Pamukkale

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We left the coast again and did travel inland – heading for Pamukkale – another  big highlight of this trip.

My expectation here was not more than just getting to see the famous travertine terraces – imagine my surprise to also find a massive ruin site – Hierapolis – to explore on top of that. Hierapoiis features a well preserved Roman theatre, colonnades alley and streets, remains of churches and a massive necropolis.

It took me hours to explore the site – before I turned to my original expectations – and had a closer look of the travertines. Those were a bit of a disappointment at first – as the water flow is very regulated and most of the travertines are left dry, thus taking away most of the magic. I decided to walk down from the ruin site to the village following the path on the terraces – which certainly gave me a different perspective and also changed disappointment to enthusiasm.

Xanthos and Kayakoy

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This morning saw us visiting the remains of the Lycian capitol – Xanthos. After all the other ruin sites, Xanthos did not really feel overly grand – though we had the site for ourselves, as we were the only tourists around.

From Xanthos we continued to the little beach town of Ölüdeniz to have lunch, a swim (for those interested) or just a bit of walking along the beach.

We left Ölüdeniz in the late afternoon, now heading for Fethiye – our base for the next night. On the way we had a stop at the ghost village of Kayakoy. The village used to be inhabited by the Greek, however back in the 1920s it was abandoned, as its inhabitants were forced to move to Greece.

Kekova Boat Trip

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This morning we had a quick drive over to the village of Kekova for a full-day boat ride. Our first stop was at a small village on a peninsula with castle ruins on top of the hill. We made all the way up to the top for some incredible views of the surrounding area.

From the village we continued straight to a nearby island to get a glimpse of the remains of a sunken city – later on there were also a number of opportunities for swimming and snorkeling (ok – they had goggles and snorkels … there was not much to see though).

With the trip essentially outside of any season we were the only ones around, which gave this trip a very quiet and peaceful atmosphere.

Via Phaselis to Kas

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We left Antalya after a short walk around town. Our next stop was just a one hour drive down the coast – the ruins of Lycian city of Phaselis – complete with a nice secluded beach and an opportunity for a quick swim.

From Phaselis the drive continued for another good two hours to Kaş – a little coastal town and our base for the next two nights.

Konya

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The city of Konya is closely linked to the order of the whirling dervishes (Mevlana); the ceremony we had already witnessed yesterday evening.

We made it there in the late afternoon and continued straight for the Mevlana Museum.

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.