A new adventure - Gümüşler Monastery

Today's road trip was the 75 ish minute / 60ish km drive to Gümüşler Monastery, a Byzantine cave monastery with frescos dating back to the 7th-10th centuries in the Nigde province. Totally new for us, apparently, comparatively new for everyone as it was only discovered in the early 1960's. The place was fascinating, but climbing about is not for the faint hearted and I only saw a fraction of the rooms as I lack the necessary courage to tackle some of the steep and slippery paths. Still worth a couple of hours of my life though - beautiful, atmospheric, and yet another example of the fortitude and inventiveness of man.

We took a different road home and drove past Akkaya reservoir (extra) For such an important place, (significant wetlands) it was disappointing to see so much trash strewn about. I'll never understand people's attitude to polluting the environment with stuff they no longer want cluttering up their personal space rather than disposing of it in the readily accessible and appropriate container. Rant over. 

For dinner this evening, we decided to continue with the 'new experience' theme of the day and try a newish sushi place in Ürgüp that Murat, Jerry and Krystal highly recommended - and it was, quite simply, the best sushi I have ever had. It's tiny - only has 4 tables plus bar stools - maximum of 20 people I should think - which just added to the experience somehow. Sushi is made to order by the (Turkish) chef, Husayin, who I'm told, trained for 9 years in Osaka, Japan. It is a totally Delicious must visit place. (extra)

The rest of the evening was spent at the hotel bar with mine host Murat, Jerry and Krystal where the conversation included telling them about our adventures with the car wash this morning, manipulating a hose with a water pressure that, like the monastery, was not for the feeble or faint hearted but jolly good fun all the same !