In the middle of our holiday we took a 3 day coach tour into central Anatolia,especially Cappadocia. The coach broke down along the way 😀

but they got it fixed and off we went. We visited the Goreme National Rock Park, which has amazing topography, and underground cities largely used by early Christians as hiding places before Christianity became an accepted religion. The underground cities have vast defence networks of traps throughout their many levels. These traps are very creative, including such devices as large round stones to block doors and holes in the ceiling through which the defenders may drop spears.

The tour guy put all on the coach trip together for a photo, and we all got a copy.

We 4 were kind of ‘the poor relations’ on the trip, we were on a tight budget and our fellow tourists were not so much. We had packed lunches whilst everyone else had paid extra to go into the restaurant at lunch time for a slap up meal. It was really embarrassing sitting outside eating our spam sandwiches! We also hadn’t thought it would be a colder climate inland, so didn’t have any other clothes than shorts and T-shirts and were often shivering! Them we’rt days!! I’m a no less than 4 star hotel kind of girl now for sure!
One of my best memories of the trip though was that we stayed a night in what looked like a palace in the middle of nowhere, it was really ornate & lush. All the other tourists were off out on a night out with a dinner, dancing and smashing plates kind of bit, but we couldn’t afford that so we went down to the huge and sumptuous TV room of the hotel, and watched Manchester United beat Bayern Munich and become European champions. Waiters in black suits with white tea towels over their arms stood ready at all times to fetch our drinks. A lovely couple from Yorkshire had also stayed behind (they were Man.Utd fans) and we had a great night in being treated like royalty!

Anyways, back to the pictures 😀

The rocks of Cappadocia near Göreme eroded into hundreds of spectacular pillars and minaret-like forms. People of the villages at the heart of the Cappadocia Region carved out houses, churches and monasteries from the soft rocks of volcanic deposits. Göreme became a monastic centre in 300–1200 AD.

The first period of settlement in Göreme goes back to the Roman period. The Yusuf Koç, Ortahane, Durmus Kadir and Bezirhane churches in Göreme, and houses and churches carved into rocks in the Uzundere, Bağıldere and Zemi Valleys all illustrate history and can be seen today. The Göreme Open Air Museum is the most visited site of the monastic communities in Cappadocia and is one of the most famous sites in central Turkey. The complex contains more than 30 carved-from-rock churches and chapels, some having superb frescoes inside, dating from the 9th century to the 11th century. Unfortunately we were not to take photo’s inside the churches as it’s dark, you need flash and that damages the murals. 😦

Us lot at the entrance to one of the churches. I don’t know what was going on with my hair this holiday!!

Gaz,Ben & Mat in the landscape.

Mat & me inside one of the rock houses

rock houses

Fairy Chimneys

Camel?

I found out later the people who live here expect you to give them some money if you want to take their picture, but I didn’t realise that so I think that’s why this lady looks grumpy.

Flowers, I think Irises growing at the base of some of the chimneys

And a great view to finish off with.