It was dark and warm in our cave when Annika's alarm went off to speak via Skype to her support teacher at DECV at a time when she was still at work and was just feasible for us (0630). We had to walk up the stairs to the common room in pouring rain but the call was good.
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| Our cave door - the way is narrow... |
Breakfast is included here which is very reasonable for us given that we are paying less than $50AUD per night for our cave room. I love the breakfast in Turkey but the kids would prefer cornflakes to olives, feta, yoghurt, cucumber, tomato and fresh white bread! Karl and I filled up on a day's worth of hot beverages while we don't have to pay more and enjoyed a great conversation with Asaf from Israel who is a psychologist who has spent the last 6 weeks learning how to whirl with the Dervishes!!
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| Turkish breakfast |
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| Breakfast room |
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| School time in our cave. |
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| House extension.... |
The pouring rain had really set in so it
was a good morning for school. Despite protests, Luke did a day's work
requirements so that's a plus!
For
morning break we walked to the supermarket for some ayran and
biscuits. on the way back, Luke and I chatted to a carpet specialist
who, in his low season, had plenty of time to talk. He mostly repairs
old dowry carpets and kilims. He told us about the natural dyes: walnut
shells for green, indigo for blue, plums for red, saffron for yellow
and henna for orange. He had some roughly spun wool in a dye pot to
show us. The craft work is superb, but we can't buy and we were tempted!
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| Potted tree |
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| Farm land |
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| 3 storey cave |
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| Apple orchard |
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| Distant mountains in this unique landscape |
By 2 PM, the rain had stopped and we rugged up, bought our kebabs for
lunch and walked to the Goreme Open Air Museum. For 20 Lira we could
explore 7 amazing cave churches in various states of preservation and
marvel at every one!! Some of the churches were established in 2th
Century AD, and rustic red wall art can be seen from that era but the
monastic time in Goreme was booming in 12th and 13th Centuries and the
most beautiful art work and frescoes remain in various states of repair
on the internal walls and ceilings.
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| 12th Century chapel wall paintings |
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| Almost on our knees by the time we got inside half of the churches! |
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| Doorways are as big or small as the people wanted (or could be bothered to carved out) |
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| Dr Suess must have visited here for inspiration! |
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| Internal steps |
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| Window to the valley |
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| Chapel nave |
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| We think these troughs were for feet washing before entering the chapel |
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| Views so spectacular, I just took photo after photo |
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| A "chime of chimneys"?! |
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| Sitting down for supper at the carved table and chairs - we saw several of these. |
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| Outside the Church of the Sandal |
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| Church of the Sandal |
The Apple Church, Church of St Barbara and Church of the Sandal stood out as the best preserved/restored. Just walking around the relatively small area and seeing all these little churches and chapels gave us a picture of the vibrant Christian community it must have been here.
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| Most excellent paintings in on of the chapels |
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| We were trying to make out what the Greek letters were and work out the context of the paintings |
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| Look up to Christ! |
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| After all these centuries, the frescoes are still so colourful. |
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| "I lift my eyes unto the mountains..." |
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| The late afternoon sun shone a light over the whole valley |
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| Older church paintings - 2nd century |
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| Clearly not done by artists, but done with passion |
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| Bright sun shine |
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| McMansion?! |
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| Castle? |
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| Climbing to heights for a view. |
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| Love the picture frame. |
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| Farm dwelling and surrounding land |
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| Rock adventures |
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| Mare and foal |
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| Cow shed |
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| Goats |
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| Goats again |
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| So high up! |
We walked back to town via a few little cave farms and their hill dwelling livestock. We did wonder how they got water to the caves and for their animals - and we don't know the answer to that yet.
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| I often feel a bit nervous when they climb up high...but kids will be kids... |
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| Tim was determined to climb higher! |
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| Tim finds a high spot no one else dared to go to. |
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| Yep! Mr Fitness reaches heights again! |
Earlier in the day we had spotted the cheapest cafe yet and planned to go there for dinner. However, in the dark we took a while to find it and it was closed. We had a nice simple meal at the restaurant opposite which also supplied us with the nicest bread yet! We'll go back there! We walked back along very quiet streets. We can only imagine in Summer when the tourists flock here but for now, we can enjoy the peace.
