We had heard that your last memories of a trip are often remembered the most. Good thing, because we have some great memories from the Cappadocia region of Turkey. You can’t go wrong with a UNESCO World Heritage site. Starting in the 60s with some back packers and growing exponentially due to Social Media, Cappadocia is now one of the most popular destinations in Turkey. It’s only a 90 minute flight from Istanbul followed by a 45 minute drive. (FYI Istanbul has an amazing new airport along with great service on Turkish Airlines)
So what is it? Cool surreal rock formations doesn’t do it justice, but stay with me. First millions of years ago, ancient volcanic eruptions blanketed the region in thick ash, which later was covered in water. The weight of which solidified it into a soft rock called “tuff.” Once the land rose above the ocean, wind and water erosion then removed the soft elements leaving harder elements in unusual forms that tower over the land. Ancient people then discovered the material was malleable and put it to good use.
It’s not a ballon race
Balloon Ride
We began our exploration of the region with a dawn ballon ride. At an ungodly hour we loaded into a van of sleepy tourists. Then our van joined a mass migration of vans heading to our launch site. I say it that way, because we will be but one ballon amongst more than 100. When we disembark, its hard to talk over the roar of fans blowing air into balloons all around you. We then climb over the side of the basket and join about two dozen people tightly packed. Then we hear the roar of propane burners warming the air within our ballon. More and more propane burners from the other balloons join the chorus as our balloon begins to rise from the ground and hover over our heads.
You can feel the heat
Our tour operator ground crew (Sky Way) is now seriously working to keep us on the ground. Then all of a sudden, we are aloft gently rising above the valley. Below us are the competition still working to go aloft.
Looking back after we launched
We rise above the landscape, over 1,000 meters. You can see for miles…..
The landscape is amazing
Well over 100 ballon were flying that morning
After about 30 minutes we are descending and I’m thinking there must be more. We keep descending and I’m starting to think, there is no place to land here. The rock formations are gorgeous and treacherous at the same time. The pilot starts exclaiming Ut Oh! A couple young Korean tourists are getting truly concerned, but I heard the tone of our pilot's voice. He is just adding some excitement as if it was the Jungle cruise at Disney World. Click on the brief video below
For best viewing after pressing play, click on full screen in lower right corner
We survive the close calls with the rocks and are informed about the landing procedure. The pilot has to get one more laugh by again uttering Ut Oh as we brush the top of a tree. Then he brings us in for a landing. Mission Accomplished!
You can see caves in the hills
You can tell we enjoyed it greatly
Magic Valley
Later the same day we took a tour. At our first stop, our guide shared that with a little imagination you can see all sorts of animals in the rocks. Like looking at the clouds. He used this stop to explain the geology involved to create what we were seeing and how in the 60s back packer tourism started and thereafter steps to preserve this unique place.
Ladies head
Camel
Fairy Chimneys
Our next stop was called "Fairy Chimneys", with simple tools ancient people created caves high above the ground. In an attempt to preserve it, the area is fenced in; the road was moved, and walkways created. However, people can enter the caves and openings that were built, which is very cool, but questionable as to the impact. The walls have shelves carved out, places to sleep or store things.
What a view behind Carol
Note the doorway into the TP like rock in the foreground
We saw several different things in the rock formation ahead
Note Fresco above pigeon hole
We were able to enter this cave dwelling
Occupied Pigeon hole
Open Air Museum
From there we went to Gorem Open Air Musem or "the monasteries". Early Christian religious communities set up monasteries and nunneries in this area by again digging in the rock walls. The lower floors contained graves, which our occupied to this day. This floor also has frescos that remain to this day. They covered the “Tuff” with lime, painted and then covered in egg tempera. Note the Pigeon Hole above living quarters were in the floor above. Passages were carved out of the Tuff to connect rooms and floors.
Nunnery
Images of Frescos found in caves
Note the entrances and windows in the hills behind us
Castle
Our last stop of the day was "The “Castle” which stands alone guarding a valley. It is another rock formation that had caves cut into it too. It was used for defensive reasons. This area was part of the Spice Road. Approaching caravans or enemies can be seen for a great distance. The locals would charge fees to pass and because of the geography of the region were able to offer good protection to the passing caravans.
