We’re now in Selcuk, near the ruins of Ephesus which we’re going to visit tomorrow.
Pammukale
On our way to Pammukale we stopped off at a carpet factory/tourist shop to see how carpets are made. We saw the silk being spun from silkworm cocoons (interesting but kind of gross when the silkworms are boiled to kill them…), carpets being hand knotted, and saw some of the amazing textiles from the area. There were some gorgeous carpets, but I managed to not “accidentally” buy anything. A few of the girls were very tempted!
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Goreme Day 2
Today we started with a relaxing massage in the hotel’s onsite hammam. This one was a bit different – no pillowcase of suds this time, but lots of scrub-a-dub and bowls of water being thrown around. Nice.
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Goreme Day 1
After leaving Konya we went to the Ilhara Valley where we ate lunch on the creek. The restaurants have wooden floats out on the creek where you can eat at low tables surrounded by cushions – fabulous! The cat in the picture above certainly enjoyed the setting.
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Istanbul – Konya
We had a Turkish Bath this morning – wooowwww. First the sauna (I didn’t wear my glasses this time so they haven’t lost their paint like when I was in Jordan!) then scrubbed down with loofah type thing, then washed with a pillowcase filled with soap suds (very relaxing), then massage, then bowls of water thrown over me to rinse off. What an experience!
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Istanbul Day 3
We did sightseeing today – Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque, the the Hippodrome. Gorgeous, but it was raining pretty hard at times and we all got saturated.
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Istanbul Day 2
What a busy day today! We started out by heading to Topkapi Palace first thing, missing a lot of the crowds. The palace is gorgeous – lots of fabulous mosaics and tiling, inlaid wood/mother of pearl panels and carved wood and marble. We visited the harem which was an eye opener – the Queen Mother had some great rooms, but everyone else was pretty much lumped in together. What a life! No privacy, locked in, the only recreation was gossip… painful!
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Istanbul Day 1
We’re in Istanbul! Even the name conjures up exotic images. It’s amazing. It was great to see the girls – there are 10 of us on Angie’s trip and we’re going to have a ball!
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Cologne – Rhine
Today was fantastic – we caught a train from Koln Station down to St Goar to catch a ferry down the Rhine to Koblenz. This is the “Romantic Rhine” bit where it’s all ruined castles and picturesque towns. Gorgeous! I ran my camera out of batteries getting pics of all of it.
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Cologne Day 2
Today we checked out souvenirs and then caught the tour bus around the city. We saw some of the sights and bumped our way through the building site that is central Cologne for a whole until we came to the bank of the Rhine, where there’s a Chocolate Museum.
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Two Weeks Away 
