April 16 – Cappadocia Balloon Ride and Cave Cities

Happy, happy day.  We were up well before the crack of dawn to be picked up for our drive out to the hot air balloon launch site.  There were about 20 of us in the balloon basket. And there were about a dozen balloons launching from the field we were at.  Ultimately, we found out that they launch 150 balloons during each launch period.

The skies were absolutely full of hot air balloons as far as the eye could see.  Occasionally the balloons were so close that we saw, and participated in, “bumper balloons”.

As a lovely side note…the countryside was spectacular.

We had a bit of a sunrise.

There are so many balloons up that it is like a balloon festival with lots of spectators on the ground.

With that many balloons up in the air there were masses of ground support vehicles following us and circling the landing areas. 

The view of so many balloons landing was pretty amazing...

and we had a pretty amazing landing.  The pilot landed us right on the trailer.  A first for us and what an experience.  

This was our fourth balloon ride…and the very first one where we landed on the balloon trailer.  Only very slightly bumpy…how exhilarating.  Landing on the trailer depends on how fast the wind is blowing - too fast and they cannot land on the trailer.  They had champagne and juice for us after the flight.

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More Cappadocia Ballooning 
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The sound you can hear sometimes is the fire under the balloon to get more hot air inside the balloon.

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Video of balloon ride 1
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Video of balloon ride 2
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Video of balloon ride 3
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Video of balloon ride landing
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Video of balloon ride champagne
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And of course, we were given certificates to commemorate out flight. 

We were back at the hotel in time for breakfast. 

Our hotel is in the town of Ürgüp.  It is on the side of a hill so we had good views of some of the surrounding buildings that are also built into the hillsides.

We were off again after breakfast.  The scenery in the area is just as amazing up close as it was from the balloons.

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More Cappadocia
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We stopped at a carpet store where they showed us some of the hand work that was being done.  All of their work was done by hand and it was very beautiful…and very expensive.  We decided not to buy anything.

The area grows a lot of produce, particularly citrus fruits.  The fruits are stored in underground rooms.  We could see the chimneys that provided ventilation to the rooms.

We had a photo stop where we were able to see the distant, snow-capped mountains. 

There was a market at the parking area so we did a bit of window shopping.

You could also rent an all-terrain vehicle...

or ride a camel.

One of our big stops today was the ancient cave city of Goreme.  The monasteries and churches are carved right into the sides of the hills.  The oldest dates to the 10th century and some of the paint can still be seen on the walls. 

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More Goreme Caves
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The caves were high in the hills and we had good views of the nearby, still inhabited town of Goreme.

The drive took us to Pigeon Valley where people had dug small holes into the hillsides for the pigeons to roost. They harvested the droppings for fertilizer.

From the lookout at Pigeon Valley we also had good views of Ortahisar Castle…a town built into and up a hill.  

We stopped there lunch at a restaurant with a great hilltop terrace.  

We had great views of the town and surrounding area. 

The mountain in the distance is Erciyes, at 12,000 feet high.

    

As we were leaving town Erdal said he had a surprise for us.  We stopped at one of the cave homes to visit a friend of his.  The wife served us tea and we had a short visit with Erdal translating. 

These cave homes are handled down from generation to generation.  They are now protected so only minimal changes can be made to them.  The wife also had a few handmade items on display so after a bit of shopping Mary bought a small scarf.

That was certainly a special treat.

When we got back to town Erdal took us to a local ice cream parlor.  This type of ice cream is eaten with a knife and fork as it is rather hard and is very slow to melt.  The secret ingredient is orchid flower root powder.  It was pretty good and was cold but just didn’t seem quite like ice cream.

We had dinner in the hotel restaurant as there doesn’t seem to be much within walking distance to the hotel.  The restaurant is on the top terrace so we had nice views of the surrounding area.

A great day.