Bursa to Istanbul...... Last day on the bus We left Bursa at 8am. A few stops to make before Istanbul. We visit the Grand Mosque in Bursa and adjacent is the Cocoon Market. Today the market is full of shops selling silk ties and scarves. It was formerly the place where the silk producers would bring the big baskets of silk cocoons to this market by camel to be sold or traded. The main gate is large and ornate. The size was to accommodate the camels carrying th...

Weil here we are in Bursa. Big driving day today, about 6 hours on the bus but it was interesting scenery and Omer entertained us with firstly a history lesson and then just some stories. After leaving the capital Ankara we head out about 40 minutes and into the middle of nowhere to Gordion. The are is largely agricultural, potatoes, onions and garlic, but the are also a number of mounds. These are burial chambers or tumulus. The most well known is that of King ...

Nevsehir to Ankara We head down stairs to see if we can see the ballooners. There are no less than 40 balloons in view but for us they are a fair way off and look like little black dots on the photos. They all arrive back safe and sound and exhilarated . Hopefully we will see some photos start to circulate later. We leave the hotel, certainly not one of the better ones to head for the Turkish Capital of Ankara. 40 minutes into the drive we stop to visit Hacib...

Sights of Cappadocia Early start today to get to Goreme open air museum. Goreme is 10km from our hotel at Nevsehir and is in an area surrounded by valleys. Goreme was referred to as Korama in the early writings in the 6th century. The area of Cappadocia has very unusual land and rock formations which is the result of 2 nearby volcano eruptions millions of years ago. The ash settled and formed tuff and the lava became rock. Years of erosion by wind, water and ic...

We arrive at our hotel in the middle of nowhere just after 4pm. The rooms are quite dated, the air con is not very effective but nevertheless this is our home for the ext2 nights. There are quite a few people on the bus with a cough now so we will see how we go avoiding that. At 5.30pm we meet at the bus to take a 20 minute drive to a cave theatre to watch the 'performance' of the Whirling Dervishes . Dervish is a Muslim religious man who is undergoing an appr...