Grandpa and Grandma P. Part 1: Ankara and Cappadocia

I am WAY behind on blogging, about 4.5 months, so in an attempt to catch up, you will see lots of pictures and less commentary. In late-April, Mark and Betty came to visit us in Ankara, and they also got to see a few other cities in Turkey. This blog is about their time in Ankara and Cappadocia. They arrived the evening of my birthday, it was a nice present.

The next morning they went to the boys’ school for International Day. They got to see their classrooms, meet their teachers and some friends, and see the parade representing all the nations in the school, which I think was 77!

Another day they went to the Anıtkabir, (Ataturk’s Masoleum). There was an event going on, and they got a see the military perform a ceremony.

It’s an impressive place and very popular amongst the Turks, who love Ataturk very much.

Another they went downtown to explore and stopped at our favorite park, Kuğulu (swan) park. 

We also took them to our favorite restaurant Masabaşı, then to the local bazaar. The sights, colors, and smells are wonderful!

That weekend, we drove a few hours south to Cappadocia, a place known for “fairy chimneys” which are tall cone-shaped rock formations. We stayed in the town of Göreme, in a cave hotel, which is very popular in the area. These caves were used by the early Christians as a place of refuge and there are many remaining structures and old rock-face churches. On the way there, we stopped at Tuz (salt) lake, which is known for being a very shallow salt lake that you can explore barefoot - it was pretty chilly so we opted to keep our shoes on.

When we got to town, we first visited the Kaymakli underground city. It was full of tunnels and rooms that were used long ago as homes, storage areas, cellars, and meeting places. The tunnels are narrow and steep so we had a bit of crouching (at least the grown ups did). It was busy, but a neat experience to climb through these tunnels and think about what life was like hundreds of years ago.

Our cave hotel. We stayed in a different one 10 years ago when our family visited Turkey while we were living in Kuwait, and it was just as cool to do it again!

View of the city for sunset, so beautiful.

Uchisar castle in the distance.

Our hotel.

The next day we visited the Uchisar castle in Nevşir and the Göreme open-air museum. The castle is centuries old and had great views of the valley.

 

     

The Turkish flag (Star and Crescent) flies large and proudly all over the country.

The open-air museum is a World Heritage Site in the valley filled with rock-carved churches. It was built during the Byzantine period and was a home to monks and was a pilgrimage destination. We explored many of the caves and enjoyed the beautiful views of the surrounding area.

 

This is a re-make of a photo we took 10 years ago near the same place!

Next we drove around Love valley and saw more rock formations. 

That evening we met up with our good friends Victoria and Brett and Victoria’s parents for dinner. They were also visiting Cappadocia. The kids adore them and were very happy for another opportunity to see them. 

And afterwards we had Turkish ice cream, which is fun to experience.

Caleb has gotten slick about the Turkish ice cream shenanigans…

One afternoon Nathan took Benjamin to the cave and rock formations near our hotel, and they enjoyed seeing them from ground level.

What we did while they were out :).

Nathan and I went to an overlook for sunset one evening.

Our last morning we finally saw the hot air balloons flying over the valley. It is something we have always wanted to see before leaving Turkey. The balloons did not fly the previous day because it was too windy. All was looking good for them to fly….

And we had lots of furry friends waiting with us. Then we got word they were not going to fly because of the wind. So we enjoyed the beautiful scenery, took pictures, and headed down the hill….

Shortly after we made it down the hill and started driving out of town, the balloon flying status changed and said the balloons would fly on a delay! We quickly drove to the closest valley, and we got there right in time to see the balloons blowing up in the distance and watch them rise over the valley. It was such a beautiful sight, and we are so thankful we got to experience this!

What a great way to end our trip to Cappadocia!