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TURKEY: ROUTE OF SAINT PAUL

DAY 1 MADRID – ISTANBUL Meeting in Barajas Airport at the indicated time to leave on a flight to Istanbul. Arrival. Assistance and transfer to the hotel. Dinner and lodging.

DAY 2 ISTANBUL – ADANA – ANTAKYA Breakfast and departure, with our luggae, toward the pier to take a boat ride in a private boat across the Bosphorus. Disembark in the European neighborhood of Tarabya and transfer to the airport to take a flight to a Adana. Arrival and transfer to the city of Antakia, known as Antioquia in antiquity, peacefully situated on a fertile plain surrounded by grandiose mountains. Lunch. Tour of the Church of Saint Paul, one of the first Church in the world and of the Museum of Antioquia, where we can appreciate the prettiest examples of Byzantine mosaics. Dinner and lodging.

DAY 3 ANTAKYA – TARSUS – CAPPADOCIA Breakfast. Departure first thing in the morning hacia Tarsus, birthplace of Saint Paul. Tour of the Church of Saint Paul and the well of Saint Paul. Continuation of the trip to Cappadocia. Lunch en route. Arrival in Cappadocia. Dinner and lodging.

DAY 4 CAPPADOCIA Full board. Tour of the outdoor museum of Goreme with rupestrian churches and convents, Church of Hebilla (Tokali), the Dark Church, the Church of Sain John, the Kaymakli Underground City and panoramic tour with valleys and landscapes of a very unique geological formation, that gave rise to numerous legends and myths about giants, fairies and genies in those days when human beings found no other explanation. Lodging.

DAY 5 CAPPADOCIA – KONYA Breakfast. Departure, first thing in the morning, for Konya. En route we will visit the Caravanserai (caravansary in Turkish) of Sultanhani. Continuation to Ekinozu, location of the Church of Derbe, the first in Christianity. Lunch en route and continuation of the trip to Listra to arrive in Konya, first city to emerge from the Flood, according to Frigian legend. Tour of the Mosque of Alaeddin, Syrian in style, and of the Museum of Mavlana, located in the ancient monastery of the Orden of the Derviches. Dinner and lodging.

DAY 6 KONYA – PAMUKKALE Breakfast. Departure first thing in the morning for Pamukkale, whose name means “Cotton Castle.” The name describes very well the formations that are made by the thermal waters loaded with calcium oxide and that have fomred a curious white waterfall of petrified stalactites. Arrival and Lunch. Tour of the Necropolis and the theater of the ancient Roman city of Hierapolis, as well as the Church of Saint Philip. Dinner and lodging.

DAY 7 PAMUKKALE – AFRODISIAS – EPHESUS – KUSADASI Breakfast and departure for city Roman city of Afrodisias, one of the best conserved in the world. Continuation of the trip to Ephesus and Tour of the Church of Saint John and the House of the Virgin Mary. This city was designed following the lattice structure used in Miletus in the 4th century, that conisists of streets that cross. Lunch en route. Continuation to Kusadasi. Dinner and lodging.

DAY 8 KUSADASI – EPHESUS – SMYRNA – ISTANBUL Breakfast and tour of the ancient Greco-Roman city of Ephesus, with the theater largest in Anatolia and without doubt, the the best preserved in the world. In addition Ephesus was one of the cities most devoted to the worship of Artemis, Greek version of the more ancient Anatolian goddes Cibeles, Goddess of fertilidad. Of its famous temple that was once one of the seven marvels of the world, only one column remains as a vestige. Lunch. Transfer to the Airport of Smyrna to embark on flight to Istanbul. Arrival and transfer to the hotel. Dinner and lodging.

DAY 9 ISTANBUL Breakfast. City tour: Former Church-Museum of Holy Savior in Cora, Hagia Sophia (originally designed to be the Church of the Holy Sepulchre). Mosque of the Sultan Ahmet I, known as the Blue Mosque due to its magnificent interior of turqoise blue tiles; Roman hippodrome; Topkapi Palace, once residence of the Ottoman rulers. Lunch in restaurant in the Topkapi Palace. Afternoon tour of the Grand Bazaar. Dinner and lodging.

DAY 10 ISTANBUL – MADRID Breakfast and, at the indicated time, transfer to the airport to embark on the return flight to Madrid. Arrival and

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