Referred to as “The Castle” due to its tower like formation and how it was used
Ihlara Valley
On our second day in Cappadocia, we also went on an all-day tour, this one started with the Ihlara Valley which was listed as a hike. You started out by going downhill into the valley and then we walked along the valley floor alongside a running stream. At the top of the hill before we started, we bought water thinking oh this is going to be a hot walk. Um no we walked in the shade most of the time as we followed the stream. It was a nice walk and the locals have come up with some wonderful, creative restaurants along the water.
One of several restaurants with seating built over the river
Daniel Pantonassa Church
This church is located in the Ihlara Valley. It’s significance is the style of the Frescos below is Russian influence while those a few pictures above our more Byzantine.
Underground City
The Kaymakli underground city is one of the top tourist sites in Cappadocia so I was looking forward to it and can report it did not disappoint rather it amazed. These tunnels were first built before Christ and were actively lived in until the 1920s by Christians. Most of residents had both an above ground and below ground home. The cave homes in later years were used for protection from persecution by the Muslims. To this day, the caves are used for storage of produce and as stables. If you would like to know more details, follow this link to a Wikipedia article Kaymakli Underground City - Wikipedia. From a non-historical viewpoint, the caves are amazing. They are amazing because they are multilevel, miles long and areas are need specific. In other words, there are living rooms, kitchens, wineries, stables, air shafts, tunnels of varying height for differing purposes. These ancient people knew how to determine which areas could be dug out and how deeply to avoid cave-ins and where to build DEEP airshafts for airflow. While the city is 7 levels, we were able to only visit 4 levels and a small portion of the town. I was glad I was part of a tour group, so I did not get lost in the maze. I mentioned miles long for 2 reasons: 1) towns were interconnected by tunnels and 2) there were tunnels that went out to the opposite side of the mountain for escape purposes. I said the tunnels were of varying heights for a reason. On most levels you could walk around relatively normal - short people have an advantage, but when you were changing levels the tunnels were often quite short. They did those so intruders could not get in fast.
Wheel rolls in place to close entry
Low roof in some areas was a means to slow down intruders
Holes in ground would hold wine urns in place
Inclined ramp up to next level
Partially walled up doorway
360 inside the cave city
Pigeon Valley
Pigeon Valley is a valley that is home to a lot of pigeons. There are pigeon holes carved into the walls for the pigeons. According to our guide, there used to be so many pigeons that the valley was just covered with them.
Pigeon Holes in Pigeon valley. Pigeons were a food source
Rose valley in background entrance to Pigeon valley in foreground
Yunak Evleri (Our Cave Hotel) by Carol
I knew I wanted a "cave hotel" for this part of the trip when we were planning it. Staying in a cave hotel is one of the iconic things to do in Cappadocia. I often find hotels on the Fodors website which is true with this one. Per Fodors, it had a slightly showy entrance of an old Greek mansion which lead to stylish cave rooms and modern bathrooms. I booked this in the spring and forgot about that description so have to say I did not think of the main building as "showy". I think I fell in love with the evening photos and of the swimming pool cut into a cave. Happy to report we were quite happy with the hotel.
Rooms next to hotel main entrance
Hotel rooms
Yes our room really was in a "cave". I put in the quotation marks because this is a cave that was carved out like most of the caves in Cappadocia. We had an entry room with a couple of chairs a nice big bathroom a small bedroom with a twin bed and a larger bedroom with our bed - think queen. There was electricity in all of the rooms but no air conditioning or heat for winter. There was a window in the front room with the chairs and another in the bathroom for airflow. There was a big fan in the room that we ran in our bedroom at night and were pretty comfortable. Since our bedroom was tucked away, it could get quite dark. Usually at night we had the curtains open in the front room, so some light filtered through from the hotel's outdoor lights.
