Traveling with the parents Part 3 – Westward to Ephesus

Here’s one more picture from Cappadocia I thought was worth posting.  We did a lot of hiking around these fairy chimneys and rock formations.  It was just Mark and his parents’ cup of tea (I tried to keep up).

We headed west after Cappadocia to go to our final destination on this trip – Ephesus.  I unfortunately got ill the day we were supposed to visit the ruins of Ephesus, so I do not have any pictures from that portion of the trip.

On our way out west we made quite a few stops like this, just to hike/climb around and take pictures of the beautiful scenery in this amazing country. At one point we stopped to visit friends along the way and spent the night at their place.

And sharing the road with herds of animals was not uncommon in the countryside.

One of the stops we made along the way was Sultanhani Caravanserai near the city of Aksaray.  It’s the largest old caravanserai in the country and many years ago was used as a rest stop for caravans on the old trading routes.

We also stopped at the ruins of Laodicea outside the city of Denizli.

Finally we made it to the west coast of Turkey.  The water at Dilek National Park was gorgeously clear.

There were also these wild pigs accompanying us as we walked around the beach.

If you want to see pictures from Ephesus you can look up one of my earlier posts when Mark and I went 2 years ago by ourselves.

Traveling with the parents Part 2 – Cappadocia

I have a good excuse for not posting anything since July – we had a baby at the end of July!  But what is my excuse for not posting anything between February and July?  I don’t have one.  I would really like to finish posting pictures from our travels this past year though.  So here is the continuation of our trip with Mark’s parents last September.

If you ever visit Turkey, I would highly recommend Cappadocia.  It has an amazing amount of history, and the landscape is out of this world.  We had so much fun here.  The weather was pleasant and dry, so we could hike around off the beaten paths, exploring the strange and funny and incredible fairy chimneys and cave houses.  One problem with writing about our trip is there are too many awesome pictures to show you.  But time and space are limited, so I can only pick a few.

Fairy chimneys 

We also took a hot air balloon ride early one morning.  Again, HIGHLY recommended (though it is pricey).

Everyday early in the morning thousands of tourists go up on these balloon rides.  It’s quite the sight to see all these colorful balloons above and besides the chimneys and caves.

Goreme Open Air Museum – a bunch of caves that people used for houses and churches that are 800-2000 years old.  

Inside one of the caves

There are also several underground cities.  This is Derinkuyu, extending 5 floors underground.

We had so much fun in Cappadocia!  We stayed there for 3 nights at a “cave” hotel.  Our hotel wasn’t really in a cave, but there are hotels that really are in caves.  Maybe next time.