23.09.09 Drive from Pamukkale to Goreme / køretur Pamukkale til Goreme

We drove 650 km to Cappadocia, to a small village called Goreme. This took us about 6½ hours. The roads are good and even though there are places with road construction we still did a good average. There was no problem with Mummy sitting in the car for so long. She is taking the trip very well. I have to have Susanne in the front seat since she is our GPS, guide and narrator. She describes all the historical places of interest as we whiz past. The landscape changes from fertile farming area to flat plains and dry grass lands. You can see for miles around, up to the horizon, it is just flat. We past through a lot of small villages which seemed to be very poor, almost like small villages in India. Seems like these guys are potato kings, and they have potato fields everywhere, but the tractors they use are from the 1st world war, they even use horses with ploughs for their fields. Hit the town of Goreme at about 3 pm, some places are magical and Goreme is one of them. The small village is set between towering fairy chimneys and honeycombed cliffs with stunning backdrops of valleys surrounding it. This is one of Turkey’s unspoilt treasures. Maybe a bit spoilt because stacks of tourists also come here. This place is really amazing and one of the wonders of the world. People live in small caves and even the hotel rooms are built into these caves. After seeing a few disappointing hotels we checked into the S.O.S hotel which has a stunning view and beautiful rooms. S.O.S stands for Susanne out shopping. Had dinner in a flashy restaurant with great food and beautiful atmosphere this is the first time in Turkey we did not have kebabs. We all enjoyed our meal except maybe Susanne which had ravioli in Yogurt sauce. At the end of the meal Daniel ran of the restaurant because he was so embarrassed that we did not give a big tip. Well we paid for the meal.

I dag kørte vi 650 km fra Pamukkale til Göreme i Kappadokien. Vejene her i Tyrkiet er bedre end vi forventede, så køreturen tog os kun ca 6½ time. Sikke forskelligt landskab vi kom igennem. Først flotte bjerge, senere kørte vi igennem højsletten i Anatolia, fuldstændigt flat og meget tørt. Vi kørte igennem små fattige landsbyer, hvor fatter og mutter var ude på den gammeldags traktor, eller ude og harve med heste trukket harve. Vi så rigtig mange kartoffel marker og bønderne stod ude ved vejen og solgte kartofler i store sække. Senere kørte vi igennem Konya en storby med vildt mange nye flotte og farverige bygninger. Og så nåede vi frem til Kappadokien, hold da helt op, det er specielt, folk bor i huler her. Vi kiggede først på et hotel som havde hule værelser, men de var ikke så gode, så vi fandt et andet, med dejlige værelser og den mest fantastiske udsigt. Om aftenen var vi ude og spise på en fin restaurant og fik for første gang ikke kebab, det har vi efterhånden også fået nok af. Daniel løb ud af restauranten fordi han mente vi gav for få drikkepenge.
” Kappadokien - Göreme National Parken - ligger i det centrale Tyrkiet i Nevsehir provinsen og består af et forunderligt landskab formet af vulkanske udbrud, vind og nedbør. Den bløde stenart tuf, som er dannet af vulkansk nedfald, er eroderet gennem millioner af år og har antaget de særeste former - som fra en eventyrverden.”