Pamukkale Travertines & Hierapolis

Monday, March 31st, 2014, Pamukkale
At Mustafa's Pension, for $35 CDN per night, breakfast is not included. Apparently there's no maid service either. However, it's clean, warm and this morning Mustafa made us a great Turkish breakfast in the restaurant for 7.5 lira ($3.75) each including really good yogurt and honey. Mustafa and the hillbillies are cooking in the wood fired brick oven all day and the food is great. However, tonight we went to Kaya's, recommended in Lonely Planet, just for a change and it was good too. Once again, dinner for 2, including beer and tip, for 45 lira ($22.50).

 After breakfast, we walked up to the travertines and the ancient city of Hierapolis above them. There are 17 mineral springs coming out of the hill with a constant water temperature of 36C. The calcium carbonate from the water is deposited on the hillside and naturally forms terraced pools, called the travertines, and coats the whole hillside in white.

 Above the pools is the ancient city of Hierapolis, founded by the Romans in 197 BC. It's been a spa town for a long time. We wandered all over the city and the travertines for the day.

 The old Roman theatre seats 12,000 people. Construction was started in 60 AD and it took 146 years to complete it.

 Restoration started in 1957 and continues.

On a hill above the city is the burial site of St. Philip, one of the Apostles. He was apparently murdered and buried here. Thousands of Christians make pilgrimages here every year.

 Frontinus Street, the main drag, of Hierapolis. There used to be shops on either side.

There were even public latrines.

 Nice site for a city, overlooking the broad valley and the snow-capped mountains in the distance. After the Romans, the Byzantines lived here and finally, through conflict with the Moslems and because of a series of earthquakes, the population gradually dwindled. However, descendants of the ancient peoples still live in the area.

The area of travertines is huge and blindingly white in the mid-day sun.

 Lounging by some of the pools.

The day got quite warm so on the way back down through the travertines, we stopped to soak our feet in the warm mineral water. It felt great but eventually we decided to get out of the sun. It's really bright out there.
No-one is allowed to wear shoes on the travertines since they're fragile and could be easily damaged. Even when wet, the calcium carbonate surface isn't that slippery. It took about 40 minutes of walking to get down through the travertines and back to the village. Our hotel is only about 50 metres from the bottom of the hill. It was a great day.

Antalya to Pamukkale

Sunday, March 30th, 2014 Pamukkale

 The wind just howled last night and it was a bit cooler this morning so the hotel staff closed the glass doors out to the courtyard, made a fire in the fireplace and served breakfast in the lobby dining area. Cosy.

 After we checked out, we walked about 15 minutes to the Pamukkale bus ticket office. On the way, I stopped to read the paper with an old friend.

Some of the lads were already enjoying the little park across the street.
At the ticket office, a van picked us up and drove us north of the city to the bus terminal. There we boarded a really nice Mercedes Benz bus for the 3 1/2 hour trip to Denizli. There was seatback individual entertainment systems just like on a plane, free sandwiches, soft drinks and water, and a driver who didn't think he was in a mountain road rally. All the way to Denizli we traveled through wide valleys with low mountains in the distance. Very pretty. The whole trip from the ticket office cost a total of 70 lira ($35) for both of us.
At Denizli, we got off at a huge new bus terminal that was fairly busy. However, everyone is helpful and we quickly found our way to the basement where a van to Pamukkale was just about to leave. It took about 20-25 minutes until we were dropped off at a little square in Pamukkale. The trip cost 3.50 lira each ($1.75).
Once again, everyone we saw pointed us in the right direction and we soon found Mustafa Pension where we'll spend the next 3 nights. Pamukkale is very small and a bit shabby. Our hotel room is clean enough but it has a sort of isolated northern Ontario motel decor. However we're just below the travertine pools and the old Roman ruins. More about that tomorrow. And Mustafa's restaurant has great ratings from Trip Adviser and Lonely Planet. We just ate dinner there and had a delicious meal for a total of 36 lira ($18).
Because we were afraid of the holiday weekend crowds, we've already booked an apartment on Naxos Island in Greece for 5 nights over the Easter weekend. Now we have to plan our way there through Ephesus, Athens, Delphi and Mykonos. It's tricky but at least it's just a First World problem. Can't complain.

Antalya old town

Saturday, March 29th, 2014
After breakfast this morning, we walked about 15 minutes to a bus ticket office to buy tickets for tomorrow to Denizli near Pamukkale. A shuttle van will take us from the ticket office out to the main bus terminal outside of town. It's then a 3 1/2 hour bus ride to Denizli where we'll find a smaller bus to take us to nearby Pamukkale.

