March 1st-March 15th We decided to take another trip, this time to the center of Turkey called Cappadocia. We left on March 8th and stopped in at Termessos, a Roman site and had an orange under a tree. We then went to Antalya for lunch. We visited the museum there and were very impressed with the amount of statues and artifacts and the fantastic condition they were in!! We then went to the movies and ate at Arbby's, (no horseradish!!) Since we were early, we drove further to our next destination and stayed in the town of Side for the night. It seems Side is a very popular resort area with lots of huge hotels, shops and beautiful beaches and expensive hotels.about $100/night; we found one for $45.00 and we had been paying about $18/night including breakfast. On Saturday March 9th, we visited the amphitheatre. A local man showed me a path that led to an area where the rest of the site could be seen. It was beautiful and very interesting town. We drove to Aspendos and found one of the most beautiful amphitheatres in the world from ancient civilizations. We were told that it was in such good condition that it was still used occasionally. In fact, there was a performance in progress when we arrived. Awards were given out and young children danced and older men sang and played instruments in celebration of something. As we drove to Cappadocia, (actually the name of the entire area including many towns), there were many areas of terracing, interesting and beautiful rock formations, areas of trees and growth and areas of no growth. The bare mountains seem to glow with colors..green (copper) red (iron) and also marble. As we got closer to Goreme, our next stop, the rock formations almost came alive with dreamlike structures dancing in the moonlight. We arrived in Goreme, we ate and went to bed, anticipating what the next day would bring. Sunday morning we drove to the Goreme Open-Air Museum. As we parked the car, a local asked if we needed a guide. We said yes and we had the best time with Salih. He took us to places that Rudy and I would have never found or had known about. He opened locked churches and took us to the tops of hills to see vistas of the most beautiful panoramas we have experienced. These dreamlike and mysterious natural formations were formed as a result of three volcanoes. The tuff masses, eroded and turned into columns after centuries of rains and floods, causing large blocks of lava which laid on the upper part to erode less and provide a pointed cap on the top of each column. These are called the fairy chimneys. The Hittites through Christians lived inside these, digging out Churches, homes and underground cities. Many of the churches also housed many families. Cappadocia is almost a museum of churches having about 703 religious buildings many nothing more than caves dug directly into rock with open spaces, alters and frescoes on the walls and ceilings; many well preserved but damaged by vandals and previous conquerors. Usually there was also a room for making wine and another to house pigeons. Cappadocia is the most difficult place to describe and the most beautiful.so I won't!!! Since a picture is a 1,000 words, I am sending some pictures to our Web Site. I could have taken a 1,000 pictures and still not taken all I wanted!!! The following are the places we visited, Goreme (365 churches to be able to pray at a different church each day), Cavusin (crawled to a church through two locked doors), Avanos (made a clay pot using a potter's wheel), Gulsehir, Pasabag, Zelve, Urgup, Ortahisar and Uchisar. They call Uchisar Pigeon Valley because the Turks have made holes in the formations so the pigeons can live and leave their droppings. They used this to fertilize their fields. The next day we went back to some of our favorite places to take more pictures and then went on to Soganli Valley or the Valley of Churches. These churches housed people, had a food storage area, an area for cooking, eating and sleeping as well as making wine!!! Our next stop was to the underground city of Derinkuyu (deep well). This is the largest of the many underground cities and one of the three that are open to the public today. It has 10 floors, the last two, which are closed off. At one point 10,000 people lived in this city. The area opened is 1500 square meters and goes down to a depth of 55 meters. Here the Byzantines only cut out the first to floors using them as stables. The Romans dug out 8 more floors for the woman, children and priests to live there hiding from their enemies while the men fought. We saw stables, sleeping quarters, churches, baptism area, punishment areas, storage areas, kitchens, wineries, bars, schools, many ventilation shafts and the deep wells from which the city takes its name. There were many stone wheel doors, which took 4 people to close and 10 people to open, all accomplished from the inside. We ate lunch there and then moved on to our last stop the Ihlara Valley. The Ihlara Valley has many churches and high red cliffs. We went from the town Ihlara to Belisirma, and then to Selime in the north. A young man stopped us and invited us into his home to meet his family and see his house. After our visit, we drove to Aksaray to find dinner and a bed. This was the best hotel on our trip, $29, including breakfast!! Next stop .Pamukkale and Hierapolis. As we entered Pamukkale, we were disappointed with the erosion of some of the formations of calcium. Since it was late we decided to find dinner and a bed and sightsee in the morning. Thje next day after breakfast, a carpet salesman took us to his factory. After visiting for a while, he showed us how to get to Pamukkale the back way and also the FREE way. We entered onto the top of the Magnificent Amphitheater and were the only ones there until three buses of children drove up. As I climbed down the theater steps, a teacher asked me if I would take a picture of him and his class. Of course I agreed. All the children said three phases; hello, what is your name and how old are you. One girl asked Rudy for his phone number!!! When I used a Turkish phase, they all clapped for me!!! Then they all left. We walked through the Greek and Roman site and were amazed at the bath complex. This was probably the Spa Mecca of that Era with Emperors and the like taking their vacations here. There were swimming pools, hot and cold baths and baths once filled with water from the underground springs. I put my hands and feet into the water and it was pleasantly warm. Jusst on the edge of these baths was Pamukkale (castle of cotton). As the hot stream flowed thousands of years ago over the side of these slopes, the calcium became separated form the carbon dioxide and deposited the calcium on the ground, layer on top of layer. As a result, white limestone formations and various shaped natural pools appear. These stalactite-like terraces are called Travertimes. We looked down on these limestone formations made thousands of years ago and some of the views were awesome. They are now being more careful about preserving the area and had signs asking you not to step on the delicate calcium, hoping that it will be preserved for a long time to come. Today the American Naval Flag Ship of the Sixth Fleet docked on the outside of A Dock. It is the Admiral's Ship called LaSalle and it is used for communication. We met many sailors who wanted to know if we were on vacation. We tell them no, it's our life!! Then they start asking questions!!!