13 December ’04, Monday. 41 degrees, my feet are freezing, and I’ve got to find that heater fast ! That was first thing this morning and then it was fried eggs, toast, and coffee for breakfast. A quick wash up of the dishes, re-pack the van for travel and head off for our second visit to Ephesus. We visited Ephesus in October when Bonnie and Doug were here with us, but it had so much to see and offer, we decided that we had to make another visit while we were close. Kuºadasi is just 15 km away, so it was an easy morning ride. Just a little recap: Ephesus is among the best places in the world to get a feel for what life was like in Roman times. This time we started out where we finished and made an afternoon of it. As we passed the gymnasium of Vedius (2nd Century AD) we came upon “Harbour Street” which ran from the bay to the “Grand Theatre”. Last time we were here, Harbour Street was closed (this time someone had removed some of the tape) but today we wondered all the way to the end. The “Grandest Street” in Ephesus was all large marble slabs that were laid out to make this wide street very impressive to say the least. There were shops along the sides a nymphaeum (fountain and pool) and the triumphal columns that all added to make this a grand site for it’s visitors and merchants. When we made it to the end we found a path that we followed through some tall weeds and plants and then right in front of us we came across The Church of Mary (or the double church). It wasn’t one the list of places to visit as they had it kind of “out of bounds”, but we just happened to find it through the “back door”. This was the find of the day as far as I was concerned. It was wonderful. As you come through one of the entries, you are met with a large “Baptismal”…it is absolutely stunning. Then, we saw some of the first signs of “Christianity”, a cross. We have been in a lot of ruins in Turkey and have only seen but a few. This church definitely had some to show. As we wondered further into the ruins, we came across the “Baptism Pool”. It was set in a 6 or 8 sided room with a rectangular pool in the center. Steps led down into the water from each end. At each wall around the pool was a large cross carved into the slab marble walls. Louise mentioned that “this would be a wonderful church to have a wedding in”,just as it stands today, and it would. In our tracking through the undergrowth, we came across a young man who was hunting for mushrooms. He said that during the summer he worked at the Ephesus site as a digger for the researchers. He was telling us about his work and his young family with 2 children and how hard it was to keep food and clothes on their back during the winter, and that is why he was out hunting for mushrooms. He was showing us some special locations that we might normally miss and then we were saying our good-bye’s and he dug out this little sack. In the sack he shook out about 6 or 7 coins. “I find these coins when I dig, and the museums have so many of them, they don’t want to give us anything for them any more”….”I need the money for my kids, and I will make a offer to you…” Wellll, we bought some….you know, we had to help. After we left, we were heading down the road and Louise was reading out of one of our travel books, and she comes up with this; At Ephesus, you may be approached to buy “ancient coins”, which, despite their grimy appearance, are actually modern. Some genius discovered that when coins pass through the digestive tract of a sheep or cow, them emerge looking convincingly aged….WHAT ??? Why that dirty…WHAT DID WE PAY ???? I’m going back to find him !!! Well, we knew that someday, someone would get to us, and it might as well have been him…you know, he’s got these kid’s…