From the Po Valley to Cappadocia. Turkey travel report

Motorbike Tours in Asia, Central Anatolia.

 

Transfer

Here are the three in the morning of 31 July 2004, the bike in the garage awaits us all ready to point, we descend, we dress and depart, Brindisi us. At 3:30 we are in front of the house of our traveling companions, Andrea and Antonella on GS Adventure, we forgot Michele, Graziella and Varadero. To start with mileage that we must make are many and it is better to make as much as possible with the fresh.

We arrive around 13.30 - 14:00 in Brindisi, the port and let us embark on the ferry that will take us to Igoumenitsa, point of our tour through Greece until the Cappadocia. At 3:30 in the morning (4.30 hours Greek) you see the lights of the port of Igoumenitsa, landings and via Turkey awaits us

Greece

Crossing almost all Greece, and we moved into a nice to Kavala, we spend the night on the town and then to bed.

Turkey

In the morning we move towards the greek-turkish and we are in the middle of the return of all, and when I say all I say all the Turks living in Germany, France and Belgium. The practices at the border will lead us by two hours, during which the decision takes force the evening before going to Istanbul, a day is too little to invest.

Once over the border to head Istanbul forks, the cross, we enter into Asia and we accommodated for the night in a hotel in Gebze, parked the bike in a basement with the floor covered with water and diesel, dinner in town, we have with some people in the lobby and read, Cappadocia is still distant.

Going to Cappadocia

In the morning we retrieve the bikes from the basement and not with little effort (260 kg of motion are difficult to maneuver) can jump out from that black hole. On to Ankara, we are caught by a storm, but this is nothing compared to the stretch of road around Bolu. In this part of the mountain we caught a second time with low clouds limiting visibility to a few meters, if we combine the weather, those of the road, traveled by truck old oil discharging to the ground, made the same slip surface, we can say he had spent the most ugly half of our lives. However the late afternoon we arrive in the area of salt lake, but the lack of facilities makes us decide to move the stop in Aksaray, not before they have sipped tea at a distributor where we stopped to view our guide, Turkish hospitality, exceptional.

Aksaray to arrive and find a great hotel to four stars for the modest sum of 70,000,000 per room (approximately € 40), dinner in the hotel restaurant and a nanna.

The Cappadocia

During the 90 km that separate us from Urgup, we visit the caravanserai of Agzikarahan where a turkish who spoke the fine Italian tells us that Marco Polo went there. After a while 'we enter the area of Cappadocia, Nevsehir reach and begin to glimpse the first case and the first rock landscapes typical of the area.

Urgup Here, the goal of our journey, let the hotel we booked from Italy, show us the way and arrived in the area we look around and see a series of half-collapsed houses in ruins, it is thought that a choir in cheat during the holidays must take it, patience. We joyfully welcome the owner of the structure, took the keys with us to our rooms, no secret is puzzled to see that the hotel where you have to spend 4 days is a ridge of a mountain. Instead, a marvel, the rooms were derived from ancient dwellings excavated in the tuff more than 1500 years ago, restored and equipped with all amenities to accommodate the tourists, WONDERFUL. Equally wonderful was the roof garden where breakfast and dinner. So 'na favola.

Get the bikes and begin to explore the Cappadocia, in any deviation of unpaved road is thrown in as a curious child, and run between tufa formations resembling a cloth laid out in the wind or decoration on cream cakes, between villages and towns with ladies Children and amazed by the passage of someone and something maybe never seen before, beautiful.

The cave houses and the beautiful landscapes

The morning begins the tour of famous sites such as Goreme, Zelve and the valley of the Fairy Chimneys. At open-air museum of Goreme know a guy who offered to accompany us and guide us on this site for € 10, willingly accept and start the visit of this ancient mega monastery where the monks dug an entire city with a lot of churches, cafeterias, canteens, areas where making wine stores, something incredible.

On the advice of this nice guy, we go to visit a factory in Goreme carpet for Graziella is going to lose, being passionate carpet itself. The boy who is to speak also very good Italian and begins to explain the history and manufacture of carpets from the wool dyeing to weaving, witnessing the manufacture and then spinning silk from the bug, wonderful, after leading carpet and offered several of you going to eat the nature calls.

After lunch we take towards Zelve but we see only from outside because, in the opinion of our guidance of Goreme not worth visiting. Shortly before Zelve, we take a path which takes us on a plain white tuff just above the Fairy Chimneys of the view is wonderful but the heat is beginning to be felt, we decide to return later with the sunset.
We could not have taken the best decision, with the sunlight that sets everything takes on a color ranging from pink to red, the atmosphere is surreal and the scenery makes it a lot better, great, take a walk in the midst of these strange formations and go back to the hotel. A Goreme, thanks to the knowledge of the usual guide, which allows us to obtain a good price, we book the tour in a hot air balloon above Cappadocia

Dawn inside a balloon

The next morning at 4:45 we take a bus and lead us to the point of the balloon. After a browse through the valleys of tuff the dawn awaits us at 1500 m,, an incredible experience, we are doing everything right in this holiday.

