Back to the Greeks again - Assos etc.

As we neared the Greek island of Lesvos again, there was such a sharp transition in the weather – hot and no wind!

The ancient town of Mithymna we missed last time were on Lesvos – it’s more recent beauty is protected well...

...Including this wealthy Greek merchant’s mansion (1822), inhabited and looked after by the Athens school of Fine Arts; every room is decorated – with both Greek and Ottoman influences it’s easy to see how the two cultures lived easily side by side before ultimate conflict.

e.g. Dervish musicians.

In the first millennium BC, inhabitants from Mithymna started to colonise Assos, here just north across the water, in modern Turkey.

Assos reached its zenith in the 4^th century BC.

That really IS a narrow set of steps!

Bargaining for stuff we don’t want on the way up.

Plato’s most famous student, Aristotle, carried out much of his research into life sciences here and formulated a basis for biology that endured right up to the 16^th century.

The ruined city once stretched from the sea to the top of an extinct volcanic cone...

Where the temple to Athena (6^th Century BC) once stood.

The spectacular view ‘back home’ to Lesvos must have been great for the settlers.

Meanwhile, a strange set of slashes in our genoa has to be fixed, while I change the alternator.

Our sailing companions for a week, Ulla and Juergen from Berlin, joined us for a trip inland from Dikili to Pergamum – the famous Zeus altar was here ... it’s now in Berlin!

Perched above the modern town of Bergama, the great acropolis of Pergamum (8^th century BC) offers a dramatic view south and westwards, with theatre seating for around 10,000.

The marble temple of Trajan – the Turks (with the Germans), as usual, do a great job of restoring enough to get the idea.

In 133BC, Pergamum became the capital of the Roman province of Asia Minor.

On the plane below, is the sanctuary of Asklepios, the great god of healing...

In one of the earliest large scale medical centres, here the barrel shaped treatment centre linked to the pools in the centre of a courtyard ...

... by a cool, sunlit tunnel.

A short shuffle to the theatre may be the best tonic?!

Back in Dikili and a fabulous, typical Turkish fruit and veg weekly market. This lady was, unusually, highly amused to have her photo taken.

Stocked up for the week, we’re back at anchor, by a natural hot spring at Bademli, complete with a hammam – not very hygienic , so we just went for the foot bath.

At Port Saip, on the spectacular Karaburun peninsular we said goodbye to Ulla and Juergen after a jolly night. Next stop Cesme, to pick up Brenda’s parents, Eva and David.