Lake Como

30^th June 2011 – Lake Como

After our best night’s sleep since we have been away, we wandered down to breakfast at around 8 am. It is great to have real bacon again and decent coffee.

By just after 9am, we pulled out of the carpark in  our VW Golf to head for Griante on Lake Commo where we will spend the next 4 days. We decided to take the scenic route and drive through all of the little villages along the way, driving first to Lecco, on to Como and then up the western arm of the lake to our final destination, Griante. The roads are very narrow at times, but the scenery is breathtaking.

At around 11.30am, we pull up out the front of Alberghetto La Marianna, our accommodation for the next 4 days. It is located on the lakefront and is a small hotel with only 8 rooms. It was on the recommendation of Brian & Gill de Boos that we booked here, and we are very glad we took their advice, it is truly special. We look across the lake to Bellagio, and the restaurant is located across the road on the lake front. The owners are lovely and very helpful.

Alberghetto La Marianna (restaurant of the left under all the greenery)

The view across the lake to Bellagio

                                There is a swimming pool a short walk away to which we have free access

Once the car is parked across the road and we have settled in to our room, we go for a walk along the waterfront to check out what is in our near vicinity. We had panini’s  (with real ham) for lunch overlooking the water at a small restaurant in Cadenabbia, the nearest village, where the ferry terminal is located for ferries covering most of the lake.

Lunch overlooking the water (walking was hot work temp in high 20's)

The car ferry at Cadenabbia

We ended up walking to Tremezzo, the a nearby small village which is very busy compared with Griante, big hotels, plenty of restaurants and grand houses overlooking the water.

The ferry at Tremezzo

The local sailing club ?

A lonely fisherman tries his luck

After a few hours walk it was back to our air conditioned room to rest and await dinner. We have booked at the hotel for dinner as their food is supposed to be excellent. We had a 4 course fixed menu which was delicious home cooked food of a very high quality, tonight the menu was totally vegetarian and surprisingly good.

The view from our dining table

Our host bringing the main course

Tomorrow we plan to spend the day travelling around the lake on the ferry. You can purchase a day pass for 11 Euro, according to our hosts.

Fly to Bergamo

29^th June 2011 – Fly to Bergamo

After a good nights sleep, we had a leisurely start to the day as our flight didn’t leave for Bergamo (Italy) until 11.45am. Begamo hosts one of the outer airports for Milan, where many of the low cost carriers land.

We caught the shuttle bus from the hotel and were at International departures within 5 mins. The airport is very new and efficient. It took no time to check in and clear immigration. We spent our last few Turkish Lira in the extensive duty free shopping area, and boarded our Pegasus Airlines flight for Bergamo on time. We actually left on time and arrived in Bergamo early. So much for all of the negative input we had been given on Pegasus Airlines. On both times we have flown with them we have had a spare seat between us and both flights were on time.

Bergamo airport was not quite as efficient as the one we had come from. We waited 45 mins for our baggage (there was only one other flight landed when we arrived), and immigration was not ready for the early arrival.

Picking up our hire car took another 30 mins and then we were on our way to our hotel in Bergamo, The Excelsior San Marco. We had little trouble navigating our way to the front door and once checked in, went for a walk to explore the city.

Hotel Excelsior San Marco

Bergamo city is in 2 parts, the old city (Citta Alto) and the new city (Citta Bassa). The easiest way to go from one to the other is via a Funicular rail system.

Having wandered around the vicinity of our hotel in Citta Bassa, we caught the rail to Citta Alto and spent a couple of hours taking in the sights of the Old Town.

                                              Some sights of the Old Town

Begamo claims many famous people including the inventor of the motorcycle and Pope John XXIII.

We had a light dinner in Citta Bassa at a Pizzeria near our hotel.

Last day in Turkey

28^th June 2011

Today is our last full day in Turkey before flying off to Italy tomorrow. The Macdonalds’ are meeting up with some friends in Istanbul to spend of few days there before leaving Turkey later this week.

