From the City of Brotherly Love to Smyrna (Hey, and Now I'm in New Smyrna...Ha!)

Our first stop on our third full day was St. Jean Church in Philadelphia. 

This small area is the site of the ruins of a seventh-century church. 

Many headstones have been discovered there.

Mike was practicing his Greek with some of them. 

I really should have kept studying after I dropped out of seminary...one summer course and a semester don't get a person very far. 

After we left Philadelphia, we went to Sardis and saw the reconstructed Jewish synagogue and the gymnasium. 

The gymnasium was the larger structure, but the two were side by side.

I was fascinated by the mosaic floors. 

There were so many different patterns; it was like a giant patchwork quilt. 

At one end of the "building" is this altar type thing flanked by lions. (I think they are lions. They could totally be something else. I missed what our guide said because I was taking pictures. Mike got the info, I got the photos.)

It was impressive, to say the least. And this was only a small portion of what it used to be! 

The detail in the carvings is amazing. It is also amazing that those who work on excavating and reconstructing can do such a marvelous job. 

We also went to the site of the Temple of Artemis (Sardis). (She was rather ubiquitous, you know.)

Huge columns and pillars marked what was surely an eye-popping marvel in its day. 

And just as amazing is the tiny church just to the side of the huge columns. 

So little, and yet a sign of the Kingdom of God on earth. 

In the picture below, the church building is the small structure just to the right of the smaller pillars on the right and to the back. 

Again, the work that has been done is incredible. Archaeologists have this giant puzzle to solve; how painstakingly they must do their work! 

And after a whirlwind day, we made our way by bus to the last hotel we would stay in before boarding the ship. Mike and I went for a walk down by the water near the hotel before dinner the first night. 

From the walkway, and with the hotel behind us, this was our view. 

And within the hotel complex, this was our view. 

Quite a lovely way to end a couple of busy days!