We ate all of our dinners there just because it was pretty good, we were lazy and the view was gorgeous especially if you ate after dark. The only downside and this was a common problem in Greece and Turkey was the yellow jacket wasps. Yes wasps if you had food during daylight hours they found you and flew around you. I was not thrilled by this, the hotel did have some incense type stuff they would put on your table to get the wasps away and after dark no wasps.
360 Video from Hotel Restaurant
Click on video below to see the serving of this Pottery Kabab entree
Brief Video of Jeff’s dinner being served while enveloped in flames
Oh another nice thing was the hotel arranged the airport pick up and all of our tours. The hotel is built into a hill so the driveway is steep and quite narrow as in 1 car only width. This means that with all of the vans coming to pick people up for tours there is quite a bit of jockeying among the vans. I respected all of the drivers who were able to steer an oversized van backwards down a narrow road with buildings on either side. Oh one more thing, in rural Turkey the roads in towns are all cobblestones so always a little bumpy. When you get out to a main road it is a nice smooth blacktop road. I was a little concerned about going to rural Turkey, but this is a tourist mecca that we Americans are late to the show so absolutely no problems. In fact, I highly recommend visiting the area!
This was our second visit to Kusadasi and we had visited Ephesus 10 days ago so while that is a great place to visit, we skipped it. Instead we headed to a winery. Yes there are several wineries in Turkey. The one we visited is 12 years old and is called the Seven Sages. It is a restaurant, hotel, spa and winery. All of which came across as a nice place. We had a short tour of their facilities including a view of their gravity fed wine production and a view of their wine casks. They commented that it has gotten too expensive to use American Oak for barrels these days since all the bourbon places are using so much. Anyway, after that we went to a long table on the verandah for our tasting. They gave us 2 types of cheese and some wonderful pretzel like sticks to go along with the wine. We tasted 5 different wines starting with a white. The winery has vineyards right there and in other locations of Turkey so that they can grow different types of wine including both European and local Turkish grapes. True to form for us we came home with a bottle of wine - a red blend. We both said ahead of time we are NOT buying any wine - yeah right. We also left with a package of those bread/pretzel sticks. we are now hoping the wine makes it home safely in the suitcase!
Carol on right
Old Fortress on Peninsula guarding the bay
At the end of the day we wanted to check out the fancy Cocktail bar aboard ship. It was a fun experience with exotic drinks. Jeff opted to have his Whiskey based drink infused with smoke. It was a choice of apple or walnut shavings burned in a small machine. (See photo) The cruise line describes the venue as:
Atlas Bar is an exclusive venue found only aboard Azamara Onward. Atlas Bar is a unique concept offering artisanal cocktails created using the latest one-of-a-kind techniques. These crafted beverages are as delightful to drink as they are to watch being made!
Bar tender is a good photographer, even staged the photo with the menus
Jeff’s smoke infused drink under glass
Dikili
This was a replacement port for when they cancelled all of the Black Sea (at one point we were still going to Bulgaria). Anyway I can't say anything nice about the port itself since it is obviously a commercial shipping port - although small. We had a choice of a whopping 2 excursions - Acropolis and Asklepion of Pergamum or Pergamum panoramic. We took the full on because of the gondola ride and that it was a strenuous excursion - great reasons. So while in many ways it was more Greek and roman ruins there was something different here - a hospital. Asklepion is a hospital. I was often amazed on this trip of the things ancient people were able to do and this hospital would be included in that statement. The hospital is a kilometer away from the city (bottom of the hill too). The people had to be able to walk there and they had to appear to be curable to get in the hospital. The treatment included a bit of psychotherapy in that they did things to convince you that you would get better. When we first got to the hospital, it appeared to be a lot like a marketplace. The guide explained that you had to buy a figurine related to the body part that was your problem. There were different grades of goods based on your class in the city. At the end of the marketplace section, was an underground area. This section had exam areas and overnight stay areas. Throughout this underground section were little skylight holes. They used these holes to do strategic things to play with your mind so you thought you would get better. They did things like whisper in the middle of the night "you will get better" and told you when water fell from the sky you were getting better and would strategically drop a little water on you through that hole. Now how they know that I do not know, but it is what I was told. I do know that the building included water pipes in the walls so in the winter they could send hot water through them to warm the area. Uh yeah remember this is biblical times here.
