Author Archives: Björn

Underground in Derinkuyu – Hiking Ihlara Valley

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We left Göreme and Cappadocia today, heading for Konya – the home of the whirling dervishes’ order.

On the way we had a quick stop at the underground city of Derinkuyu. This underground city (along with several others in the region) used to be hiding place of the Byzantine Christians in the 6th and 7th century – so they could avoid persecution by passing-through Arab or Persian armies. The Derinkuyu underground cities extends to a depth of up to 60 meters and may have housed up to 20,000 people (numbers differing by source … 20,000 seems a bit too much for my taste).

From the underground city we continued to Ihlara Valley, where we had a stroll along the Melendiz River with further opportunities to visit some of the rock churches in the valley.

More Cappadocia

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After our return from the balloon ride, we had a late (second) breakfast.
After that we were about to get more time with the Cappadocian landscape – this time by foot and much closer. The walk was going into and following the red valley (Kizilcukur) with more great vistas – this time just from terra firma.

In the afternoon I went for a bit of exploration by myself, walking in and around Göreme – with some more nice views of the town and the surrounding landscape. In the evening most of the group joined in for a cultural show along with dinner.

Cappadocia Ballooning

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We had a very early start today – to go for what has been THE highlight of the full trip – a balloon ride over Cappadocia around sunrise.

After we got picked up at the hotel we drove for about an hour to the starting point – here we made it into the sky – along with many, many, many other balloons (balloon rides are good business here). We spent about an hour in the sky before we had a pretty unerring landing – followed by a short ceremony, that even included sparkling wine.

The ride itself was simply awesome – fairly hard to put into words – the photos tell the tale.

To Göreme

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We had a long driving day ahead of us – all the way from Beypazari to Göreme – more than 400km.

A few stops on the way did help to keep the day interesting and us somewhat awake. We made a first stop at a salt lake – including the opportunity to walk on the lake and to try the salty health products (actually – there was no option to not try the salt peeling before getting out to the lake).

Another stop was at the Agzikarahan Caravanserai, which dates back to the 13th century.

We made it into Göreme just around sunset – and in time for some first nice view over the Cappadocian landscape.

Beypazari

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Originally the tour had included a night stop in Ankara – however due to the recent bombing Ankara was replaced by the small town of Beypazari.

Beypazari is a good 1.5 hours (driving) West of Ankara; its historic is nicely renovated in Ottoman style – and is also home to a small museum, that provides a great introduction into the life and customs during the Ottoman time.

According to Lonely Planet the area around Beypazari produces more than half of the carrots consumed in all Turkey – easily recognizable by the carrot monument. Carrots are also part of the local specialty baklava.

Back to Istanbul

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It was at the end of my Eastern Europe trip – a good year back – that I had gotten a quick first taste of Istanbul and Turkey – though for a couple of hours only. This time I wanted to get a bit further, stay longer and cover more ground.

The trip started in Istanbul with a quick tour to the Blue Mosque, Aya Sofya and the Basilica Cistern – plus some good walking around Sultanahmet.

Leaving Greenland

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Our journey home did prove more difficult than expected. Originally we were scheduled to fly out of Kangerlussuaq at around 10:00 in the morning; so everyone was ready for an early and good to go after a quick breakfast.

At 5:00 in the morning however it was announced on the ship, that the plane did have a technical issue and had not even left Hamburg for the outbound journey. Breakfast got rescheduled to later and most people just turned around in bed and went for some more sleep.

Ultimately our plane made it into Kangerlussuaq only at around 18:30, with our departure delayed to close to 20:00. Also – we were not going to Hamburg direct. The plane was due in Copenhagen the next morning for its normal rotation, so we were now heading to Copenhagen as well. We arrived there at around 4:00 the next morning. Here we now had to wait for a connecting flight to Hamburg. That flight was bound to leave at around 05:15. I think, it was past 7:00, when I got out of baggage claim … I finally was home around 15:00 and completely exhausted.

Way Home ...

Sisimiut

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I had a very late start today … my body was just screaming after sleep, so only got up in the early afternoon. This way I kind of missed the normal program, however had the advantage of going after the masses and essentially had all the attractions in town for myself.

We were sitting at the pier in Sisimut. Sisimut is the second biggest city of Greenland with about 5600 inhabitants. I made my way from the pier into town, with a first stop at the excellent museum. The museum is spread over an ensemble of old houses and covers all aspects … it reminded me of the the Den Gamle By museum in Aarhus, Denmark … certainly similar in style. From here I continued into town with its supermarkets, shops and residential areas – before making it back to the ship and getting ready for a last evening aboard.