If you're looking for a geography lesson then come to Cappadocia, mid-eastern Turkey, an hour from Istanbul.
Even though it's not the high season there are still plenty of tourists here. We were here for 3 nights so we had plenty of time to see the place. The first tour day, 28th April, North Cappadocia. It started at the Goreme Open Air Museum, a former monastery from Byzantium times, with some beautiful Christian frescoes. Next was the panoramic view from Uchisar Castle, which doesn't look like your ordinary castle. Avanos is an area known for its pottery - beautiful workmanship but very expensive. Pasabaglari is known for the fairy chimneys and Devrent Valley had rock formations which looked like camels, fish, etc IF you used your imagination. By this time we were a little over rock formations for the day and were looking forward to getting away from the tour guide.
 |
| Inside our cave hotel room. |
 |
| Outside the room |
 |
| View back towards Urgup |
 |
| Open Air Museum - close up |
 |
| Open Air Museum |
 |
| Pot making display |
 |
| Can you spot the camel in the background? |
 |
| Tony waiting, waiting, waiting ... |
 |
| Fairy chimneys |
The next day, 29th April, we had booked for our balloon ride over Cappadoccia. 4:20am wake up call, picked up at 5am and drove out to the site only to be told at 6am that there was too much wind to fly and they would book us in for the next day. The full day tour covered South Cappadoccia. Kizilcukur had rock carved churches, Cavusin had more churches and the underground city which was the highlight of the day. Only 10% of the 8 floors in the underground city is open to the public. It's hard to believe that people would live underground for up to a week at a time. We stopped for lunch at a cave restaurant which was conveniently next to a gemstone showroom. Saw some beautiful black onyx and learnt that turquoise's name comes from originates from Turkey / quartz. Luckily for our wallets I'm not a jewelry collector. Fortunately for us though, our tour guide was the same guy as the previous day so we were able to pursuade him to stop at a winery for some tasting before heading back to Urgup.
 |
| Casserole in a clay pot - yummy and cheap |
 |
| Balloon packed & ready to go |
 |
| The reason for the balloon being cancelled |
 |
| The Ottoman Library in Urgup, now a cafe |
 |
| Hospital monastery |
 |
| A cave painting in the monastery |
 |
| Safety always came first |
 |
| Most grape vines grew on the ground |
 |
| The cave restaurant we stopped at for lunch |
 |
| A castle I've forgotten the name of |
 |
| Dinner on the 2nd night - beef ravioli |
Our last morning started with disappointing news. We missed out on the balloon ride because of the backlog of bookings. They had 3 days to catch up on and we couldn't wait another day - disappointing.
So we watched them from the terrace above our hotel instead ... one day we will do a balloon ride. After breakfast we walked up to the little cafe on the cliff top above Urgup that was once an Ottoman library. We took some great photos of the local landscape before heading back to chill out and wait for our transfer to the airport.
 |
| Balloons on the horizon |
 |
| View back towards our hotel. |
Final say - Cappadoccia was well worth the visit. Great place if you enjoy walking and climbing up, down and inside mountains. Would we visit again? Yes, for the balloon ride and to check out Goreme (they have bike hires).
Loved Turkey! Highly recommend a visit if you are heading this way. Stay in Sultan Ahmed, make use of the trams, buy a museum pass for 3 days and use it, ride a ferry up the Bosphorous, eat at "The Cistern Restaurant", wander the back streets for sales, try Raki with Efes beer and eat a fish sandwich for 6TL. If we have time we will return to Turkey - so much more to see.
