The Voyage of the Mighty Tenho: travels around Turkey

What an amazing two weeks traveling in Turkey with our Alaska friends. Each leg of the trip took us progressively back in time, starting from the Ottoman empire grandeur of Istanbul near the Black Sea, then back to the Christian towns of Cappadocia in central Turkey, and finally the Greek/Roman cities of the Aegean coast. Nice to trade in homeschooling books for on-the road school for a while!

Our Istanbul apartment was in the old part of town, a perfect location for exploring the mosques and palace built by the Ottomans after they captured the city in 1453 - will never forget the mosque-dominated skyline with the reverberating call to prayer from all sides (and in the background the kids singing the 1950s ditty about “take me back to Constantinople, no you can’t go back to Constantinople, now it’s Istanbul…”). Cappadocia was like being a kid again – sleeping in a “fairy chimney” formed by erosion of volcanic tuff where the Christians lived from the 4^th to 11^th century, descending into the underground city where they hid from invaders, topped off with a sunrise balloon ride. Then we rented a van for a road trip to the ancient cities of Aphrodisias, Hierapolis and Ephesus to explore the temples, theaters, stadium, library, roads and market places built as far back as 10^th century BC…highlighted by deliciously fresh winter vegies and oranges straight from the fields and the scrumptious warmth of mineral springs and saunas to soak the winter chill from our bones.