This has to be one of the strangest places we have yet encountered. Our 5 day trip to Cappadocia began early in the morning ~ ODark30~ at the front gate of the marina. Our mini bus picked us and 10 other sailors up for the long ride. Our guide "Taz" was aboard and we all setteled in for the long haul. We stopped for lunch and then stopped again for the night at a hotel. Judy decided this was the time to have a very bad tooth ache. Taz found us a dentist that was open late so we took a taxi. Yep, she needed a root canal. What fun! The dentist was able to do the first half of the procedure but the tooth required a rest of a few days to complete the job. So off we went in the morning with a half done root canal ~ taking the meds & still aching, but almost tolerable, barely

We arrived at the "Star Cave Hotel" and checked in. The rooms were...... caves...... cut into the side of the cliff. The climate was cool and the heat hadn't been turned on. It was cold in our cave. We cranked on the steam heat and headed for happy hour with our friends. When we returned things were some what warmer but sill not toasty. We snuggled under our thick blankets. Early in the morning we awoke to a strange sound....like a blast of air...Hmm?? We poked our heads out of our cave and high above the cliff was a hot air balloon drifting by. Again we heard the sound as we saw the flame blast into the floating ball....little heads peering over the side.



After breakfast Taz herded us off to the first wonderment. He didn't tell us the local name for this valley but we all guessed it....Can you?
"_____ Valley" It's pretty obvious.....



The weather was perfect and the scenery was spectacular.



Our days were spent clamoring around/up/on/under the various sites. People have lived here in these cave houses for thousands of years. There are still people living here in the same cave houses after all this time. Everywhere we went there were churches. Many had the walls adorned with religious paintings from the 4th century AD.





We explored Derinkuyu Underground City where early Christians hid in exile. The tunnels descend to a depth of 85 meters and once sheltered tens of thousands of people. These people must have been extremely desperate to live like this.

We enjoyed meals out at the local restaurants in the evenings before retiring to our "cave" which was now warm and toasty with the heat on full blast. One night we went to a performance of the Whirling Dervishes and some belly dancing as well. OH MY ..........................





Early the last morning we all piled into our little van for the 12 hour ride back to Freebird. YIKES, TB, back after dark!



Check out Cappadicia