Entrance to hospital where you were evaluated and then sent to market
Hospital had its own smaller theater
Underground room with both running water and heated water in walls
After the hospital, we hopped on the bus to get to the gondola to tour the acropolis. Truthfully I think this was the smallest acropolis I saw. It was nice and we have some pictures for you to see. Great view since acropolis means city on the hill and then back to the ship.
This large theater is unique in that it had a wooden stage that could be moved out of the way to restore the view
The Acropolis had an upper and lower section, both high above the valley
Istanbul
Again this is our second time in this port. We again did an overnight stay which is nice, we thought about eating out but were hot and tired so we ate one last meal on the ship. We also had a final get together with 2 couples we met early on in the cruise at the chef's dinner. Per our prior guide Ali's instructions, we headed to Galata Tower and then to the 2 palaces on the Bosphorous: Dolmabahce and Ciragan which is now a 5 star hotel. Oh we also walked a bunch and unfortunately it was a hot day! We overshot Galata Tower so we walked uphill more than we needed to. Galata Tower is an old stone tower. It was built in the byzantine period only to be destroyed and then rebuilt in the 1300s. It has been used as a watch tower, prison and fire tower. Supposedly in 1638 Hezarfen Ahmed Celebi jumped off the top of it with wings attached to his arms and made the first intercontinental flight. It has been restored a couple of times and is currently a small museum. Honestly the best thing was all the views because you can do a 360 walk around the top of the tower and see a lot of Istanbul.
Asia in background across the Bosphorus with our ship docked in Europe (middle ship)
Looking across Golden Horn estuary to Left Topkapi Palace Middle Hagia Sophia Right Blue Mosque
From there we walked to the Dolmabahce Palace. We were going to catch the tram but the line to buy tickets was a block long so we walked instead. This palace was built in the 1840s and 50s and was used off and on until the revolution in the 1920s. It is much more modern than the Topkapki since several hundred years earlier. In some ways, I thought of some of the fancy homes you can find in the USA probably because of the time period. Having said that you have to imagine everything much grander than any in the USA. Like Topkapi there are several buildings. We did not tour all of them because we did not feel like spending the recommended 3 hours there. I think there was an art museum as part of it and probably we should have done that, but my goal was to see the building because I had heard of things like a Baccarat crystal staircase. Our photo opportunities were limited so not too many photos here. Yes there is a grand staircase with Baccarat crystal spindles and lots of yells of "don't touch the crystal" as we walked down it. There are huge rooms some with gorgeous plasterwork on the ceiling and some with beautiful painted ceilings. Also noticed a trompe l'oeil in one ceiling where they wanted you to believe that it went on further than it really does (painted archways got smaller). We did make a point of enjoying their Bosphorous waterfront view too.
Palace grounds Gate
Parlance entrance
The spindles are Baccarat Crystal
When we had seen the main building and walked around the grounds (the palace is 45 acres), we headed for Ciragin Palace. It was past lunchtime so we were hungry and thirsty and knew that it was now an upscale hotel run by Kempinsky. Unfortunately it was a longer walk than we had expected but the promise of food kept us going. You start passing the palace long before you can actually enter it and I was wondering if we were in the wrong area or something. Finally stumbled into the entrance and was impressed. Nice high grand ceilings and just a grand feeling. It was not as ornate as the last one and as we were enjoying our lunch we learned that this palace had bad karma with people dying shortly after building it, another living under house arrest in it and then the building burning. Seems the palace sat in ruins for almost 80 years (fire in 1910 and rebuild started in 1987). When it was rebuilt, the exterior walls were kept and the inside was rebuilt with the purpose of being a grand hotel. We wandered just a little inside, but the outside was much more impressive. There was a gorgeous view of the Bosphorous with infinity pools and lawns with areas for get togethers. Where we ate lunch, was a separate new building for the restaurants, shops and meeting rooms that blends in well with the original palace. We contemplated taking a water taxi back to the port but decided against it and leisurely headed back to the port and the ship.
