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.

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.