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