We had a delicious breakfast at the hotel after which we were picked up by our local guide company for a full day’s tour of all the sites.

We began at the Paşabağlar archaeology site. There were “fairy chimneys” galore. I’ll let you look at the pictures to decide what you’d say they resembled. Ha! Our guide was wonderful at explaining all the historical formation process so we could understand what we were looking at. One after another! Plus, you could see the erosion process as some were more defined and others were still forming.

Next we stopped at a local shop having us try local Turkish coffee, which was nothing like the one I tried before. Much better. Plus we tried different versions of Turkish delight and various nuts. They also had an amazing array of spices and teas and other herbs. I picked up some za’tar, which I love to use in my cooking.

Next stop was the underground city. Fascinating history of the people creating these mazes of rooms at multiple levels, basically used for a defensive position if they were to be attached. There were rooms for everything including cooking, wine making and even for livestock. We crouched down to get through narrow tunnels going from one space to another. A challenge but worth it to understand how they lived.

Then it was on to a pottery company to see how they made all the local pottery from the raw clay to the design drawing to the painting. It was beautiful but outrageously priced, so we walked away empty handed.

Lunch at a buffet restaurant was next on the agenda. It was a good choice for groups as there was something for everyone and done quickly.

That was followed by the Göreme Open Air Museum. This was an area where the monks came and set up cave chapels and churches to encourage the local population to adopt Christianity. Many of the caves were decorated with religious frescoes that were amazingly still pretty vibrant. Interesting to learn about the Christian influence. We entered cave after cave where you could visualize the usage as kitchens or dining rooms.

The next brief stop was at the Uchisar Castle, though our guide said it was more of a fortress than a castle.

And then the final tour stop was at Pigeon Valley. We saw many places there and previously where the pigeons have hollows in the cave areas. Apparently they were used for multiple things including communication, the dung for fertilizer and the egg shells in the paints.

Whew! A long but fascinating day. We got back to the hotel and collapsed for a bit prior to going out for dinner in….what would you expect….a cave restaurant!