We have decided to have a leisurely morning at the museum Hotel before heading off towards Kayseri Airport( about 70 km away), taking in some last minute sightseeing along the way. We had a quick look out on the terrace in the early morning to see if there was a better view of the hot air balloons, and found it was a much brighter morning, but only 7 balloons went up this morning.

One lonely ballon descending

Departure from the hotel was planned for midday, and we headed to the next village on the way to the airport, Ortahisar. It is a small village, not unlike Uchisar in appearance, with a large outcrop (called the citadel) in the centre of town. It is less commercial than Uchisar and we found a few highlights, in particular, a wine shop in a cave that was 700 years old.

The "citadel" at Ortahisar

Wine shop entrance

Tasting room

Macca and Gail relaxing in the lounge

After an hour of wandering around we moved on to Urgup, a much larger and probably the most commercial of the towns we have been to in the area. Walking past a restaurant we heard a few Australian voices and had a quick chat with two guys who now live in Urgup and work as balloon pilots. They seemed very content with life in Turkey.

We walked around the main centre, bought of few small pieces of pottery that were similar to those we saw at Avanos, and half the price, and also bought some Turkish delight and other snacks to tide us over the next week or so. After lunch in town, it was off to Kayseri.

Council carpark in Urgup

Wandering the backstreets

The local men have a tough life (playing something that looks like a version Mahjong)

The scenery quickly changed from the sea of volcanic outcrops, back to sweeping flet plains within 10 km of leaving Urgup.

Approaching Kayseri the skyline is dominated by a huge snow capped mountain. The city itself appears to be an industrial centre with a population on 1 million people. There is a bit more traffic than we have been used to and the driving is quite unpredictable, and lane markings (if there are any) are for guidance only. It seems to take forever to get to the airport, which suddenly appears before you in suburbia.

Our next challenge is to return the rental car. There are no clues as to where you return it to, and not much advice from the police we asked for directions. In the end I pulled over near arrivals and Macca set out into the terminal to see if he could find them. After a while, one of the airport police came over and advised to put the car in the airport carpark. Macca returned soon after, and after another 10mins the Avis man arrived. He had no idea what to do, or any knowledge of the arrangements we had made to return the car to Kayseri. He tried to call Avis in Gocek with no luck, so we left him with the car and checked in.

We had a good flight on Pegasus Airlines, a low cost airline like Jetstar, and arrived at Istanbul on time, said our farewells to the Maccas, and caught a shuttle bus to the airport hotel. We were upgraded to a suite and were ready for a good nights sleep.

Underground City, Goreme and surrounds

27^th June 2001

The entrance to out hotel

We woke early to see the hot air balloons rising above the valley, one the key tourist attractions in Cappadocia. The weather was surprisingly cool and overcast (temperature 11 C), and without the bright blue sky, the impact of seeing the balloons rise against the background of the landscape was less impressive. Nevertheless, about 30 balloons went up. Macca and I went for an early morning walk and had a good look around Uchisar, which is quite a small village, riddled with dwellings carved into the volcanic outcrops that dominate the landscape.

The "Castle" at Uchisar riddled with dwellings carved into the rock

Balloons rising over the valley

Housing along the hillside in Uchisar

We organized to have breakfast at 8am, and then head off to see the key sights of the area.

The beakfast room in the hotel

First up was the underground city of Derinkuyu, the largest of the 37 underground cities discovered so far in this region. Derinkuyu covers an area of 4 square km, is 85 m deep, and was home to up to 10,000 people. It was connected to a sister city Kaymakli by a 10 km underground tunnel. The city had been occupied and developed first by the Hittites , then the Romans, and then Byzantines. We had a local guide take us through, and were amazed by the scale and complexity of the city. They had wineries built in, massive food storage areas in case they had to hide for extended periods of Arab invasions, water supplied from a spring that ran deep under the village and many ventilation shafts to keep them supplied with fresh air.

