Happy Birthday, Megan! We have thought about you all day and hope you had a good one! We love you.
Ismir is very different from Istanbul. It is the second largest port and is bigger than Montgomery, which I was just not expecting. It is more industrial or something and feels more grubby than Istanbul. Of course, we are saying this from our perspective of driving through on a bus, on a day when it has rained more on than off. The port is a good distance from the center of town so we were glad we had chosen this day to take our shore excursion, which was to Pergamon. We started the day by eating breakfast out on the deck in the back of the ship as it was docking in Izmir. It was quite pleasant and comfortable with just a light sweater, if that. Then we got our stuff and headed out to our shore excursion. The buses were parked a good way away from where we got off the ship, but they did a good job of directing us all to the proper bus and tour. We got on the bus and promptly, the rain began. It was a nice steady rain all the way to Pergamon which was an hour and half’s drive from the ship. When we arrived, we huddled under the sheds and tents of the few vendors that were set up there. Then we climbed the steps for our tour and enjoyed the wonderful view of the few feet in front of us as the fog was so bad that we could not see one thing! It would rain and then stop and rain and stop, but the fog was so thick that we could not see much, as you will see from our photos. We really thought the day was a total washout, pun intended. When we got back on the bus,it momentarily cleared and we were able to get out and take at least a few photos of the area. Then we drove to the Greek health center Asclepion. You would not have thought it was the same day as the sun came out, the fog cleared and it was gorgeous and warm. From this site, we could see Pergamon in all its glory and see the amphitheatre on the side of the hill. Asclepion also had an anphitheater, but not as grand as the one at Pergamon. By the time we enjoyed our visit there and headed back to the bus, it had clouded over again and another shower followed. I think this place invented the joke about if you don’t like the weather, wait a few minutes and it will change! We had box lunches that they gave us on the ship, and we ate that as we drove to the mandatory rug factory tour. Turkish rugs are gorgeous and the workmanship is beautiful, but after rug tours in several countries, our interest in seeing another one was dimming fast. The tea and coffee just are not enough of a reward for sitting through it again! Then we headed back to the ship, another hour and half drive. We got back with less than an hour before we had to be back on the ship. There were some shops in this dock area but we have come to the conclusion that there is nothing here that really beckons to us in the shopping dept and that says a lot. It could be we were just very tired and the rain had started again too! But the ship was looking mighty good to us. We thought we saw an internet café on the inside of the port building and we were planning to go there and upload our blog from last night, but it turned out, you could only access it by entering that area and we had already just handed in our Turkey entry pass and so we just opted to keep on going back onboard.
Comparing the Jade to the other NCL ships we have been on,it reminds us of the Hawaii cruise the most on several levels. The food in the nice restaurants are very good, but the garden café does not compare to the one on the Pearl this summer. However, it goes without saying that we are managing to gain the normal amount of cruise weight, I am sure!