On the Silk Road

Hi All,

The last 24 hours have involved a tour of the Goreme open air museum, hiking through a lovely gorge, visiting the underground city, food, food and more food!

The Goreme open air museum is a small park which encases old cave churches, caves carved into the mountains of hardened volcano ash and the tales of centuries gone.  All around the village named Goreme we have been in for the last 3 nights, there are thousands of caves which have been hand dug into the mountains. See pic below:-

People used to live in these caves before modern times as in the summer they were cool and in winter they were warm.  They were easy to extend if needed due to the soft nature of the rock (see mum I am learning something).  If you would like to know more we will take questions at the end. Please leave for us if needed and we will try and answer.

After visiting the open air museum we had a meal consisting of Lentil soup (not as good as the first one we had) and my very first Turkish baklava in town in the "Silk Road Kebab House" and strolled from the village back to the hotel. Again another lovely summer evening but no fireworks this time.

This morning I woke to hearing noises outside just after sunrise and looked out the window to find the sky filled with hot air balloons doing scenic flights of the region.  After this I managed to go back to sleep and we left the hotel at 9:30 to head back on the road.

Our first stop today was an underground city where clostraphobia may be an issue.  Poor Toot didnt quite make it to the first level but Gordo took lots of pictures for her (what a great travel buddy)!!!!! The underground city was used by early Christians as a hiding place before they became an accepted religion.

After the underground city it was back on the road to a lovely little restaurant at the bottom of the Ihlara Gorge. We sat in small huts over the river and ate copious amounts of food again.  After lunch we went for a sizable hike through the gorge and back up to the top. From there it was on the road again.

Our next stop was at a hotel from around 1200 AD for merchants traveling on the silk road. It was set up so that they could pull in for the night, have a meal and store their merchandise safely. It was the largest of its kind.

Once again on the road as we finally made our way to the city of Konya! Toot liked the sunflowers in the fields on the side of the highway and said it reminds her of Tuscany where I think she will drag me one day (hopefully)!

Once we arrived in Konya (to a much nicer hotel than the last) we dumped our bags and headed out for dinner. Yes you got it, more food!!!! Our guide took us to the middle of the city and pointed us in the general direction of some local cuisines.  We seemed to misunderstand and ended up eating in the restaurant of a hotel.  They invited us in with promises of nice food (spoken in broken English).  Once we were in it became apparent that the waiter spoke no English and ended up getting a french tourist form the next table to help decipher the Turkish menu. This was a little bit of help and then we ended up with the man from hotel reception to wait on our group. All this aside, the food was magnificent and relatively cheap.

After dinner we strolled back through the busy streets of Konya to loudly blaring prayer music from the local mosque.

Now it is off to bed and prepare for another busy day tomorrow.  What it will hold, who knows!

Our next stop is Antalya!!!

So until next time, dont miss us too much!

Love always Toot and Gordo Xx.