel of three and they spoke about different ministries to the outsider.

tonight is one of the nights where it matters that I was sleeping against the wall. I will tell you in the next installment of our trip!!