Silk Route

Day 64 - Sun 18 May 08

Göreme

What a day! Up at about 08:00 checked my e-mail and then headed up the hill to the other hotel to pick up my tour at 09:30. I managed to get a breakfast from them. Then we're off, there are six other people on the trip. A Turkish mum and dad with their two kids, and a English bloke with his Turkish girlfriend. Our first stop was a view point over Göreme, such a weird landscape and great clear views of the volcano in the distance that caused it all.

Then onwards to the underground city, a huge place - but it seems that people didn't live here all the time, it was only used in time of invasion. There's even a rolling stone, just like the one in Raider of the Lost Ark. The next stop was a wine shop, but no one purchased any.

Lunch was taken on the roof of a museum - a good soup starter, great bread, a stew for main course, and a rice pudding for dessert. All very nice! The off to imagination valley - where the pillars of volcanic debris are supposed to look like things. I think I saw one shaped like an owl. Nearby are the fairy chimneys that are on the back of the 50 Lira note. They do look like they have been carved by hand rather than by nature.

We also stopped off at St Simeon church, this one being inside a hollowed out fairy chimney. The place was packed with tourists.

Another stop was a pottery place were you could see the plates etc being made, one of the group even had a go at making a pot. The final stop of the day was a one and a half hour hike into the hills into the Rose Valley - Fab scenery and there's a church cut into the cliffs with Frescos, rather like the ones I saw in Georgia a few days ago.

Back to Göreme at 18:30, got some provisions and ate on my hotels flat roof with views over the village.