One week at the Turkish Aegean off peak season, full of sunshine, pleasant temperatures – simply a dream. Whoever likes a calm and relaxed atmosphere, this is it. We stayed in Çeşme, a former fishing village and started our round-trips from there. Çeşme has a picturesque historic centre and a very nice and worth seeing marina. Next to Izmir, a city of four million inhabitants, we went to Alaçatı, a very nice and traditional village with stone houses, narrow alleys, Boutique-Hotels and restaurants with tables on the street. We also went to Efes (Ephesus) to see the excavations and to Şirince, a mountain village with vine- and olive growing. The landscape reminded me of Tuscany. Finally we went to Bafa-Gölu, the Bafa-Lake. The Bafa-Gölü is an inland lake which emerged from a former sea arm. It has a size of about 60 km², which is around 15 % of the size of the Lake Constance. At least off peak-season one can call the lake a real insider tip.
