A Slice of Holland on the Aegean Sea

The pension we stayed at in Guzelcamli, Kusadasi is the landing spot for the Dutch.  We were the only Americans this year at Emil's Pension, and depending with whom you spoke, perhaps in the past 10 years.  We connected with Monique, Edward and Alexandria (posing with us after lunch in Sirince).  We also met the King of Tulips...actually, Paul Beck is the director of the world's largest flora demonstration in the world -- Floriade.  The event takes place every 10 years and it's quite the honor to be selected as Managing Director.  We did meet an Italian couple, too.  We suspect they were the only Italians to the pension in years.

One day we headed to Sirince, about 12 km from Ephesus.  Here we are posing after lunch.  As you can see, it's a very Greek village.

No one seems to know where we need to go...or what we're going to do!

It was once known as Cirkince ("ugly") so that no one would visit or invade their land.   Later is was named Sirince ("pretty").  The village is located on the top of a mountain, and you drive through peach orchards, olive groves and vineyards.  Today the village is a blend of Turk-Greek culture.  St. John the Baptist Church is a nicely restored Orthodox church.  

 Another attraction is its wine, mostly very sweet made from berries and peaches. None of cared for the sweet wines but the "regular" white and red were tasty.

Women of the village making dinner on the roadside.

Sirince daily market scenes

A church basement converted into a wine cellar.  A small statue of the Virgin Mary oversees and protects the wine.

The next day we all went on a boat trip to Milli Park national park.  Stunning views of the coast, as well as the Greek island of Samos.

The boat stopped 3 times for folks to jump into the Aegean Sea to cool off.  Neither Monique nor Yasmine swim so they lounged on the boat while everyone else swam in the cool sea water.

We noted that there are huge flags flown everywhere in Turkey.  We saw not one Greek flag on "our" side of Samos.

There's a fenced pasture in a fruit orchard directly behind Emil's Pension.  The herder shepherded his flock to and from the pasture every day past the pension and up the hill.