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Pamukkale (Cotton Castle)
The eleventh day of the tour for the Unclaimed Jewels and their friends. On the van out of Antalya , tales are told of Turkish baths, baklawa and missed shopping opportunities. View from the bus: on Yuzuncu Bulevari, street cleaners are using besoms to sweep litter into hand-made scoops cut from beautifully decorated olive oil cans. Up and over the Taurus mountains again, crossing the pass at 1,440 meters, along a lovely pine-forested road. Meli tells us it is an old nomad route—are there ‘black tents’ still to be seen? YES. Meli continues with tales of tourist from hell, and “the opposite side of the medallion”—close ties formed with travelers in her groups. Almost everyone else in the van chimes in with an odd, or unexpected, or comic travel tale as well. We should have taped these! Flashing past us along the road: countryside riddled with marble quarries—16 in one large hill alone—stark white innards of the earth just waiting to become our dream kitchens or columns around the spa…a minty, pastel green house with lines and lines of brilliant red peppers drying on cords strung across the façade…roadside stands tempting us with huge jars of pickles, preserves and honey, their brilliant gemlike colors making our mouths water. Words of the day: hos geldiniz
welcome We’re passing through the old stamping grounds of the Lydian empire, where, in 615 BC, Croesus caused the minting of the first coin. Ever. The morning rest stop sports bits of colored ceramics scattered throughout the gravel, thus giving sense to the prominent, perplexing sign that greeted us as we rolled up: “Please do not remove stones from the ground.” Meli explained the many semi-completed houses we saw around us everywhere. Turks build as they can afford it, bit by bit. No mortgage hanging over the head. The Meander River is meandering for 150 miles through this long, lush valley—four crops per year easily. Mushroom caves as well, so guess what’s on the program for lunch? Menu du jour Oven-warm pita with butter, cheese, walnuts and smoked-milk yoghourt. A dish of baked mushrooms and cheese—easy to do, Meli assures us but with an earthenware dish, only, please. A casserole of yoghourt and mushrooms—similar to the previously eaten manti. A dessert of candied mushrooms in a sugar syrup with cloves, orange peel and coconut on top. What a concept! Just another “fast food” meal on the run in the TC. As we depart, we begin to notice cotton bolls on the bushes we are passing. Upon arriving at the five star Hotel Colossae, we suit up to head for Hierapolis (‘sacred city’ in Greek . Acres of sarcophagi, robbed through the centuries, and a city with its columned marketplace. After half an hour of poking through the ruins, we travel by bus up the hill to the amphitheatre—one of the best-preserved of the ancient world. Restoration work was being done on the orchestra, which was backed by a very ‘busy’ background to the stage—columns, arches, etc. From there, by van to Pamukkale (Cotton Castle) where we visited the Roman spa. An amazing experience—first, because of the warmth of the water, and second, because of the realization that one was stepping on, crawling over and swimming above ancient Roman columns scattered across the pool’s bottom. If you waited long enough in one spot for the water to settle, you could see here an egg and dart moulding large enough to put your foot in, there a set of steps, and yonder, a deeply reeded column. In one corner, millions of bubbles erupted from the spring, while in another, water gushed from spouts onto your head and shoulders. As we were packing up to leave, your correspondent, ONLY as a favor to Peter, to justify his faithful lugging around of the first aid kit, bloodily gashed her toe. Prompt and efficient bandaging saved her, but sad to say, there will be no eyewitness account here of what it was like to trek, sock-footed, down the travertine calcite foundations that dripped down the hillside. Perhaps one of the trekkers can fill in here. More words of the day: soyle boyle so-so simarek kopek spoiled dog mantar mushroom Meanwhile, back at the hotel, hundreds and hundreds of tourists had appeared out of nowhere to fill the enormous dining room, where we all enjoyed a buffet-style meal with scores and scores of dishes—some familiar to us as Americans, and some familiar to us as now-seasoned travelers in Turkey. And so to bed.
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