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Pergamon was supposedly where the Greeks discovered medicine.

Legend has it that a friendly snake learned the Greek wise man, Archias some techniques and taught him how to make cleansing anointment for his patients.

Archias got fairly good at this, and was looking at resurrecting the dead, the technique of this was also whispered by a snake. This annoyed Zeus, (the god), and he struck him with a lightning bolt. That was the end of a very promising career. Still, his legend continues here at Pergamon ruins.

It is a world heritage site

The Asclepion at Pergamon was one of the most important sites of medicine in the ancient Western world, it’s where the stave and snake motif derives from.

The healing rooms are quite impressive, obviously not what they used to be. There were no patients hanging around now, but you can see the revenants of grandeur in the scale of their construction.

I guess this place was like an early hospital.

It has other cool things also. It takes something over an hour to wonder around in total.

I am totally alone here apart from a stray dog and some birds taking turns to bathe in the water features.

Bergama

Is the town closest to the ruins. It was perhaps a 20 minute cycle to the ruins up a steep hill.

There’s another section to the ruins on an adjacent hill. It’s called the amphitheatre. I checked at tourist information. They said the two were separate, and I’d have to pay an additional €15 to get into that one.

That would have been a total of €28 to see two sets of ruins. That is not good value, world heritage site or not.

I decided to take the cheaper option of a wander around Bargama museum. This was €3 and I didn’t have to traverse a steep hill.

After this, I called it quits, had a Turkish tea at the hotel and made off for my next destination.

Ill

My slight cough and asthma, over the course of the day, developed into a fully blown cold. Complete with runny nose and cough.

I don’t think the traffic conditions would have helped, but I think the real culprit would have been getting caught out in the hail storm on day 2.

Last night was a night of snottyness.

The cycling however was far superior throughout the day, even though I did feel a bit ill.

The wind was behind me. The roads were minor, and the countryside was fresh and invigorating.

A nice day in the hills. Wind behind me. Broke some records on Strava. Pretty good.

I arrived about 4pm at Menisa. The hotel I’d chosen was fairly posh. Not that expensive, just classy. That’s what it turned out to be.

Duff room

They tried to give me a duff room at first. One without aircon. Also one of the bathroom lights didn’t work. I couldn’t really see what I was doing on one side of the bathroom!

Not really good enough. I showed the girl. When you pressed the bathroom light switch, the bedside lamp used to go on! Hilarious! Still, not for me, and I got another room.

It was a good hotel and I enjoyed my stay!

Menisa to Salihli

All along flood planes. Nice and flat. Wind behind me. Super easy.

Cold is making my nose dribble a little. I’m sure that won’t last long.

Until next time.