Feeling as though we should see more of the surrounding countryside of Cappadocia, we booked four seats on an organised day tour, something we rarely do as we are not usually ‘tour people’. However, it soon became apparent that the cost and convenience of the tour outweighed the cost of hiring a car and navigating ourselves. In hindsight, it was definately the right thing to do as the distances covered and things we did and saw would have easily taken us two days to cover!

In nearly every travel agents window in Goreme they have colour-coded tours with a list of the inclusions and destinations of each one. After pursuing the Red, Blue and Green tours we decided on the latter as it had a nice balance of interesting regional attractions and also included a 3.5km hike through a valley and the weather was just glorious to enjoy the outdoors.

First was a visit to Derinkuyu the Underground City going down eight levels to about 80 metres below ground level. It was built as a hiding place for the towns residents and contained everything needed for extended survival underground including houses, storage rooms, schools, stables, churches and wineries. It’s a surprising large city and during our one hour tour, we only saw about 10% of the whole complex.

Next we had a 3.5 km walk through Ihlara Valley; a very pretty valley with shear rock walls. The valley has been used by Christians for thousands of years first as homes then as a place for meditation. It is believed that the valley housed more than four thousand dwellings and a hundred cave churches decorated with frescoes. Around eighty thousand people once lived in Ihlara Valley.

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We enjoyed a very pleasant  walk through the Ihlara valley enjoying the sights and sounds of vineyards, poplars and pistachio trees and the soothing sound of the rushing Melendiz River. The area has a rich diversity of wildlife including lizards, frogs, butterflies, birds and sometimes apparently even eagles.

At the end of the valley we arrived at Belisirma village and a local restaurant where the tour cost included a great lunch – the kids jumped for joy – they were starving!

The next stop was at the Selime Monastery, an impressive cave complex which includes a large kitchen, living quarters, and cave cathedral with great views. Selime is one of the biggest monasteries in Cappadocia. Cut into the soft tuff rocks, it contains many caves for all the different needs of a medieval life in a monastery.

Our final stop, just as it was getting dark, was an onyx stone handicraft and jewellery shop (shamelessly aimed at getting tourists to empty their wallets). Cappadocia is a rich source of Onyx, a type of quartz, where it has been quarried for centuries. Interestingly the girls really enjoyed watching the quick demonstration on the cutting, shaping and polishing of onyx into an egg form on a pedestal. They were even more impressed when Immi got to keep the example onyx egg and Phoebe was slipped one in the gift shop later – result: two very happy girls! Ahhh – so easily pleased! The Onyx eggs have since featured as many things during their imaginative playtime.

After five enjoyable days it was time to head west towards our two weeks stay in an apartment on the Mediterranean Coast. We couldn’t wait – especially the girls who kept asking how long until we were arriving so they could pull out their collection of toys and finally set them up.

But they would have to wait just another three nights. First we would take a little detour after our flight into Izmir  south to Selcuk for a look at the nearby ruins of Ephesus and  a few more history lessons.