Free Traveling

Travel to Temple of Hadrian at Ephesus by Janet and Brian Mason, from the West Midlands, took a 16-night Mediterranean cruise on the P&O ship Aurora. Our holiday began in Southampton, with the customary musical send-off from the band on the quayside, and to the strains of We Are Sailing we made our way to Palma, Majorca. Here we visited the magnificent Gothic Cathedral, the Almudaina Palace — originally Moorish — and the Arab Baths, set The acropolis, the stadium and the ruins of the temples of Athena and Apollo tower impressively on a hill running along the south-western shores. The town of Rhodes itself is full of narrow, medieval streets, old battlements, towers and mosques.

From Rhodes we sailed to Kusadasi in Turkey, one of the highlights of the trip. Kusadasi provides the gateway to one of the most spectacular ancient sites in the world — the mighty city of Ephesus, once of the ruins at Ephesus — it’s easy to visualise the importance of the city, especially when we discovered that Cleopatra had actually lived there. Then we headed to Piraeus, for Athens, — a paradise of ancient monuments, including the Parthenon, and the Acropolis. Leaving the glories of Athens behind, we sailed to Zakinthos, a lush island planted with olive trees and vines, and then on to Messina, Sicily.