Thanks for all the suggestions.
We went to Gulsehir and Ortahisar today (among other places)- definitely worth visiting. Gulsehir's Open Air Palace ruins are nice and quiet, and the church is beautiful and photography is allowed. Ortahisar's castle is a good viewpoint. Also wanted to visit the church there but it seems to be closed.
We will visit Ihlara in the coming two days. Our balloon ride was cancelled today- hopefully the weather is fine tomorrow!
Paşabağı (aka Monks Valley) near Avanos is one of my person favorite places in Cappadocia. If driving north from Göreme to Avanos on Göreme Yolu, turn right just past the business named Çavuşin Seramik at the north edge of the village of Çavuşin. The little road is supposedly names "Paşabağı Yolu" but I seriously doubt that it is marked. After a couple hundred meters take the first (I think) right on a little dirt/gravel road and drive to the edge of a gorge. GREAT scenery and WONDERFUL hiking right around there. Then continue on Paşabağı Yolu for a few hundred more meters to take a right on Zelve Yolu (a decent sized road) for about 1/2 km to the main parking area for Paşabağı on the right. Immediately across the street from the parking area is a great little place for lunch/snack/etc. An old woman there rolls out the extremely thin little bread wrappers (I forget the name) for meat/vegetable fillings of various types--they're rather common but hers seem especially good and it was my best Turkish friends' favorite place for such.
So, the reason I couldn't figure out where that monastery was? Had completely the wrong name haha. It's the Selime Monastery, or Cathedral. My bad, sorry :P I have no idea where I got St Katherine's from!
@ Mike......gözleme.How could you forget??
I seemed to think it had something with an eye (göz) and observation (gözleme) but it seemed kind of stupid when I thought about it too much... I also get confused because the Turkish translate it to "waffle" but to me it's nothing like a waffle--more like an incredibly thinly rolled dumpling.
By the way... I made fresh chicken stock today so we get chicken and dumplings for dinner. I wish you and Necete were here to share.
The Turkish friends we used to stay with in Cappadocia (now Istanbul as they moved) seem to like it when we visit as I come back early and make dinner in my weird AmeriTürk style. I must admit enjoying springtime in Istanbul as we'd encounter a street bazaar nearly every day and I could find great and wonderfully fresh food. They'd never eaten fresh shelled green (English) peas lightly boiled and with a touch of butter and fell in love with them.
Well the verb gözlemek means to watch,to observe closely and I guess when cooking gözleme you do need to watch closely so they don't burn as they cook so quickly,so the name makes sense.I too wouldn't call them a waffle;more a Turkish style pancake with sweet or savoury fillings.Oh I want one NOW!
Hey I can't believe those friends have never eaten fresh peas(they haven't lived!),the pazars are full of them right now and either shelling them or ,if they are very young,cooking them as mange tout is well known here.In fact at the weekend a friend have me a great big bag of them fresh from her garden....I'd scoffed a good amount of them by the time I got home haa haa.
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