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Ancient Ephesus - ADD-ON TO ISTANBUL PROGRAM Excursion Options
All excursion options include transportation where necessary.
(Full day) – In 1995, Mrs. Gursel Tonbul dedicated the whole of her experience, accumulated knowledge, effort and time to the farm that bears her name. Since then, the farm has produced a wide variety of organic plant and animal products, and markets them both as wholesale and retail goods under the brand name of “Yerlim” (Turkish for local or indigenous). Indeed, the farm serves as a model of large-scale multicultural organic production and food processing for the country as a whole. Furthermore, the farm is not only a production center that provides work to regular laborers year-round; with its professional and well-informed staff, it is also a learning center for volunteer organizations and individuals. Hence for culinary explorers who come to visit, share and work with a staff that truly believes in the philosophy of organic agriculture, it promises an unmatched and worthwhile experience.
Depart the hotel at 10:30 AM and spend the day on an organic culinary quest. Begin your day with a hands-on lesson in making gozleme, the local flat bread. After class, enjoy a lunch based on ingredients as close to the source as you can get, accompanied by the farm’s own wine. Following lunch, you will participate in a farm activity based on the season.
As this is a working farm, activities at the farm are ongoing throughout the year: January (citrus harvest, vine and olive pruning); March /April (planting of summer vegetables); May (plum and green almond harvest); May, June (food processing—cutting, drying, preservation, etc); June (apricot, peach and cherry harvest; vine shoot pruning, weed removal); June, July, August, September (watering, hoeing, summer fruit and vegetable harvest, processing); August (ripe almond harvest); September (pomegranate, walnut, quince harvest); September, October, November, December (olive harvest and processing); October, November (winter seed planting); November, December(citrus harvest); December (winter vegetable harvest). You will return to the hotel at 4:30 PM.
(Full Day) – After breakfast, we depart at 9:30 AM and drive first to Priene, formerly a leading member of the Panionic League. As we drive further South, we visit Miletus and then arrive at Didyma, where we have lunch at a local restaurant, circumstances permitting, across the road from the temple. As the historian Pausanias wrote, "The sanctuary of Apollo at Didymoi, and the oracle there are more ancient than the Ionian settlement". Return to the hotel at 5:00 PM.
Price: $282.00(Full Day) – After breakfast, we check out of the hotel at 9 AM and we drive to Pergamum. Upon arrival to Bergama, we drive to Acropolis. The Temple of Dionysus and The Altar of Zeus are covered with magnificent friezes depicting the battle between the Olympian gods and their subterranean foes, though most of these famous buildings were removed to Berlin by the 19th century German excavators. Then we head on to Asclepion, one of the world’s earliest medical and psychological treatment centre. After we have lunch at a local restaurant, we visit the cathedral-sized Red Basilica. St John the Divine wrote that Red Basilica was one of the seven churches of the Apocalypse, singling it out as the throne of the devil. After our full-day tour, we travel back to the Izmir Airport for the return flight to Istanbul.
Price: $390.00
