The last stop our on grand Turkish road trip was to visit Hisarlik—believed to be the famed city of Troy and setting Homer used for his epic poem. On our way, we drove through Çanakkale, where the Trojan horse from the Brad Pitt movie Troy stands near the city’s harbor. The Hollywood horse was …
Since the Bakkers and we had already seen the ancient ruins of Ephesus, we left Pamukkale and headed over to two towns nearby; Laodicea and Aphrodisias. Laodicea The Laodiceans get a shout out from the apostle Paul in his epistle to the Colossians. We made a visit to the church of Laodicea which rewarded us …
Our trip into Pamukkale was to see the living embodiment of its glossy travel posters; that famous terraced calcified hill overflowing with jaw-dropping azure pools. So it came as a bit of a shock as it seemed we may have arrived twenty or so years too late—they’ve mostly dried up. And when we asked …
After 8 hours on the road we may have been a little tired when we arrived at our next stop. And, admittedly, a bit melancholy that the wind conditions had stopped us from taking to the air in one of Cappadocia’s famous balloons. So when we checked into the Bellamaritimo Hotel and the owner Harlin …
After three amazing days, we headed back on the road, leaving an otherworldly and windswept Cappadocia and our dreams of surveying its wonders from the sky in a hot air balloon. Our drive towards Pamunkale, to see its famous white travertine terraced pools, would take almost 8 hours, so it was time to go. But …
While in Cappadocia, we decided to stay in Uchisar, since our niece Danielle suggested to us that it might be less touristy and crowded than the popular town of Göreme just next door. And she was spot on. Cappadocia is not the name of a city, in fact you’ll have trouble finding it on …
This evening after dinner we all decided to walk up to Uchisar Castle, just a short distance from our hotel. When we reached the top we were rewarded with stunning views and gale force winds that almost blew us from the precipice. Some of these unplanned travel moments are the definition of serendipity . …
In 1963, a man knocked down a wall in his basement and discovered a massive underground city from the 8th century BC. At least that’s the story we were told when we decided to test our claustrophobic threshold and venture into Cappadocia’s underbelly to explore two of these gargantuan subterranean cities. Our battle plan was …
Back on the road again, with the car heater on full blast to thaw us from our adventurous and frosty stay near Hattusa, we drove 3 hours south to the region of Türkiye known as Cappadocia until a vast sweeping valley came into view, clustered with millions of lanky asparagus-shaped volcanic rock formations (that’s the G-rated …
We headed back to the Istanbul airport—but this time to rent a car. Our first stop was a seven hour drive south towards the capital Ankara and then eastward into Boğazkale where the ruins of the ancient Hittite city of Hattusa once stood. There among the rubble was the Lion gate that we …
