Our second day in Kusadasi started with a visit to a leather factory. It started with the display of some of their 2012 collection along the catwalk followed by a short explanation of the business and list of some of the top fashion houses the supplied to in Italy and France. Of course we were to receive a discount of 50% off the marked prices and then a further discount when that
discounted amount became USD instead of Euro. So a garment marked at Є1,000 would cost us USD500. Off we all went to the showroom. Three of us purchased jackets including the 2 of us! Every time we come to Kusadasi we seem to make a significant purchase – last time a rug this time leather jackets. Must be something in the water. They are on their way home now.

After our donation to the economy we headed off for the Virgin Mary's House. John brought Mary to live in the house after Jesus was crucified. The house was up in the hills hidden from the Romans. Three popes have paid visits to the house. It is of course part of the pilgrimage for many Christians.

Next off to the Temple of Artemis. This was a massive temple but now mainly ruins with only 2 columns visible. It was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Nearby was a large castle built by the Crusaders but it was under renovation and would not be open until 2012.

Back in the bus and off to Sirince, a charming old Greek village. Our restaurant was at the top of the hill near the Church of St. John the Baptist. No longer used as a church it still had some frescos which were in pretty good condition considering their age. There was an old historical wine cellar next door which we had to visit of course. The wines were mainly fruit wines and a couple of bottles were purchased by the group. Eventually we got our lunch then back down the hill past all the small handicraft and souvenir stalls and off to the jewellery shop.

This was some shop. First we were met by an Australian Turk who introduced us to the workings of the shop then we were shown into the expensive rooms. The exit from the expensive rooms was into the less expensive jewellery rooms. The exit from these rooms was into a room full of scarves, bags and souvenirs followed by a final room selling sweets, dried food, coffee and tea.

The next stop was supposed to be a Steam Engine museum however as we were also going to a traditional turkish bath house, which was going to take about 2 hours, we opted to skip the museum. The bath house was a unisex one which was a bit of a surprise to all of us. The women were soon to find out that the masseurs were men – some of them seemed to like this especially as one of them was a hunk. We started out in the sauna and after losing about a kilo of fluid we were given a skin exfoliation scrub while lying on a huge marble slab. Next was the soapy massage while still in the sauna and also performed on the slab. Crawling out of the sauna we cooled off and rehydrated for about half a hour. Then off to the oil massage again performed by men.

All of us slept well that night and some of the women are probably still dreaming about this day – well part of it anyway.