Cappadocia, such a lovely place and our first encounter with tour buses and such. Yesterday we left our rather run down hotel after some black coffee and bread. The city is no where a tourist would go and stuck out like a sore thumb. we clammered down to our dirty Opel and drove to the market called Migras, they have a good supply of things and we stocked up pn essentials. We then drove to the ancient coty of Issos where Alexander the Great and the Persian king Darius met in battle c. 332BC. It was hot and dusty and we wander alone through the scant ruins, all mostly under farmland at the moment.
     We then drove (and got lost a bit) to Karatepe, a Hititte site north of Osmaniye. It is located up in a national park with pine forests around and lakes. A lovely drive. Since the actual site is now under the lake we had to settle for a museum which is under construction. We hot to see some nice things including an important inscription in Phoenician and Luwian (one of the late Hotitte langusges) which sided translation, Phoenician being rather well lnown. We then found a pleasant shady spot and parked, making peanut butter and kelly sandwiches. Unfortunately the wheat bread we bought was so dry it seemed to crumble and blow away in the wind as we ate the sandwich. We had to choke them down.
    After this we visited Hierapolis-Kastabala, a place we've been to 4-5 times in the past. It is neat to see the progress of the excavations there, but today the T's were bustling over the site and in the afternoon 105 degree weather we didnt feel too welcome, though we strolled about anyway since the site is open to the public. I have many Greek and Roman coins from this place so this adds to the experience. After this were we hot as hell and devided to flee hot and dusty Colicia and head towards Cappadocia, Michelle doing a stellar job of guiding our way, sneaking into Lykia Hotel Kappadpkia just as the sinset, about a five hour drive, which used to be longer but they have extended the super hwy just past Nigde leaving us only 30 or so miles on the regular roads.
     We had a nice meal and went to bed. The next morning we drove around to the various open air parks and did some shopping, quite low key really. Not much in the way of local cultural stuff as it was hot and Michelle was a little slow today. After realizing I had been dragging her around we went back to our rather nice hotel and relaxed before driving around once again in the afternoon. We visited some homes built inside the fairy columns which are carved out of the tufts. Google Cappadocia to get an idea of what we experienced.
    Tomorrow we plan to visit the ancient city of Tyana then we haven't really decided yet where we'll end up, I guess time will tell.
   One thing we always find rather amusing our the hotel room rubbish bins. They are so tiny that once you toss a Pepsi can in them they are filled. We see them night after night and even for sale at the supermarket. It is as they expect no one to throw anything away. Our bin here is surrounded by water bottles. One must drink a lot in the heat.
   We hope you are all well and are having a great time. Michelle would like her dear mother to email her about our cat Sammy.

Until wherever we end up....


K&M