I am packed and all the essentials are in my bag!! Off to see the Aya Sophia - a quick last visit. Then the bus to the airport to catch the flight to Amman. Visa tedious but no problem. A lift to the hotel and organised the next 3 days. The most famous church here has the remains of a mosaic map 15m x 25m with 2 million mosaic tiles Its incredible even with the portion remaining - probably about half. It has enabled other sites to be found, including a chu...

What a day. Made excellent time and drove over the bridge from Asia to Europe around 3. Took another few hours before we made it to the hotel. But here we are. A wander to eat and get our bearings in the old city. 24th. Visited the museum. Saw cuneiform tablets and the chain used to block the way into the Golden Horn. Amongst 1000's other things. Then did a ferry up the golden horn. A great day followed by the end of tour dinner with just the A team of 8. He...

Ankara. Stayed in the old city. Went to the museum. It was a surprise. I don't know why really. This is the capital after all. The artifacts from 3000 yrs ago are amazing. So beautiful. Unfortunately the recent years - after 800BC! - is under renovation. Will see them in Istanbul. Then to the citadel and dinner in a locals cafe. If course I was the only girl. Well worth the stopover.

Arrived as the rain stopped after about 8 hours to 3 nights of cold clear weather. Cappadocia is better than I expected. Amazing landscape a result of volcanic ash filling a lake 200 million yrs ago and then covered with hard layer if basalt from another eruption. Great history from being on the cross roads of migrating peoples and invaders. I got brave and went up in a hot air balloon. There were 28 passengers in each but only about 40 up (sometimes 200! Like ...

Set off to Sivas. A lovely day which deteriorated to constant rain by afternoon. Sivas is the half way point across Turkey to Goreme (Cappadocia). 100k down the Black Sea coast. 100k over the pass. The gears on the truck playing up for the last 50k. So an unexpected stopover. Nice hotel though. Early start tomorrow with the extra 200k from today added on. A 10-12h day.