 After the business was done, we wandered through the old town and down to what used to be the Roman harbour and is now the yacht and tour boat harbour. Antalya was founded over 2,000 years ago and the walls above the harbour are remnants of the old city walls.

 Throughout the downtown area outside the old town, we have seen over a dozen of these whimsical statues. This one is of a boy and girl playing hopscotch. There is another of about 6 or 8 human size green frogs sitting on park benches and laying on the grass. Another statue is a man in a Roman toga collecting money out of a stone ATM. Nice.

The view from our hotel roof top terrace. Although it was 22C and sunny this morning, the weather seemed to change late this afternoon. Even if tomorrow is not what we've become accustomed to, we'll be spending a lot of the day on buses. Antalya has been nice.

Antalya Archaeological Museum

Friday, March 28th, 2014 Antalya

 Anita's friend Karen has said that she'd come back to Turkey just for the breakfasts. We understand why. The included breakfast consists of  eggs, fresh oranges and strawberries, feta and some other cheese, great bread, bowl of olives, butter, jams, honey, mystery meat & coffee served in the hotel walled courtyard among palm and orange trees. What's not to like?

 Oranges growing by the breakfast tables in the courtyard.

 After breakfast we took the old tram (1.25 lira each) to the Antalya Archaeological Museum which is recommended in all the books. It's well worth the 15 lira ($7.50) admission. There are several rooms of marble statues that have been found in the old cities around Antalya. Plus there are lots of other exhibits. It took about 2 1/2 hours to see everything.

 This is a larger than life-size statue in the museum.

 Just across the street from the museum is the beginning of Konyaalti Beach. A few people were  swimming but not many. It's still a little brisk (about 20C) with a cool breeze off the ocean.

 When we took the tram back to the old town, we sat with an older retired professor who chatted with us about Canada and Turkey. Everyone here is very interested in the upcoming election on Sunday. We don't know much about it but people are taking it very seriously and look upon it as a big step in the direction that Turkey will take for the future.
Back near the old town, down some side street we searched for and finally found "Can Can Pide", a small diner recommended in Lonely Planet. We thought we had ordered lamb kebap in a pita wrap but we got a sort of minced lamb meat pizza thing and a salad, along with 2 yogurt drinks. At least we got the drinks right. Anyway, it was really good and really filling for a total bill of 12 lira ($6).
On the way back to our hotel, some shoeshine guy tried to scam us. He spoke politely to Anita & pointed at her black leather shoes. We said we didn't want a shoeshine but he quickly bent down and put some cream on each shoe, then beckoned her to put her foot up on his little stand so he could wipe it off. He ended up quickly shining her shoes, all the while telling us about his 5 children. Then he wanted 10 euros (30 lira or $15) which he said was "normal". We said no way. After some discussion, we finally gave him 4 lira ($2). It was a good shoeshine but he was lucky to get that. This is the first guy who's tried to scam us. Everyone else has been extremely polite and helpful.

After a quick stop at the market around the corner for supplies, we relaxed on the hotel rooftop terrace. It's also a great spot for our hand washing to dry. We were so full from lunch that we never bothered to go out for dinner. Clouds are rolling in and it looks like it may rain this evening anyway.

Goreme to Antalya

Thursday, March 27th, 2014 Antalya

 We left Goreme in an airport shuttle van this morning about 8 am. As we climbed up out of the valley we could see some balloons still flying. We got to Kayseri airport on time, flew to Istanbul, changed planes and flew to Antalya. Since we had no idea how to get from the airport to Kaleici, the "old town" in the heart of the city of Antalya, we took a cab for 45 lira ($22.50). Good deal.

 Our hotel, the White Garden Pansion, is only a hundred meters or so from the Mediterranean. There are beautiful parks and terraces along the ocean.

 Since we had skipped lunch due to being busy catching flights, we had an early dinner. We ate at "Yemeni" just around the corner from our hotel.. Fantastic food for only 55 lira ($27) including beer and tip. We could never eat such good food in such nice restaurants at that price if we were at home.

This is a typical street just around the corner from our hotel. That's a minaret from an old mosque in the background.

After dinner we took a walk up our street. All of the old town is pedestrian streets with few cars allowed. It's a great place to walk around. In the background is Hadrian's Gate, built to honour the Roman Emperor Hadrian when he came to visit.
Tomorrow, more exploring.

Goreme Open Air Museum & Valley Hike

Wednesday, March 26, 2014 Goreme
Last night we weren't hungry after our big tour lunch so we just went to Nazar Borek, a small Cappadocian style diner a few blocks away. A spinach & cheese stuffed spiral pastry (borek) was only 8 lira. Anita had some other grilled pita thing so along with 2 ayran (salty yogurt drinks), the bill came to 22 lira ($11). It was so good we went back tonight and had another great meal, this time for 29 lira ($14.50) total.

