Tuesday morning we checked out of the Arkadia hotel in Istanbul and drove to the airport for a short flight to Kayseri, a center of agriculture and sugar factories in Turkey. We boarded a bus and drove to our hotel in Cappadocia which, as you can see from the pictures below, is a magical place. It is full of tourists of course, but they are spread out among the little towns, full of ceramic shops, rug dealers, souvenir shops, restaurants, fresh squeezed orange juice kiosks. It's all fun and truly I've never seen anything quite like it. We took a short hike right from our hotel through one of the valleys. We hiked some more on Wednesday and visited what Michael Ellis calls the "Willies of the Valley". Can you guess why? Later, we visited some of the old churches carved out of the rocks and decorated with frescoes, which unfortunately the powers that be won't let anyone photograph. I had the first signs of a cold yesterday, and today am resting with a sore throat in the hope of making a quick recovery.
Oh yes, I forgot the visit to the rug cooperative, where I expressed a mild interest in a pretty wool rug, and was immediately surrounded by four eager rug salesman, who tried to convince me that my life was not complete without the rug. Intimidating, but I firmly resisted. Larry was proud.
I was very glad to get emails, finally, from the three boys back in California, who it seems, are doing fine. I was especially concerned about Alan, who had surgery to repair a torn ligament in his shoulder while we were in Amsterdam.
Terrific photos!
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