Weather – a beautiful sunny day!
Photo: Atop the stairs to the entrance to one of the old chapels carved into the rocks.
Photo: A bird's eye view of this fascinating area!
Photo: Desley outside the Nun's house - the jokes were flying...none of this, none of that, bad habits etc!!
Photo: Weaving the intricate silk carpets....mastercraftswomen!
Photo: As we sipped our teas carpet after carpet was rolled out in front of us....good salesmanship here!
Photo: Now this is serious marketing....Evil Eyes for sale at the Valley of Pigeons.
Photo: A picture says a thousand words.......
Photo: ....and I wasn't the only one looking like I was on a Gecko tour. Not called the Valley of Love for nothing!! Desley and I decided we weren't going to be involved in these silly games when we got there....as you can see by the photos above!!!!
Temperature – mid-twenties.
This morning we set off with an early start to visit the Goreme Open Air Museum as the crowds can be pretty horrendous at this popular attraction. This is an early Christian settlement and is a cluster of Byzantine churches, chapels and monasteries from the 7th to 11th century AD. The remaining frescoes are a combination of the iconoclastic and Byzantine representations and the newer symbols have eroded away in some areas to reveal beautiful Biblical images.
We wended our way through the chapels of St Basil, Apple Church, St Barbara, the old rectory and the Nun’s House. As we wandered around a large hot-air balloon blasted above us giving the occupants great views of this area.
As we left this site we visited the Tokali Church which was built in the 10th century AD with an addition added to make the church larger in the 11th century. The obvious differences in the frescos styles were stark as the most recent were a brilliant blue. Major events in the Bible were depicted and they were all stunning. As Cappadocia converted to Christianity in the second half of the first century AD the region boasts many churches in the area.
We were on the move again and this time to a carpet centre…..we could sense the excitement in the air….well, the women anyway (all six of us!). The guide/owner met us and gave us an informative talk about the production of wool and silk carpets. Knowing that it takes 25 fibres of silk to make a single thread and then watching the master craftswomen weaving them into extremely intricate patterns that can take up to year was a lesson in patience and skill. As we have noticed on this tour before we are taken to showrooms we are served cay, apple tea sometimes coffee but this morning it included wine and raki.
Suffice to say that several people succumbed to purchasing a rug including us! As expected, all manners of payment were accepted and even dividing up payments with the credit card…..this place knew their stuff.
The factory/mansion was unbelievable with a large circular entrance to the upper level, hanging iron chandeliers, travertine floors and carpets…..carpets…..carpets everywhere!!
Photo: The transactions are in progress....David is at the front.
It was time for lunch so our guide took us to a restaurant called Happy Memories on the top of the hill overlooking Goreme. It was a vegetarian smorgasbord today and we enjoyed choosing our own meal and portion size! We made our way back to the hotel via the Valley of the Pigeons showing more homes built into the rock walls. Nowadays there are hundreds of pigeons living in the rock homes.
We dropped off to the hotel the sick boys (David and another) who were having their first day out of bed and taking a moderate approach so decided to give our afternoon walk a miss. We walked along the Valley of Love and took a lot of photos .... I’ll let them tell their own story. David really didn’t miss anything (although it was a lot of fun!) as we will see this area on the balloon ride tomorrow.
A quick break and four of us headed off to the Turkish hamam (bath) for a scrub and a massage. I enjoyed it more this time as I knew the procedure although there were a few differences including the sauna.
Dinner was a simple affair at the little place we went to last night. Our guide left us to our own devices as the group were meeting up at 8.30pm to see traditional folk dancing with unlimited drinks….a real rarity so obviously catering for tourists. David and I didn’t go as we have to be up at 5.40am for the hot-air ballooning.
Tomorrow we are on the move again after three nights in Cappadocia. It’s been lovely not to pack and unpack. More adventures to come as we head towards the Mediterranean.
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