Returned to the breakfast and we start, we expect the underground city of Kaymakli and pottery of Avanos. We start from Urgup and opt for an alternative route that will take us to the underground city, the paved road began and then become a scree, a motorcycle shock indeed no problem you are having fun together, past countries that do not exist even on paper road, we reach the archaeological site. Here we find a man who accompanies us in the biggest underground city of Cappadocia, 8 floors of which 6 visitors. We are between an explanation and the other in perfect English, between burrows that positions us to almost crawling. E 'incredibile come a thousand years ago people dug a real city, I do not know how many meters below ground, the technology leaves us amazed, within each compartment there are rooms for families, factories for the production of oil and wine with their tanks, a kitchen and a well dug up in considerable depth, which served as water supply is from ventilation, where fresh air through tunnels to reach every service area of the compartment, making a comfortable life within the itself, truly remarkable.

We end the tour at Avanos, this is a city famous for its pottery and, on the advice of the guide known in Goreme, we visit a factory carved into the rock. Here we are greeted by a girl who explains and shows us the various stages of production of the pottery very valuable. Graziella Potter to try doing with their hands a kind of jar, good anyway. After giving us the usual you go there at the hotel. On the afternoon dedicated to relax, we're in and decide the stages of the return journey, sipping the inevitable you (this time done by us) sitting under the arcades of the excavated rooms.

Il lago di Egridir

We are now leaving Cappadocia, Pamukkale next destination with the ruins of Hierapolis, an ancient Roman spa town, and its travertine pools. The way to go is long and therefore it is necessary to divide the transfer into two tranches. Opt for a secondary road that seems to rise to share, we think that perhaps is more cool, in fact it was a mountain pass. The road begins to climb the fund in good condition allows some bends that even now was prohibitive, at some point it started to be excavated, and here begins the fun, a perfect bottom that allows you to pull that little enough to make run the bike in attitude, beautiful, and photographer Andrea back my way, a Nuvolone dust that ahhh delicious.

We find a hotel on the banks of the lake Egridir, we rest a while 'and visit the mosque of the village, dinner and the morning you depart for Pamukkale and Denizli.

Pammukale

The sight of tanks is wonderful, a huge expanse of white marble studded here and there in pools of blue water, do some pictures, walk through the warm water and we head towards Balikesir, where we arrived towards evening. Along the route to Balikesir, we stop for lunch in a kind of really nice restaurant, very spartan, but the reception was exceptional, not tell you of the laughter that we had to do to customers (Turkish) where we tasted two green peppers garnish the Our dishes FUOCOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ... ...

Grecia

The day after starting from Balikesir towards Cannakkale to take a ferry that crossed the Straits of Dardanelles, will lead us to Ecebat. Landings at Ecebat but the quality of the hotels leaves a lot to be desired, so we decide to leave Turkey and relax for a couple of days by the sea in Greece. Let the border Ipsala time without great expectations, take the road to Alexandroupolis and here we find a very nice hotel by the sea, go and get the bikes and not even to say we are already in the pool of sea water. E 'August 9, or the birthday of Graziella at the reception, since the passport notice, makes them the best wishes and in the evening at the dinner offer a whole cake with a greeting card from the owner .

Alexandroupolis

Day between the sea and swimming pool at the hotel, a bit of relax we want every time.

The Meteors

Moving a few miles from the meteors stop is a must, since you must go to Igoumenitsa again to return to Brindisi, and missing two days, we decide to pass in a meteor. So way to Saloniki, Larissa and Trikala to arrive in early afternoon, we find a hotel for a thousand and one nights (80 € 5 stars in two sin not make) let us change our pool in the afternoon and into the sunset by the Meteors. The landscape is incredible, tall spikes of rock from 200 to 500 meters with monasteries perched above, the view with the sun disappearing on the horizon is beautiful, from the landscape into something more than just the colors of the sun that turns off sa give. Kalabaka to dinner and come back at the hotel.
The next morning we are at the Great Meteora, the largest monastery and the most beautiful, go up the stairs around 150-160 and we do a good lap. It is hot and the pool of peeping in our thoughts, we look into the water and VIA.

Great Meteor

The early morning we are at the Great Meteora, the largest monastery and the most beautiful, go up the stairs around 150-160 and we do a good lap. It is hot and the pool of peeping in our thoughts, we look into the water and VIA.

We are back

Penultimate day, we must reach Igoumenitsa at 23.30, then 00.30 to find out be there waiting for the ferry to Italy. At 00.00 we board we look back nostalgically to the Greek coast that goes away, but inside there is an indelible memory of a wonderful trip, made of beautiful landscapes, people and exquisite sensations never tried before.