Ataman Hotel Goreme

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... further up. We did and found possibly the best place in all of Turkey to watch the sunset. We were surrounded by rocks on 3 sides and the sun was directly in front of us. We would have stayed for their BBQ except that we wouldn't be able to see our way back to town on the 4-wheeler. It was a good choice to pass because our lights didn't work.

The last night in town we went out to eat at a nice place. The food was great, although they forgot to give it ...

... some away.

So those were days that we enjoyed sightseeing, history, and friendly people. Just a pity the food and wine here are nothing to write home about. We tried one of those slow-cooking clay pot dishes that Lonely Planet mentions but were not impressed.

I hope you enjoy this entry. I also have a very nice Powerpoint presentation concerning the underground city, sent to me by one of my friends (thanks, Ruth). I will email to all of u later since I could not include it here.

A big night of belly dancing and real dancing did not slow us down one bit on our first full day in Cappadocia. And what a day it was.

Goreme is home to an amazing "open-air" museum consisting of almost 20 Byzantine Churches carved into the rocks of Cappadocia, the oldest of which dates back to the late 11th century.

That was stop one for the day. The "open-air" museum is located about a kilometer outside the center of Goreme, so we had a nice walk there ...

... It's just great.

We had a group of 6, the four "passengers" and two "guides," and we headed to Turkish Nights at around 8:30. It was very pretty to be above Goreme around twilight...so pretty that Aleem decided that while driving he would attempt to take a picture out of the front of the bus...We tried to figure out how to tell him that A: it wouldn't come out if the flash was on, and B: That probably wasn't the best idea while moving...

The food ...

... the morning checking out the Goreme Open Air Museum, and were even able to briefly meet up with Atacan for some tasty Turkish ice cream at the cafe there. He is in the area with his tour group for several days, and we were lucky to cross paths for 15 minutes! The Open Air Museum is an outdoor museum which features several large caves which were utilized as churches back in the 9th and 10th centuries. Many of them featured superb Byzantine frescoes depicting biblical scenes ...

... most dramatic of all, the mushroom. In some regions or countries promoters might make a big deal out of four or five of these. But here there are, we are guessing, many thousands of such. They dot the landscape and can be observed everywhere. The even more interesting geological anomaly is the preponderance of caves that can be found here. They are almost as ubiquitous as the fairy chimneys and in fact, many times they can be found inside of the fairy chimneys. Now most people love ...

... stops that you are shown some of the 'best' items you could ever buy...yadda, yadda, yadda. There was only one of these stops on this tour - so one thumb is back up again. 5) You Don't Get to Choose Your Companions - this one can be a doozy! Whomever has signed up for the tour is who you will be with for the day. It could be all Japanese tourists flashing their cameras, it could be a bus full of kids shouting and crying and fighting, it ...

... spectacular - we drifted over valleys and through rock formations so close that we almost felt like we could have reached out and touched them. The pilots must have been extremely skillful because we felt like we clung to the face of the valley while we drifted through. It was simply breathtaking. Then we shot up to 7000ft and had a spectacular view of the surrounding area, before coming down gently and ...

... in such things. Unfortunately they seem to have made a hash of setting up my account and I have been in and out of the 'Nesc@fe' Internet cafe all day, trading books that I have finished reading for Internet time. I even phoned them in England at one point. I can't imagine the helpdesk staff had ever had a call from anyone in a cave in central Turkey before.

Michelle has come down with a dose of 'Sultan's Revenge'. I'm not feeling too healthy either. To make matters worse ...