Ephesus and Knossos (ruins, ruins, and more ruins)

Last week when the ship docked in Izmir, Turkey, we took the opportunity to go and visit ancient Ephesus.  I have been there before a couple of times, years ago with guest tours, but Nick has never been, and we felt it was important to make the trip out there.  It was impossible to take public trans, as the train wouldn't get us back to the ship in time, so we had to take a taxi (its about an hour away).  We got a group together and split the fare, so we each paid 25 euros for the round trip, plus the entry fee to the site.  It was a perfect day, not crowded, not hot, but sunny.  It was stunning to see it in that weather, undistracted by the crippling heat that I remember.  We made a quick photo stop at what is left of the Temple of Artemis nearby, so we could cross another one of the 7 Wonders of the ancient world off the list.  On the way back our taxi driver, who was blasting Lady Gaga, took us the long way round back to the port, and we got to enjoy the beautiful coastline.

A few days ago, we visited Heraklion, Crete, for the first time.  We figured out how to take the public bus to the Minoan ruins of Knossos.  Famously the mythological home of King Minas and his Minotaur and labyrinth, it is a really neat site to visit - there is a lot there.  It is interesting because bits of it have been extrapolated and reconstructed (likely erroneously) by Arthur Evans, the British archaeologist who bought the site around 1900 and excavated the ruins.  That in itself is an interesting thing to see.  Later on in town we visited the Archaeological Museum and got to see many of the objects recovered from the site.  It was ideal to be able to see Minoan artifacts, and the place they came from, in the same day.  The museum and the site each helped us get a better context for the other.