Sanliurfa to Nevsehir, Turkey

3 - 6 June 2008

The surreal scenery of Cappodocia

The air rallye crowd had organized a bus to take them to their hotel in Nevsehir, and they kindly offered us seats on their bus. On the way we stopped by an abandoned hollow rock village for a picnic accompanied by excellent Turkish wine which we very much appreciated.
From Nevsehir the same bus took us to Göreme, where we had booked a room at the charming Canyon View Hotel. We were well received by the owner Hasan, who was born and grew up in the house before it was converted into a hotel a few years ago. Hasan showed us to our room, tastefully decorated and furnished with its own balcony and a bathroom carved into the rock face.

4 June. Hasan took us for a walking tour of Göreme, followed by a walk in the Rose Valley, where we visited houses carved out of the sandstone rock. The local farmers used to keep pigeons for their guano to fertilize their crops so there were houses for them too.
Then Hasan took us to his carpet shop where he offered us tea and lunch and showed us his wares. Unfortunately for our wallets, we liked some of his kilims, carpets and sumaks.
In the late afternoon, Hasan drove us up to Uchisar, so we could walk down from there to Göreme through a beautiful valley.
We dined at the best restaurant in town, Alaturca, accompanied by the best red wine we had had for a long time.

5 June. We were up at 5:30 a.m. for a hot air balloon ride which had to be cancelled due to too much wind. After breakfast, Hasan took us to the Göreme open air museum, where we visited numerous Christian churches also carved out of rock. Most of them were from the 11th and 12th centuries. Hasan then took us to an impressive underground city carved out of the sandstone rock near Kaymakli. We had a delicious Iskender lunch with him in Nevsehir in a restaurant unknown to tourists.