Today is cool, cloudy with the chance of rain. Just as the tours are ready to leave, another cruise liner docks on the other side of the pier from us. The pier is closed for safety reasons until the other ship is securely in place. Tours start moving again. We seem to be the last to leave. Today, because we are eating in a private home, we are going in a mini bus as there are only 10 in our party. There are two other parties of 10, who will eat in other houses. So we head firstly for the ruins at Ephesus. These date from Roman times. By the second century it was an important port city with a population of over 300,000. The ruins are fascinating, ranging from bath houses, to toilets, to temples, to shops, to houses, to brothels, to libraries, to gyms, to theaters, to parliaments, and so on. In other words a very large wealthy town. Cleopatra and Mark Anthony spent their honeymoon here. St Paul preached and lived here for many years. It was important. Nature again played her hand, when a large earthquake destroyed the town. New land was formed and today Ephesus is miles from the sea. Walking in the footsteps of these great men and women of history is amazing. Did I stand or sit where they did?

Well the weather was turning dirty, but the rain held off until we had moved to the hill town of Sirince where we were having lunch in a private home. The son brought food to the table, which was set on an outside balcony. There was white & red wine on the table, together with water and tubs of yogurt. The mother then brought out the main course, meatballs and potato. To this we added rice, salad, green beans and something in vine leaves. It was all very nice. Edie went back for seconds. We finished off with watermelon. It grew quite cold and she brought out shawls for us to wear. They were very friendly. We then walked up to a restaurant, where we were going to have some Turkish coffee. We started out outside under shelter but when the thunder and lightening started, and the rain grew heavier, we moved inside. The idea of having the coffee was to have the grounds read by a fortune teller. Edie hates coffee, even the smell is enough for her to turn up her nose. However she bravely sipped enough so the grounds would work. The cup had to sit upside down for 10 minutes. Well my fortune was fairly accurate, but Edie's was way off line. So who knows? As a group we decided not to walk around the village because it was still raining, so we headed straight back to Kusadasi. That meant we got back about half an hour early. But once again we were subject to the Turkish Rug saga. We escaped as soon as we could and found ourselves in a mini grand bazaar. We had to be back on board by 4.30, so we had an hour and a half free time. The shop owners sit or stand outside their shops and hassle you to such an extent that all you want to do is keep moving quickly. It amazes me that they can't understand they are turning us away. We made it back to the ship with a few minutes to spare. So time marched on, the other ships left, and we stayed put. To cut a long story short, the storm was really bad in the port. A freaky gust of wind hit the Princess and deck chairs, lounges etc flew away. The ropes holding her broke and she started to drift backwards. Evidently the captain immediately dropped the anchor to stop her running aground. Once under power, she sailed out to sea, leaving many disgruntled wet passengers waiting on the pier for nearly two hours. And we missed all this. We were over an hour late in leaving, but the Captain had to be sure that everything was shipshape before putting out to sea, again. Well tomorrow we are taking our last tour in Crete. I think Edie is thinking of home and I miss my little Honey, so we will be ready when the time comes.