April 23
After our EARLY hot air balloon ride we were back at the hotel by 8am for breakfast. What to do? We decided to book a day tour of the highlights of cappadocia. It was such a fun day. Our sights included:
Kaymakli underground city - this is a fantastic example of the many in the area. It's an underground manmade cave system where a village can substain for a period of time when hiding from the enemy. We were there on a holiday weekend so it was super crowded.
Ihlara Valley - it was a hike through a valley cut through by a beautiful stream (1st &2nd picture). We hike for about an hour along the stream and stop at belisirma village at a restaurant with seating right next to the water. I had the whole trout which was so fresh and yummy!
Selime Monastery - ok, picture a typical monastery and then wipe that off your mind. First of all, this was really old give or take a thousand years. THis place is usually advertised as where they filmed star wars movie but it's not true. However, george lucas visited here and it's was supposed to be his inspiration for the 1st movie. It was a whole network of caves that was carved out with churches and living spaces. We must have gotten there in between tour buses because we had the place to ourselves. Talk about a great playground! There are no ropes blocking access to anything so we were just all over the place, so many good pics. We didn't want to leave!
SaruhanCaravansarai - In the old days they create these places with places for travelers to sleep including a stable for the animals and a small mosque for praying. The distances between these caravansarais is supposed to be a day's travel since it was rather dangerous to travel by night.
No comments:
Post a Comment