Cappadocia Part 4 Ballooning

"Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon, 

Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon, 

We could float among the stars together, you and I
For we can fly, we can fly
Up, up and away
My beautiful, my beautiful balloon
The world's a nicer place in my beautiful balloon
It wears a nicer face in my beautiful balloon
We can sing a song and sail along the silver sky"

(Apologies to the Fifth Dimension)

May 14 - We talked about doing a ballon ride, but when it actually came time to buy tickets, I decided not to go.  We learned that you have to get up at 4:30.  In the morning.  Even the sun isn't up that early.  But then we heard that the weather would be better than it had been all week.  Perfect, in fact.  I got to thinking about all of the wonderful pictures one could take with the right light.  All of a sudden, 4:30 AM didn't seem so unreasonable............

One cannot describe the ride.  It is smooth beyond belief.  You don't feel a thing as the balloon silently starts to take off from the ground.  You have to look down to confirm you are moving.  Our driver took us to 1000', and then slowly turned the basket in every direction.  He took us over the Rose Valley, the very place we had just hiked two days before.  We could see the rope we had climbed to get up on the bluff; the place where we had lunch.  He took us down to within 3' of the ground several times.  I could have picked flowers from the basket.  We counted over 60 balloons in the air.

They carefully blow in the hot air until the balloon stands up

This was the basket they put us in.  

The crew and Achmet, the driver

You can see where they just added hot air to this balloon to get it to rise.

There were balloons EVERYWHERE.

Cappadocia Part 5 Baglidere Valley

May 14 - We hiked Baglidere Valley today, which runs directly west of Goreme.  Later, the kids went four-wheeling, including a section of this valley.

Mike and Michelle went four wheeling 

The crew in front of the little restaurant

We enjoyed lunch in the hut in the background

Denita took this picture while four wheeling on the cliff above the valley

Cappadocia Part 3 - The Underground Cities

May 12 - The high plains of central Anatolia have been invaded from east and west many times over the millennia.  Instead of building walled cities, the usual way of protection, the inhabitants stumbled upon a novel way to survive. Under their villages, they dug elaborate tunnels and chambers where they could hide and wait for the enemy to pass.  Presumably the Persians and others passing through, finding a deserted village, assumed that the people had fled.

We drove above 15 miles to see the largest of these underground cities, Derinkuyu.  In it's heyday, they estimate it could hold 10,000 people.  It consists of ten levels of tunnels and rooms, the bottom four or five levels which are inaccessible. They had places to feed livestock, very deep wells, air shafts leading to the surface, places for worship and smaller niches in the rock for bedrooms.

The crew lined up near the entrance tunnel.

One particularly zany area

A large chamber about four levels down

Cappadocia Part 2 Rose Valley

May 13 - We hiked up the spectacular Rose Valley today.  The lighting was pretty marginal for an hour or so, but when the sun finally came, we got a few nice shots.  We stumbled upon a place that sold fresh orange juice and flatbread, which is seen in the first picture.

We went through several churches cut into the soft Cappadocian rock

Cappadocia Part 1

May 10 - We flew to Kayseri, Turkey on this date along with Mike and Michelle Robinson, and Kaitlyn Wieweck.  We are meeting my German buddy Roland von Ziehlberg, the subject of my Blog entitled "Give to Him that Asks." Cappadocia is a weird and wacky land smack dab in the middle of Turkey, and Goreme, where we are staying, is like something out of the Hobbit.   

Acts 2  "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.  And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.  And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.  And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.  Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.  And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?  And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?  Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,  Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God."

1 Peter 1  "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia ....." 

A view of the town of Goreme

Goreme is one of the strangest places I have ever seen,

with these "fairy chimneys" poking up everywhere.

The town of Goreme lies on the other side of these rocks

Viewing toward the Rose Valley

The so-called Open Air Museum, which used to be a monastic community

Spectacular Patmos, Revisited

This picture shows the bay at the northern end of the island

This picture was taken from the Prophet Elias Monastery,

at the south end of the island, and looks toward Grikos

This picture show Grikos

This picture views north toward the main town of Skala

Mike and Michelle

May 1 - Special Meetings here on the island have come and gone.  Mimi Beyer of Germany stayed an extra week, and we showed her some of interesting spots here.  One of Denita's old workers from Fred Meyer days, Judy Lawson, flew in and will stay a little over a week.  And on Friday, Mike Robinson, our daughter Michelle, and Kaitlyn Wieweck from Salem flew in!  We will show them the sights of Samos, and next week we fly to Cappadocia.

The eastern shore of Samos, which faces Turkey

The ancient church up the hillside at Vathy

Michelle Robinson and Kaitlyn Wieweck at Manolates

A view of Samos Harbor with Turkey in the background on the left

Kaitlyn Wieweck at Kokari, Samos