As we started off on our hike today, we came across this sign outside a small hotel. Not sure what they're advertising.

 We walked about 1 km out of town to the Goreme Open Air Museum, another UNESCO World Heritage site. This outdoor museum was the site of a Christian monastic settlement that was started in the 2nd century AD. There are at least a dozen little churches carved into the rock along with lots of other cave dwellings.

The little churches just look like rock from the outside but inside they're carved into little domed cathedrals. One church in particular, the "Dark Church", was very impressive. It had frescoes (literally "fresh" because they were painted on fresh pigeon egg whites) all around the walls and ceilings that depicted the life of Jesus. Great paintings restored to very good condition.

 The tourist pose.

 When we left the museum, we walked further up the road and out of the valley onto the plateau above. The manager of our hotel had told us where to turn off the road to get down into the next valley. We passed by some men and women preparing a field. They all said hello to us.

 The little road was very steep and narrow. Finally it ended at the valley bottom. Then we took a trail down the narrow valley, walking beside a little stream.

 The stream had eroded about a dozen natural tunnels through the rock so that made a good trail.

 There were lots of interesting rock formations in the narrow valley.

All along we could see where homes and pigeon nests had been carved out of the narrow valley walls.

 Our lunch spot (almonds, apples and water). We saw only a few other hikers all day. We probably walked 10 or 12 km.

 Another abandoned cave.

As the valley widened out, the trail became a road again. We found a path leading over the hills from that valley back into the valley of the town of Goreme. We set the camera on a rock and took a last picture of ourselves in this fantastic landscape.
Tomorrow we fly southwest to Antalya on Turkey's Mediterranean coast.

Goreme Underground City Tour

Tuesday, March 25, 2014 Goreme

 This morning we got up early to watch the hot air balloons on their morning tour. Above is the view from our hotel balcony of the houses carved into the fairy chimneys on the other side of the river valley.

 Around 6:30 am the balloons started floating past. Each balloon basket will hold 15 to 20 people. The ride is one hour and usually costs at least $150 Cdn per person. We thought we'd just climb the hill and look down on the valley from there.

 After breakfast we embarked on a guided tour of the region south of Goreme. We were in a nice big van with 14 other people, a guide and a driver. At the first stop the guide used these 3 typical, although not big, fairy chimneys to explain how they were formed. Ten million years ago there were at least 3 big volcanoes in the region. They erupted many times so the whole area is composed of volcanic rock. The top layer is very hard, the layer just below that is very soft and the bottom layer is medium hard. Thus, erosion through wind and water formed these cone shapes with hard rock caps.

 Our next stop was at Mustafapasa, a former Greek town. The Greeks and Turks used to co-exist peacefully in the area. However, in 1923, a treaty between Turkey and Greece forced all Greeks in Turkey back to Greece and all Turks in Greece back to Turkey. Now this town is Turkish. The Greek churches have become mosques. However, some impressive Greek architecture remains. Anita is turning this small pillar by the side of the door, which, because the building has stayed true, has not become bound in place and will actually spin.
We also stopped at an archaeological dig of a recently discovered Roman village from the 4th century AD. Not much has been excavated yet.

 In the Soganli Valley there are numerous churches from the 10th to 13th century, carved out of the rock. This is the "snake" church. In it is a fresco of St. George and St. Theodore slaying a serpent or dragon. The frescos were painted on a fresh plaster made from the egg white of pigeon eggs. It glued the paint in place so it remains there now, unless damaged by vandals.

 The church interiors are a bit rough.

This is another church that has pillars carved out of the rock.

 We had lunch in this little village in the Soganli Valley. The old ladies from town knit gloves and make beautiful little dolls for sale.

 After lunch we went to the Derinkuyu underground city, a World Heritage Site. "City" is actually a misnomer. The Hittites, about 4,000 years ago, dug defensible positions into the rock to use whenever they were attacked. Otherwise they lived at or near the surface of the ground so these weren't really cities. However, there are over 100 of these "cities" that have been re-discovered over the last 50 years. Some of them can hold thousands of people, livestock and supplies to last for months at a time. This one goes 85m deep and has 16 stories, 8 of which are open to the public. Anita went down to the 2nd level below ground and I went to the 8th, although I'm not sure why. It looked the same as the 2nd.

 Narrow passages and stairways were deliberately carved out so invaders had to enter one at a time.

 Further down, there are bigger rooms. It is believed that tunnels as long as 9 km link some of these underground cities. Impressive.

 Every little valley in the region is full of old houses carved out of the cliffs.

This is the Uchisar "Castle", carved out of a mountain.
It was an interesting day. Tomorrow we'll walk through the valleys around Goreme for our own self-guided tour.