Neil by the bus in the snow
The name of the game today was COLD!!! We awoke to a fresh snowfall – totally unexpected after the glorious windless night the night before. The snow did disappear towards the end of the day, but it remained absolutely bitter for the entire duration of our traipsing around today.
First stop was the underground city of Kaymakli – which was built in the 6th to the 10th centuries. What an amazing place. If the official guide is to be believed, the city was about 8 stories underground (not all of them excavated) and could house several thousand people. Our guide Rashid, indicated that it was more likely that people moved from section to section, and there were only a few hundred people living here at any one time.
Karla in a winery in the underground city
The tunnels were extremely small to get from section to section – certainly not everybody’s cup of tea. But, the half-squat, half-shuffle was worth it to see the rooms that lay beyond the small tunnels. One of them was a winery – so Karla had to stop for a visit…
The snow covered hills, and amazing landscape, made for an interesting bus ride – nobody fell asleep on this trip!!! We stopped at a carpet place, where we were given demonstrations of how the various carpets are made, saw how silk was spun (fascinating) and then moved onto the main hall where we were given a feed and a drink and then explanations of the various carpets in anticipation of purchase. You’ll all be pleased to know that BsKnee didn’t make any investments in this place – but our fellow tour group people certainly made up for us.
Goreme
Göreme is a World Heritage Site – and rightly so. The area is a large monastic settlement occupied from about the 2nd century – and there are some pretty impressive things to see. Most startling was the apple church (about 10th century) – with some intact fresoces painted on plaster. The shame about the whole place is that it is subject to erosion – so will unlikely be here forever. Glad we’ve seen it!!!
Travelling between all the places we visited today, exposed us to the incredible geographical features, such as camel rock, fairy chimneys (one is called the three sisters) and rock formations of various colours. The landscape is truly amazing – and having the extra romanticism of snow around the place certainly added to the experience.