Pamukkale and Laodicea

We are up and ready and our driver is there when we get down, but

we are so early that the next couple we’re picking up aren’t ready.  They are having their breakfast and we need to wait for 15 minutes….Patty and Liz finally join us with their breakfast as wrapped up sandwiches because the breakfast buffet wasn’t open

 yet.  They are doing a 3 day tour of the 7 churches mentioned in the Book of Revelations with things to change in order to be good churches that are all right in this area.  So, Laodicea has been added to our tour.  I have 

no inkling of any of this and I’m a tad miffed, that we had to wait, that something has been added to the tour, that there is another couple and I’m wondering if it’s going to effect the price for the tour.  But our tour guide is awesome and so knowledgeable about  

philosophers in the area, she is quizzing John about if he knows who all came from these places.  She knows her Biblical history which the other couple are in to also.  So my anger dissipates, especially when we get to the church site.   It’s amazing.  Our tour guide tells

us how people used to come here and pray at a site close to here, but they hadn’t unearthed the actual church at that time.  Now, that they have found it and excavated, the entire floor plan with the mosaics that are wavy from being in an earthquake are there.  It’s an 

  awesome site and to think that Elcin (our tour guide) said that 5 years ago, there was nothing here but a field is amazing.  John says that it almost looks “fake” because of how much has been reconstructed here and there is a “mosaic puzzle” just 

waiting to be put together eventually.  Never wanted to be an archeologist as much as at this moment.  We spend 30 minutes at the site and then get to stop at a textile place.  Now, I’m thinking this is going to be something annoying like those things that tours make you do 

 wanting you to buy things and it is that in a way, but one I’m not angry about.  Cotton and sheep are everywhere and this is their “outlet store”.  And when you find an outlet in Turkish Lira, you buy everything.  Everything that I

 saw at the grand bazaar and wanted, but didn’t feel that I could get, I got.  Kids’ clothes were 50% off and Oscar found a spider man type outfit with a hat for this cold weather and we spent maybe $12 on it.  I had to remember that I had to carry

 everything with me or we would have been out some serious cash.  Not long here, then lunch and finally to Pamukkale.  Elcin is the best kind of tour guide, lets you know what you need to see, what you don’t need to bother with and then lets you do your own thing.  She walks us through the place and tells us to take pictures later, takes us to the

Cleopatra pool and lets us loose.  She shows us how to get water from the spring to drink to see how bubbly it is and Oscar, John and I go get changed.  I’m finally getting to “take the waters”, one of my things that I wanted on this big trip.  We are freezing on the marble pavement and barefoot, but get into the hot springs and it is amazing.  You’re swimming

 over Roman columns, sitting on pedestals for columns and floating through this bubbly, warm water.  It’s amazing and Oscar even loves it because he doesn’t want to leave after 45 minutes.  We have to see the rest of the place though, but for 20 glorious minutes, we 3 were 

the only people in the Cleopatra Pool.  Elcin says in the summer, you can’t see the water for the amount of people in it.  It was an amazing experience and one you can’t duplicate.  We get dressed and head out to see the calcium carbonate pools that are made

  from the springs coming down the mountain and get to take off our shoes and socks again to wade in the pools.  It’s amazing and breathtaking.  The entire town of Hierapolis is around us, with a good theater, buildings, and ruins that people pay good money to see, but very few people even pay attention to these ruins in relation to the natural wonder all around.  Which is a

first.  John says that he “humored” me on booking this tour, but was sold on it as amazing with an hour.  We got to spend several hours there and didn’t get back to Izmir until 8pm at night.  Geenthzi travel took all 3 of us on a 14 hour tour with lunch and admission paid for less than our trip to Delphi cost us.  Which is awesome.  Ephesus is going to have be absolutely stunning to live up to this day.