A Magical Place in Cappadocia

With our fantastic little cruise over and done with, we had a one-night stopover in a large coastal city called Antalya. Not too much to see or do (lots of package tourists lined up side by side on the beaches) but we found ourselves a nice little guesthouse in the ancient part of town and managed to stay busy for 24 hours.

Photo op at an ancient site...

....tasty meal....

....followed by ice cream, Turkish style. 

This means they bark at you as you approach and try to play you off against your kids until you finally relent. Then they put on a show - flipping cones, and generally make it very difficult to grab your ice cream. Basically, it's a game of keep away where you are the fool. When it came time to pay them, Shirley tried the same game on them with the money but they didn't seem to find it so funny. But I thought it was hilarious.

Then it was time to board the night bus to Cappadocia, our next major destination in Turkey. I'm not too fond of trying to sleep on a bus, but it's a fairly efficient and inexpensive way to travel long distances. You save on the cost of a hotel, but you do pay for it in other ways - sore neck, sore back, sore temper....

But as we pulled into town, I realized the ride was probably worth it. This type of scenery is found nowhere else on earth.

Yeah, shake those cobwebs out, kids! It's 6:30 am and time to find our hotel. They pretty much handle anything we throw at them. And without too many complaints. They've had their video game time cut drastically (like none for the last month) so to endure these epic journeys without their tablets is quite impressive.

A quick walk and we arrive at our home for the next three nights.

Yes, you read that correctly! Best hotel name we've come across so far. I've heard of UHAUL, but really?! Actually, the word ufuk means 'horizon' in Turkish.

Trust our kids to sniff out a playground in the first ten minutes!

There is a whole countryside full of this landscape surrounding our town of Goreme, but you could easily wander these streets for hours. The town is a bit of a tourist hub, with many hotel rooms actually carved into the sides of these rock formations.

Training Day.

A few hours at the Goreme Open Air Museum (yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site) gave us a better idea of what we were seeing. Apart from being a region of exceptional natural wonders, Cappadocia is full of these 'fairy chimneys' which were turned into dwellings and churches during a Christian era about 1,000 years ago

I'll let the pictures do the talking.

I really hope the kids will take back some memories of this, as I'm not sure when they will see something like this again. Even a short walk for an hour or two yielded some incredible vistas. There were a few precarious moments, as the sand and pebble trails can be a bit slippery.

Shirley was constantly calling us back from the edge of the rocks, but I'll happily risk the kids' lives for the sake of a good photo.

We're hoping that we might be able to do a hot air balloon ride in this valley during the coming days (it is THE thing to do around here), but it looks like we are about to hit the first extended patch of poor weather on the trip, so those hopes may be dashed.

We expected to see a hobbit or some sort of dwarf or magical creature emerge from every corner. It is an otherworldly type of terrain that is also full of gentle trails. Perfect for travels with a young family.

!!!!!!!!!!!

Tee hee hee! This was Shirley's favourite.

Hard Rock Cafe

What's a great experience unless you have someone to share it with? This old fella was selling tea out of the back of his car. We passed him on the way up and politely declined, but on the way down he lured our children with newborn puppies, and we were hooked! He spoke no English, and we spoke no Turkish, but he nevertheless kept talking. But sometimes it doesn't matter - a smile is all it takes

By the way, Annie has a new entry for Greece - check it out here