Cappadocia. What an experience

We arrived In Cappadocia mid morning and basically hit the ground running. We are staying in Urgup a small town outside the main centre of Goreme. We have a small cave hotel and our room is amazing but I have to say it’s a bit difficult not having any natural light. You have no concept of night and day. The room is warm with underfloor heating and seems to maintain 25 C despite trying to turn it down.

As we had missed the regular tours our host convinced us to take a taxi who would show take us to 4-5 main spots and wait for us. Off we went with a man who spoke no English but used google translate while driving the somewhat hectic roads one handed. The roads are either new and used for speeding and catching up time or narrow and cobbled and disintegrating. We were dropped off at the local look out at Urgup and then onto the Goreme outdoor museum which is a valley of cave buildings where people lived over 2000 years ago. Most of the caves that are open to view are churches with quite amazing frescos but no photos are permitted as they are trying their best to preserve the frescos. Lots of climbing up hills, ladders and ramps and lots of narrow doors and passageways. Quite like nothing I have ever seen.

The driver then took us to a local horse farm where the owner was excited that I was carrying the Lonely Planet guide and wanted to check his write up in the guide. They no longer catch and break in wild horses but now get most of their stock from reject horse racing stables.

It was then onto another lookout to see the landscape from another angle. Of course at every point there is the usual tourist venders but even they don’t detract from the incredible landscape and the wonder of what life was like for the residents 100s and 1000s of years ago

The off to another lookout, a visit to the castle, the highest point up. Danny climbed it. I didn’t. A visit to Pigeon Valley where most of the cave houses were build just to house pigeons. They were used for both messengers and meat

Home to rest our tired selves and then out to dinner. We found the bes5 restaurant serving lamb shanks is the tandour and a salad with strawberries and sunflower seeds. just lovely.