Riding to Aphrodisias

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I found a new road surface today, something to add to gravel, rock, and the rest. Tar. It is going to be fun trying to get the tar off the bike when I get home, For now I am not going to worry about it. For once we got to go riding without the luggage which is nice, the bike copes well with the luggage but it was good to leave it, and the windshield behind for a day. Most of the ride was fun, apart from the short bit of roadworks and tar, and the urban highway around Denizli. Urban highways are never fun, but are often necessary to get to places. The rest, the vast majority of the ride out to Aphrodisias was on open roads winding through pretty hills and some stunning mountains.

The scenery was stunning for much of the ride but, due to road conditions, Ashley did not see as much of it as I did. Aphrodisias itself is very pretty. The site is compact - it was city planned by Augustus to be the capital of Caria and so it is not really all that old. The statues are of Nero, Agrippina and Claudius. Oh, and the usual mythological scenes. It's all remarkably well preserved. The temple was turned into a church in the 6th century so that was confusing. We wandered round for a few hours but saw no lizards. Did we mention that we saw a whole load of avocets yesterday? Well, we did, in the place of frogs and geese at the base of the travertines.

It was interesting seeing what are essentially images of the Roman Imperial Family, Augustus, Nero, Claudius, Agrippina and so on. More so having recently watched I Claudius, it made me realise what a good job the BBC did on casting. Oddly there was no image of Caligula. I got a good shot of Nero and Agrippina, this can be dated to within about 5 years, between when he was with her to when he had her killed. I cannot remember the dates right now, so is something to look up when I get home.

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Photos

Nero and Agrippina
From the museum

Comments

[chucktx]

nice
it appears the trip is going well!!! try some baby oil on the tar....should get most off, if it hasnt set to long. there are other ways to remove it also......later. i am really enjoying this trip.....the internet is wonderful!!!! chuck