Arion Kokkari

... one mile of thread in the cocoon and we saw the teasing out of this thread and its spinning into multi-strand threads used for carpet making. The owner had his employees lay out many carpets on the floor for us and we were impressed with the variety of colours and different materials used in their weaving. One type of silk carpet had 650 knots per square inch! We demurred at spending anything on the admittedly splendid carpets so they lost interest in us and we went back to the boat.

Kusadasi was a surprise!! We arrived around noon and left the ship for a quick visit up a windy 1500 foot drive up a cliff to the House of the Virgin Mary which is supposed to be her final resting place. It was a small stone building in the pines and a truly beautiful place. We then drove to the ancient ruins of Ephesis which remains an awe-inspiring city in an amazing setting. Beautiful marble colonnades ...

... actually living there. Our guide was great- she told us about many of the leaders that had come to the city and the influence they had had and she had heaps of funny stories and pointed out many details that we would have missed on our own. The theatre could hold up to 24,000 people and we walked through the entrance that the gladiators would have come through. Apparently, despite what movies portray, one gladiator did not always have to die ...

A day at sea and some time to catch up a little. We were in Kusadasi, Turkey yesterday. As we have been steadyly moving east, the age of the cities and the sites we visit keep getting older. . In Rome we were looking at buildings constructed anywhere from 200 BC to the second century. As we traveled through the Greek islands some sites like the Acropolis at Lindos (Rhodes) were originally built around 800 BC. Turkey and Iran it ...

So up early again and wait for the bus greek style as it should have been there an hour before it actually turned up but managed to get into samos town again with no accomodation booked I was slightly worried as everywhere that we had seen on the internet had been really expensive so after a little row with Ian he left me in the coffee shop and went off on his own and top marks to him he was back five minutes ...

... trip so not done too bad. As the waves where nearly 5 foot high it was impossible to swim on this part of the beach but Ian had saw that there was another part of the beach around the harbour where you could swim so we headed there and went for a lovely swim together.<br><br>Manchester united where playing Manchester City and we saw that one of the bars next to the harbour had it on so off we went for a few beers ...

... be closed its siesta time in Greece if you dont know between the hours of 2 and 5 you can do absolutly nothing but get coffee or drinks in cafes or food in restaurants everything else is closed and some places stay closed for the rest of the day or open back up at 5 like the bank and post office dont bother to open again lol. So Ian asked if they knew where we could get any rooms from and the man said that his dad had a place but it was full but rang ...

... on my mind on Kareoke (dont know how to spell it) so I thought it was only right to sing Paradise by the dashboard light with an irish girl who was drinking in there I was terrible but drunk so did not mind. Ian was talking to Gordon and he was telling him about this really cheap jewellry shop down the street and took Ian off to have a look saying he should get me an engagement ring ha ha Gordon came back on his own and put his thumbs up saying Oh its nice lol I ...

... we have chosen to visit, and are regularly updated by our hotel management and new local friends on what is going on in this part of the world. Please, do not worry too much, we are doing our best to stay aware, away from real "touristy" type activities and no matter what, we are sticking together! Thanks for all the support and love, we really can feel it over here! Cheers! Tara and Hilary

... the house until we found a pergola, and were relieved to see the key slip easily into the keyhole and the door swing open. As soon as we stepped through, we fell in love with the interior of the house. Small but spacious at the same time, it's a classically Mediterranean design, with tiled floors and lots of shuttered windows. Steps lead up from the open-plan kitchen/dining area to the living room, with two single ...