Pıgeon Valley ın the Goreme

click to zoom in on Pigeon Valley

Our last trip in the Goreme was to Pigeon Valley. The views were incredible, and the shops pathetic. I mention the shops, because this was perhaps the one time our driver stopped by a site where he might have been im cahoots with the merchants. We were, as always, stalwart ın our defenses against The Merch. The offerings were the usual, and as always iın Turkey, they were not overly aggressive. We came for the views and that's all we took away with us. Selah.

İt was a great road trıp, but in retrospect, having had a car a few days ın Selcuk and Efes, we're pretty good at operating our own tours. But our driver dıd cap it off by giving us a watermelon feast iın a meadow across from the caravanserai.

click to enlarge

Our driver was a good guy, and we all liked hıs grandson Abdullah... Anyhow, I am still a litle out of order here. . .İ have yet to write about our day ın Ankara, the plane flight to Selcuk, or even the really fascinatıng bus rıde from Ankara (thumbs up to Turkish Aır!). And I stıll need to write about Ephesus. And my essay on Turkish cuisine. And our Pensione owner ın Goreme. And, after today, our visit to St. John The Baptist's basilica, and Ephesus, of course, not to mention the fantastic Ephesus Museum.

Colum, our driver, Abdullah, and Del - click to enlarge

We didn't learn much about this valley, but there are hundreds of dwellings carved from the tufa hillsides, as well as a lot of stone and masonry houses constructed as infill (real estate name drop).

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The underground city

--as usual, click all photos to enlarge--

In one of the cave kitchens, four floors beneath the earth

We went on a long tour today, hitting at least five interesting geological, historical, and religious sites. The first stop was the underground city, an enormous cave of interconnecting rooms, four stories of which are open to the public for exploration and to give us all a serious case of the willies. It was fascinating. And spooky. The underground city reaches down nine stories into the earth...a puzzling labyrinth with hundreds of tunnels connecting rooms on each level. Each floor contained dwellings and various public rooms, churches, wineries, cooking caves, and stairways leading up or down to the next level.

A room three stories down -click to enlarge

A ventilator shaft that goes down nine stories

The entire time I was in the cave, I was a little nervous about earthquakes, the possibility of an entire busload of tourists panicking and heading for the exits (the tunnels and staircases are rarely wider than two and a half feet). And then, what if the lights went out?! Without a torch, could you ever possibly escape? Well, as you see, I was a nervous nellie, because we made it out after an hour...

a staircase leading down to the next floor

More tomorrow-- my travelling partners, aka family, promise to pull up their slack and write about some of the other sites we saw and adventures we had today (like an amazing cave church in a remote mountain; a hike along the gorge, and a visit to a caravansary. Tomorrow morning, we travel via bus to Ankara (the capitol) for one night, and then fly off to I forget where for the next leg of the trip. In closing let me say that one thing I've learned on this trip is the enormous difference between a vacation and travelling...I have yet to put my feet up and read the weighty Melville tome I brought along. That will happen later in the trip. I hope!

Jack with a bouquet of wildflowers and poppies he picked for Keelin at a crater lake

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A restorative Hot Springs visit in the mountains

Tomorrow, were doing something we've never done in our travels. We're taking a tour. Or rather, we're hiring a van and driver to take us on a 200 kilometer tour of some outlying areas. When Keelin--savvy negotiator she is balked at the price, our friendly local scooter renter (who we also spent the night with watching the Turkey v Germany match) offered to take us at nine o'clock tonight to a hot springs. Of course we jumped at the chance. If you've read All This Is That long, you know I am a hot water aficionado and this would be an awesome chance to soak in the geothermal waters of Turkey. Of course there are hot springs here--there have to be if you have seen the utter devastation the three volcanoes wrought as they exploded and created the fantastic tufa towers of the Goreme.






The springs were about 25 Km. and a somewhat harrowing van ride away. We passed dozens of slow moving trucks crawling up the mountain pass, and finally hit a reasonably smooth dirt and gravel road. When we arrived the place looked closed. It was. But they gladly opened it for us (opening it consisted largely of taking some Lira from us). The facility was extremely rustic in the best sense of the word.

The hot springs were piped into an Olympic sized pool, and the water was perfect, although cooler than I keep my my own backyard hot springs. It was about 100 degrees. At one end a chute funneled in water at about 130 degrees. Naturally I spent most of my time at that end of the pool. We got them to turn off the lights and we could see billions of stars--even more than you see in the heart of Montana. With zero light pollution, dark skies rule the day. You could see the stars so clearly that in spots they looked like a picture of the Milky Way, with dense star formations that almost looked like fog or clouds. We could also see satellites and shooting stars and more constellations than I have ever seen in my life. We soaked, talked, star gazed and swam for about an hour and a half.

The water was perfect, and unlike most hot springs, there was almost no sulphur smell at all. The highly mineralized (I'm pretty dubious this is actually a word) water felt great on the skin, and extremely soothing on our weary limbs after another day of tromping up and down hills in the mid-day sun.
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Futbol! Tonight in Cappadocia, we will be watching Turkey vs. Germany in the Euro League Championship

Click to enlarge the Brummet youth on the rocks

After a great & restorative dinner and some wine at our pensione, we are walking to the village to watch the Euro League Championship...Turkey vs.; Germany.
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Goodbye Istanbul, hello Cappadocia

Our fantastic week in Istanbul is over and this morning we fly off to Cappadocia in central Turkey, with its incredible physical features. They say it is the home of some of the most unique geology on the planet. I've heard that you see glimpses of it in the Star Wars movie.


I took the snapshot of our 'plane after we landed. It was the only 'plane at the airport!

Later note: we arrived a few hours ago after a one hour flight via the excellent Turkish Air. The caves and land forms are stunning, about which more later. Since I only slept two hours last night, I hung out for a nap while the family went on a hike to visit some caves and explore a church...
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