Cappadocia to Cannakale

Cappadocia to Canakkale

Tourist Hotel

20^th April: 5:30am Early morning hot balloon ride over the Cappadocia landscape – magnificent, must have been up to nearly 80 other balloons in the sky with us. ( a bit hair raising when three balloons were touching) The pilot of our balloon was so experienced that he landed the balloon on the back of a trailer, this was topped off with a glass of champagne.

We next went to the Goreme open air museum which consists of cave churches and homes with biblical drawings on the walls. (frescos)

We stopped at Ankara (Turkey's capital) to visit the Mausoleum of Ataturk- a monumental tomb of Turkey's modern founder.

We went to a rug/carpet making place where the price of some were $11,000 - we'll settle for a fake I think. At this place they actually bred their own silkworms and collected the thread to make silk carpet rugs which some took up to 2 years to make.

Next onto Konya - home to the whirling dervish order of centuries ago. Here there were the tombs of these priest like men and even the beard of the most important one, which all the Muslims were having a sniff of through little holes in the glass case and crying. (Mevlana Museum) Called in at another underground city at Kaymakli- glad I live in the 21st century.

Lycus River Hotel

22^ndApril: Pamukkale Relaxing night in the hot thermal pools – a bit stinky but nice. Next morning we traveled to the travertine pools that have calcium ledges and the Hierapolis ruins- an impressive sight. We were able to walk through the pools and get some magnificent photos. (we were only interested in the pools)
Tatlises Hotel

23^rd April: Traveled to Kudasi and toured the ancient town of Ephesus - more ruins and heaps of marble just lying about. We also took a cable car ride to the top of a mountain to see the Acropolis where we could of decked out a few houses with all the spare marble around there - only problem was we couldn't shift it.

Then to continue our religious experience we went to the house of theVirgin Mary where she is supposed to have lived until she died after moving from Jerusalem. We weren't really interested in Troy as we were fairly close to Gallipoli but walked around and looked at more ruins. (I think I'll get the

movie out one day)

C & J