Rain Rain Go Away!

 

By the end of today we had seen all seven churches mentioned in the book of Revelations.

The ancient ruins in the city off Pergama were at the top of a mountain which we reached by cable car. The view from the top and the city were outstanding. We spent a little time walking through the ruins with Majit our Turkish guide. We saw the library and temple then suddenly there was a sleeting rain storm. Wind and rain were blowing sideways. Tourists were running to the gondola base, others sought some shelter among the ruins. We all packed ourselves into the only places we could find shelter. The cable car was not able to start up again because of the bad weather so they had to call taxis from town to get us back to the bottom of the hill. We were all pretty drenched! And stayed drenched for a goog long while. I learned today that my so called "raincoat" was water resistant and not waterproof. That was unfortunate.

 

We are ending the day at a beautiful and very old sea side hotel in Assos, Turkey. The sea was raging when we arrived and it was again pouring down rain. The bus had to park up the hill and we had to walk about ten minutes down the hill to get to the hotel. The hotel is beautiful, quirky and old. It's made of stone, even the interior walls are rock. It looks like it would be a lively place in the summer but we are the only ones here now. The dock is full of small fishing boats which were all tied up tightly due to the storm. our group enjoyed a lovely dinner of grilled sea bass, vegetables, weird salads, hummus and the usual dessert soaked in a sugary liquid followed by traditional tea. Afterwards, some of us went outside to have another look around the port. When we returned the storm had knocked out the electricity and the hotel was pitch black. It was a bit scary. You could only see silhouettes of people staged around the room. Some folks decided just to go to bed but a few of us stayed up and enjoyed visiting by candlelight. The hotel said this never happens......and they never get storms like this. It has been quite the weather day!