We arrived at Izmir (Ephesus), Turkey around 8am. Our private guide was named Tom and we hired him through www.ephesustours.org. Again, spoke good English and very knowledgeable. Our camera was not working that day so the only pictures we have are pulling into the port. We visited the House of Virgin Mary where it is believed that she arrived with Saint John 4-6 years after the death of Christ and where she spent her final days. We visited the Ephesus Ruins (Odeon, Temple of Hadrian, Roman Baths, Celcus Library and the Theatre which is still in use today for concerts and has an amazing capacity of 25,000!!!). It was truly spectacular to see the Ruins and walk through this ancient site with the streets paved with marble. We also visited the Temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
Our day would not be complete without a visit to the carpet factory. Apparently tour guides get a commission for bringing visitors to their establishments in the hopes of us buying their crafts. We got to see carpets being made and of course were encouraged to buy…….a small carpet, say 6ft x 8ft was a meager $10,000 euros. No, we did not buy any……nor did we buy anything at the jewelry store that we were taken to visit. There were about 40 different jewlery counters with very unique pieces and the lowest price I could find was $1,000.00 for a small pair of earrings!! Our tour guide offered to ‘give up his commission’ if we wanted to buy anything! No, we didn’t buy here either. We did get taken to lunch but the food was basically American 
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