Selçuk to Pammukale

It has been another long day, but an interesting one considering we mainly just got ourselves from point A to point B. We skipped the big buffet and breakfasted on some food we had brought with us from Greece, packed up, then took one last quick spin around Selçuk, me looking for a few small souvenirs and Topher buying our train tickets and pastries, stopping to snap one last picture of the Byzantine aqueduct that cuts through the centre of town (below left). I bought an evil eye for my charm bracelet and some paprika flakes (which is very fresh tasting here and on the tables everywhere).

I stopped for a cup of tea in a tiny little shop near our hotel that sold only tea and had about two tables. I found that my old friend Ali (the shoemaker who gave us tea the first night) was there drinking his morning cup. He and I had a good chat about travelling in Turkey and how to tell if you’re drinking good quality tea (must be served in a clear glass so you can see the colour), and he offered to buy another round but I had shopping to do and a train to catch. He congratulated me for finding where the locals drink. He explained that when the shops serve tea to their customers they get it from this place - the

tea shop brings it over on a little tray. It was definitely much better than our hotel tea.

We got the 10:15 am train, which took about 4 hours to get to Denizli. We saw a lot of manufacturing plants and other industrial activity, which we didn’t see much of anywhere in Greece. Most of the train ride was through a very large, flat plain bordered by mountains on each side. During the train ride the boys were forced to take a break from screens and read and played cards. Topher and I researched how best to get to our next destination, Cappadocia. It turns out we will have to take a very long bus ride on Sunday. Yay.

About an hour before Denizli a group of jendarmas got on and started checking peoples’ passports and had a dog sniffing luggage, for drugs I’m assuming. The dog was particularly interested in my bag, so the policemen searched it (they were quite puzzled by the beach glass and pebbles!) and asked us to move so they could search the stuff at our seats as well, but of course they found nothing. There was a lot of discussion that we didn’t understand - I think the guy in charge of the dog was trying to say they should keep searching, but the boss (who got to wear jeans instead of a uniform and carried a pistol) said not to bother. An interesting experience.

We arrived in Denizli at about 2, and by then we were all pretty hungry so we

found a buffet/pide restaurant near the bus station, which was conveniently across the road from the train station. Lunch was very good home cooked food, but was also what we now consider overpriced - it cost about $20 for the four of us! It was not a very appealing city - the architecture in Turkey generally is quite stark and modern but not in a good way. No more quaint medieval villages like we saw in Greece.

From there we took a minibus that quickly filled up, but the driver kept stopping to let more people on until we couldn’t cram anymore on. We were lucky to have the back row to ourselves. It was a fairly short ride to Pamukkale, maybe about a half hour. One of the other passengers asked us a lot of questions about our travel plans, and seemed disappointed that we already had our tickets, so we guessed he was hoping to sell us something. When we got to Pamukkale, he gestured to us and to some other tourists that it was our stop. He grabbed one of our bags and directed us in to an office and pointed at a van outside and said it was a free shuttle to our hotel. While the kids used his free toilet, and he was dealing with the people in front of us, we quickly realized he was first going to try to sell us some tours before the “free” shuttle, so we got the heck out of there as soon as the kids were done. Of course our hotel was about 600 m back the way we came, but the kids are used to us making them walk with their bags so it wasn’t a big deal.

Pamukkale is an all farming village (pictured below) with sheep in the middle

of town and old tractors (including a Massey-Ferguson!) and farm equipment all over the place...very dated looking stuff that looks older than what we had at home in the 1970s/80s.

The “Venus Hotel” is pretty snazzy for us, and the kids were thrilled by the bathrobes and disposable slippers. They suited up and took a dip in the outdoor pool even though it is about 15 degrees here (photos on following page). It was a very quick dip and the staff found it amusing. We then arranged with the front desk to go to their sister hotel about 7 km away to use the thermal pool and hammam.

On the drive over to the other hotel we got a good close up view of the ancient city of Hieropolis and the amazing rock formations (mineral deposits formed by the hot springs) that we’ll be visiting tomorrow. The hammam wasn’t as good as my Athens experience but it was nice that we all got to go and the kids were fascinated to watch Topher and I being soaped up with huge sheets of bubbles. They want to give it a try next time. They just used the thermal pool, which was quite dirty looking - I’m hoping the natural minerals from the hot springs keep it from being too unhygienic!

By the time we got back to the hotel it was close to 8:30 so we had supper in the hotel dining room, which was decent, but not exciting. The highlight for

Topher and I was the “Turkish dessert” - basically a mild cheese melted with honey or sugar syrup and a bit of shredded wheat on top. It was a bit caramelized and quite delicious. I am trying to keep to my usual diet but make a lot of exceptions! Hugh informed us as we were having our now usual tea with dessert that it was his fourth of the day (the cups are small, but still!)...it didn’t seem to affect him though as he fell asleep very quickly while rereading the Hardy boys.

(An aside re Hugh’s reading: before the trip, he had read some Bobbsey Twins books, which are junior detective series set in the same fictional town as the Hardy boys. Tonight at dinner he observed, quite seriously, that there are a lot of young detectives in Bayport!)