A good nights sleep in the Kismets very comfortable beds, a great breakfast. I still can't used to people smoking in a restaurant at breakfast ! Erdan the guide and his driver were waiting for us and we set out on the long drive to Pammukale. Erdan pointed out a couple of the villages had houses with empty glass bottles on their roofs (rooves ?!?), the custom is that the bottles indicate a girl of marriable age lives there and when she gets married the new groom comes around to the brides house and shoots at the bottle breaking it indicating to all that the girl is taken ! In Australia an empty bottle on the roof means that there was aparty last night . Anyway on with the tour, you can see the white scar on the hillside that is Pammukale from quite a distance away and you enter the area through the necropolis, hundreds of graves ! (apparently the health giving waters were not all they were cracked up to be !!). Heiropolis itself is quite interesting, with some very well preserved bits and pieces in the museum, it is worth having a wander inside and outside the museum. The swimming area wasn't that tempting as the air temperature was a bit cool for us,(the water was warm and plenty of others took advantage). It is an unusual balancing act between public amenity and historical site ! For us the most interesting part of the visit was the cliffs and terraces for which Pammukale is so famous. They are a brilliant white, dazzling and a real sunglasses area. We walked (shoes off of course down to the pools at the bottom where you are allowed to paddle. At several places on the way down we stopped and the kids had impromptu showers under the warm water streaming out of the cliffs. I forgot to mention the Theatre at Heiropolis, the facade is remarkably well preserved and the view from the upper rows of seats is tremendous, snow capped mountains in the distance and in the foreground the white scar of limestone.

Back on the bus for the trip to Kusadasi and the Kismet . We stopped at a small roadside stall and bought some fruit and a small bottle of local olives...which were delicious. Dinner that night was at the Kismets restaurant, I feared the economic worst but was pleasantly surprised, the food and service were great and the bill not too bad at all. We went for a walk after dinner and watched a cruise boat dock, lots of action and activity. Speaking to the desk clerk later he said it looked like it was going to be a good season for cruise ships after a few lean years. Tomorrow is Ephesus !! Can't wait.

Fascinating, Marko....thank you. It's been 15 years since I was in the area (at Ephesus, the locals were hauling out precious pieces of statutory nonchalantly in the mid-summer sun), but this brings it all back to me. The grilled octopus I ate on the way over from Samos I can still taste. The captain hauled it over the side of the boat, grilled it on a habachi, served it with a glass of raki, and that was that. Heaven!

Had a pleasant surprise in the mail ( a lttle late but), a christmas card from from the Kismet, a nice reminder of a lovely hotel.

Thanks for postin, Marko.

Sounds very interesting.