A diagram showing a cross section of the undergound city

Round millstones were used as "doors" to close off tunnels when invaded

It was a maze of rooms and tunnels

It was tough going at times going through the city as the tunnel heights were deliberately low to make it hard for invaders. At one point there was a descent of more than 100 steps. Nevertheless it was a fascinating place.

We then went on to Avanos, famous for the production of pottery. We had a look around a couple of places, Brian & Gail bought a few small pieces. It was then off to the Zelve Valley, which has the most spectacular display of volcanic outcrops ( they call fairy chimneys). Like everywhere else, many of these had been burrowed into  for dwellings, by Christians seeking refuge from Arab raiders.

Fairy Chimneys in the Zelve Valley

Many of the chimneys had been hollowed out for dwellings or other use

This area is also a major wine growing aea

We then headed into Goreme, the centre of this area, for lunch.

After lunch we decided to have a quick look at the the Goreme Outdoor museum, before heading back to the hotel for a rest. A short visit turned into over 1.5hrs, as we wandered through this fascinating area, which is the home of many elaborate Christian churches, all carved into the fairy chimneys and many ornately decorated with frescoes that are in amazingly good condition, due to the lack of natural light in the structures. They all located very close to each other. There are about 400 churches in the vicinity of Goreme which was a major centre for Christianity. Most of the ones in the outdoor museum were built around the 10^th and 11^th centuries.

Exterior of the Karanlik Church

Entrace to the Tokali Chiurch

Fresco in the Apple Church

It had been a big day, so we headed back to the hotel for a rest, had a pre dinner drink in our room, and went to a nearby restaurant for dinner, (Sira Hotel Restaurant). The food and atmosphere was very good.

The Maccas relaxing with a pre dinner drink in our room

Carole and Gail on the Terrace outside our room

Dinner at Sira Restaurant

Cappadocia

26^th June 2011

After a sparse breakfast buffet at Hotel Mavigol, and the discovery that someone had backed into our hire car and did some minor damage the bonnet, we were pleased to be out of here.

The wind was howling across the lake and there were waves breaking on the shore when we left Egirdir.

Waves breaking on the lake shore

The scenery changed every hour or so, from the mountain and lake landscapes we saw yesterday, to rugged rocky valleys, to sweeping plains covered in wheat as were got closer to Cappadocia.

Sweeping plains of wheat covered larger areas on the tableland

The change was most dramatic after we passed through Konya, a large industrial city that took a bit of navigating around. As we had around 450km to cover today we decided to minimize our stops and ended up having lunch in Sultanhani, also the site of an historic caravanserai, which  was 800 years old. It was like a motel where traders would sya the night after traveling a full day to recuperate, eat and bath etc. In the centre of the complex was a small Mosque where they could pray. We saw a few other caravanserais further on, apparently they were spaced along the trade route at distances that roughly equated to a days travel.

The Caravanserai at Sultanhani

The small Mosque in the centre of the courtyard

We had lunch at a café nearby, had a quick look through the ruins, almost got intercepted by another Turkish wedding and headed off to our final destination Uchisar in Cappadocia.

The scenery in Uchisar is like something I have never seen before. There are hotels in caves (including ours), and dwellings carved into the natural rock structures everywhere. We look forward to exploring it all tomorrow.

Pigeon Valley  - Uchisar

After a long day in the car our priority was to find the Museum Hotel, and after last nights experience our hopes were somewhat deflated. When we checking we asked to see the rooms, to see if we could bring in all of our luggage from the car.

Well, did we get it wrong, this place is luxurious, the rooms are huge and carved out the hillside, the hotel facilities are at least 5 star, swimming pool, wellness centre, lovely outdoor bar and terrace overlooking the stunning scenery of Cappadocia, and a first class restaurant that we will try out tonight.

The terrace at Museum Hotel -(pool in the foreground, wellness centre back left)

The swimming pool looks out over the valley

A bar is carved out if stone with a terrace lounge above

Our room - bedroom area

 

Our room - lounge area

Dinner in the restaurant lived up to expectations, good food in excellent surroundings.

The restaurant