Kusadasi (Turkey)

More ships in port when we woke. I'm wary now before pulling back the curtains!
Off for a day in the countryside.

We took an all day tour with a very talkative tour host, Fulya, who guided us to a very cute village, Sirince some 45 min drive from the port.  This turned out to be a good choice, as there were only nine of us on the tour, with the town not being on the regular tourist route, we weren't overwhelmed with hoards from other coaches.  The town exists on tourism, selling hand knitted socks, crocheted dresses and colorful handbags, as well as the now common jewelry, olive oils, bath soaps and of course the polo shirts.  

Fulya, our guide for the day

Our small group on the verandah

The highlight for us was having a home cooked meal with a local family in their home.  The family grew all their vegetables, made their wine (we had the red which was delicious) prepared their vine leaves and served us the most delicious traditional Turkish meal a traveler could ever want.  Dolmades, salad, beans cooked with a tomato base, potatoes, lamb balls, yoghurt, eggplant all served to us on their vine covered deck overlooking the pastures beyond.  After lunch we all piled back on the little coach and had a hard time keeping the eye lids open on the way back.

The beautiful couple who fed us so wonderfully

The countryside itself was very much like what we've experienced on the islands, olive trees, rocky outcrops, steep roads and narrow passages through villages.  The village of Sirince has all it's roads paved in what appears to be a marble stone.  We had some traditional fruit wine and Turkish coffee at the local restaurant where a fortune teller read our coffee grinds.  Everyone thought she was quite accurate.

Our hosts' garden

This evening we had the pleasure of the Wine Master dinner, our hosts again Marc-Andre and Frank.  Tonight's menu was also good, this time a little more seafood, with scallops to start, prawns in a vichyssoise, poached lobster tail,  and lamb shank, followed by cheese and frozen souffle.  These dinners have been the best food we've experienced in the ship. If we hadn't had the opportunity of tasting some creative cuisine, I think we'd have been disappointed overall with the choices provided.  Our wines tonight were from Germany, Washington, Italy, France and Portugal.  We sat with a couple we'd met previously at the navigators wine tasting, they're from Canada. Although out lifestyles are completely different, we discovered we had much in common.    Altogether a great day.
Oh yes, we bought some leather jackets on the way back to the ship too.