A day of fresh stuff.

Today was a day of driving but we had a few surprises along the way. We'll come to that in a bit. Last night I did laundry in the hotel sink and becca I must admit mixed lights and darks not shocked are you. Laundry washing was good thanks to he Haiti trip except nothing was dry so we will try again tonight. We set out early this morning for our first visit at thyatira (pronounced Tea-A-Teara) not much to see but the neat thing was that this was the only church of the seven that was in the plains all the other churches were in the mountains. Read revelation 2:18-29. We left from Thyatira and began our treck up the mountains to Pergamum (which by the way means what Elizabeth King in German=parchment=paper).
On the way to Pergamum we pulled off to the side of the road at a vendor and bought fresh of the tree cherries, oh yeah sooo good. We were asked to read Acts 19 & 20 on the way. A true description of what we are seeing in all the cities is found in Revelation 2&3, specifically for Pergamum 2:12-17. We climbed the mountains and one of the things I find interesting is how advanced everything has been especially with aquaduct systems, pretty clever. We parked and headed into the site and stopped first at Zeus' temple check out what verse v.13 says in ch. 2 what a clear description. The temple was in the shape of a horseshoe mainly signifying a seat or throne. We enters the theater next and what a view, this is the steepest theater with some awesome features in it. One was the fact they reused the rock face as seats and this was the first site to have a portable stage. Let me explain. When they needed the wooden stage they pulled it in and when it was not in use moved it to use as a sitting place to view the country-side. Cool huh? Because of this place being on a hill side and relying so much on the original rock they had to build retianing walls and with came support arches below it was amazingly beautiful.
Hopped back on the bus for our 2nd surprise of the day lunch at a rug factory. Denise you'll like pictures. We entered into the factory and watched a man sturring a pit of what looked like white mothballs any guesses to what it was; it was silk worn cacoons. In a hot pot he would loosen the silk pulling it all together and then winding it up, we got video. We saw there silk worm farm and we saw fresh drying dyed wool. We entered into another secret room like a mueseum or more or less a sales shop of carpets of all sizes. Here is where I thought of you Denise. We went into a room and sat around and watch an Amway sales picth on buy these carpets we were proba my shown hundreds of different shapes, sizes, and textures of carpets. All in the while enjoying Turkish pizza yes you read it right pizza on freshly made pits bread, best pizza ever sorry Papa John, all this plus drink for $3.00 or 5 Turkish Lira. After enjoying pizza we were then hounded to buy, some did sorry I didn't the cheapest pieces were $40 and those were purses. Now the most expensive piece was $3,200 all of silk.
We were expecting to make it Troy today bit arrived at our hotel at 9:30 and ate dinner in an open air Resturaunt overlooking the Adriatic Sea. Meal was awesome I had fresh salad, fried cheese roll, meat plate(lamb, meatballs, steak, and rice finished off with baklava). In the morning we head to Troy and take a ferry ride to Greece how exciting.

Some have asked so I will answer by feet are doing great enough starting stopping going on. Becca enjoy your boyless weekend and remember to do things you like. Don't watch slumdog millionaire I want to watch it with you, it is an awesome movie. I Love You.

Till tomorrow in Greece...LA