montezume

I didn't take a balloon ride either. It was out of our price range and didn't seem worth it at all. I rather stay an extra day or two and do some hikes to get a feeling for the area. I meant to wake up early one morning and look at all the balloons in the area but I failed at getting up at 6 am. One thing to keep in mind - if you take a bus to Goreme, chances are it doesn't take you there. Almost all of the bus companies will drop you off at towns on the highway miles away. When I bought my ticket, the man at the desk swore the bus actually went to Goreme, but when I got on the bus, I found out that that wasn't the case.

LifeInCMH

So, one one full day, I took the green tour pre-booked by the hotel with local tour operators for appx. $40 inclusive of lunch at a truck stop. There was another option to take an alternate color coded tour, termed the Red tour which includes the Goreme's Open Air Museum. It's a bit shorter and cheaper, but I figured I could cover the open air museum on my own the following day. So decided to take the green tour which covers attractions further away than the red tour. These include stops along the derinkuyu underground city, trek through the Ihlara valley, visit to the Selime Monastery where you can see the bizarre rock formations that purportedly inspired George Lucas to create a specific scene in his masterpiece, Star Wars. The tour does stop at a tacky but low pressure sales joint where they manufacture precious stone jewelry. I didn't buy anything and could easily do away with this part of the tour, but I don't suppose the tour operators make much money via the fees they collect. A bit of commission puts food in their bellies. I am including few photographs from this tour below.


I think this is something called the Göreme Panorama








And a closeup...


Derinkuyu Underground City




Selime Monastery














Panorama from up above


This is what must have inspired George Lucas!

LifeInCMH

Continuing with the green tour, this is the lunch stop place where we had quite an unmemorable lunch, but in presence of memorable company. As you can imagine there are lots of chinese tourist everywhere, but as luck would have it, my tour contained 3 chinese couples with 2 from UK and one from HKG. So language was not a barrier, we all got along famously. Even the couple from Korea and another from Columbia...


Lunch stop


Starting to snow now


And, within minutes...


Ihlara Valley


Climbing down, my iPhone app showed close to 60 floors down and back up again!


Fresco from a church down in the valley that the guide claimed from 4th Century AD


Very picturesque trek through the valley








Finally, after climbing back up from Ihlara valley

LifeInCMH

Finally, the green tour attraction of Pigeon Valley, or that's what I think this is! I was so saturated with images of caves and fairy chimneys it's hard to keep track of what is what. Also, I highly recommend you read up on history online if you are really into it. The guide knew the basic stuff but was present more to keep you company and point to places he knew, historical knowledge? Nada...


Pigeon Valley, I think...






Town of Uchisar or something...

offerendum

Interesting report! Itīs on my list

LifeInCMH

On my final day of stay here, I had the hotel driver drop me off to the Open Air Museum early in the morning. My return flight was at noon from Nevsehir airport, so I had about an hour or so to walk through this amazing site within couple miles of the village of Goreme. There is an old church just outside of the open air museum which requires you to first buy a ticket (about $5) at the museum. It's a rather peculiar name for this attraction, a traditional turkish name would be more appropriate for this place. This morning was snowy and treacherous to walk the trails, roads were slippery and I could see cars and buses struggling to climb the gentle slope around the place. Roads aren't quite salted the way you would expect here in NA, so I had to tread lightly. Despite, I fell couple times, but without hurting myself. A good pair of shoe in winter is weather an absolute must.


Open Air Museum parking lot






















Tokalı Kilise church I believe, 10th Century