The last part of our trip was in an area of Turkey called Cappadocia. I had seen pictures of this place and knew that it should be a part of our vacation. We flew out of Istanbul for an hour and a half flight into the heart of Turkey. We landed in Nevsehir and rented a car. Right away I loved being there because we were out of the big cities and into more rural areas. We had the freedom of a rental car to go where we wanted and the open space was really great! After arriving at our hotel, The Cappadocia Marriott, we found that our room was not quite ready. While Rick explored the grounds I rested in the concierge lounge until we cold get in. We had not mad any plans so we just relaxed for a couple of hours in the room. As evening drew closer we decided that we would find another Turkish Bath. We had both loved the first experience so we decided to do it again. After grabbing some food in the concierge lounge, which by the way was really great and constituted our dinner, we drove the short distance over to Goreme. The sun was starting to go down and the views of this area were quite magical. We could see little tiny mountains with caves carved into them, all over the place. We later found that these little mountains are uniquely called fairies chimneys. These fairy mountains gave the whole area a mystical feel and made us excited to explore them. But for that night we drove down into Goreme and had our magical experience at the Tantan Turkish Bath and Hammam. We were delighted that the ladies who gave us our bath and masssage experience were from Uganda. It was fun to connect with them, hear their Ugandan accents, and talk about places that are dear to our hearts. Also, our bath experience was wonderful. We decided that Goreme was a beautiful place and that we for sure wanted to come back to explore some more!
On the drive back to our hotel we had to stop and get a picture of Goreme from above. What a beautiful sight it was. The fairy mountains were super cool!
The next morning we had a full day excursion planned. Our first stop was at some of the before mentioned fairies. Uchisar Castle is the biggest fairy chimney in Cappadocia with other small ones surrounding it. We were able to walk around the area and get a feel for how some of the people carved out the rock and made places to live in them. It was super fascinating to see.
After visiting the castle area we stopped to get a picture of this overlook.
I mean look at this view. Pictures never could do it justice.
Our next stop was the Goreme Open Air Museum. This is a UNESCO world heritage sight.
It is where Christian monks had carved caves into the rock and made a religious center back in the 4th century. They had painted on the walls biblical frescoes, living quarters, churches, and even a mausoleum with skeletons. It was quite interesting to see.
Our next stop was at Devrant Valley, another place that had lots of fairy monuments. Our guide showed us that with a little imagination we could see all kinds of shapes in the rocks.
Next was lunch at Han restaurant. It was a buffet filled with people and food!
Aren't these cool? they are called hoodoos. We didn't stop to see these but I sure wish we had.
I got this picture just driving past.
Here is a night view of Uchisar Castle. So breathtaking!
That night we drove into Nevsehir. We stopped at Firin Express for a little bite to eat.
The food was yummy and filling...
The next morning we had a famous Cappadocia balloon ride planned. We got up at 4 AM to catch the bus. It was a rainy day so we were unsure if we would be able to go. After all was said and done it was cancelled, and we got back to the hotel at eight o clock. We were disappointed because this is THE thing to do in Cappadocia....But sometimes you get what you get. We rested for a few hours in our room and then enjoyed the fabulous buffet breakfast that the hotel offered.
We knew that we wanted get to the Kaymakli Underground City so this was our days plan. Back in ancient times when life could be volatile, the people dug into the ground to make cities of retreat for times when they would be under attack. They made these cities completely impenetrable where the people could live for months at a time. There were living quarters, places for the animals, and even churches all underground. It has been discovered that there were multiple underground cities and that they were even connected from a distance of five kilometers away. Pretty cool!
Outside the underground city was a few shops. We ended up finding two handmade Turkish rugs to carry home with us.
That afternoon we changed hotels. We wanted to be sure to have the Goreme experience and stay in a cave hotel. We had a reservation at the Zara Cave Hotel. It is a hotel right in the middle of a bunch of other cave hotels and restaurants. We loved walking around the city seeing the sights. Our room was quite nice, as well.
Our tour guide from the previous day had suggested that we have dinner at Selen Restaurant. We did and had nice views of the area. It was a nice experience.
After dinner we enjoyed just walking around Goreme and seeing the shops and goings on of the city.
This was a good way to end our trip. We surely loved the Cappadocia area and would love to come back!
The last pictures of our time in Cappadocia at the Zara Cave Hotel.
We had an early morning flight to Istanbul then connected to Cairo. We overnighted in Cairo at the Le Meridian Hotel which was very nice. Since it had been a long day of travel and we were preparing for another long day of travel, we had dinner at the Asian restaurant on the main level and then relaxed in our room for the night. The next day we had another early morning flight into Amman, Jordan with a short layover. then the LOOONG flight (thirteen hours) into Chicago and finally HOME! What a fantastic two weeks we had exploring some new areas of the world that we had never been to. We got to meet some nice people and see some fabulous places that we had only ever seen in books, movies, or the internet.
It's amazing what this world of travel allows us to see and do!
