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As we had had some 'full-on' days we decided to take it a little easier today. We had no alarms and a leisurely walk to take the bus to Urgup - a small town 5km away. As we were early for the bus we idled away our waiting time trying Turkish delight and dried fruit. Urgup was supposed to be more up-market than where we are staying but to us it just seemed more modern and busier. We had a stroll up to the high-point of the town for the view and then went for a look at the old town where there were some Greek style house - neither that impressive. We then tried to find the old covered bazaar - we found the site but it was empty.
At this point we decided to go on to another village. We were defeated again as the bus was full so we decided to back to Goreme for coffee and cake. This turned out to be a much better idea - Fran even introduced the Turks to the concept of having ice cream in iced coffee - the Turkish lady thought it most strange.
The following day we decided to walk up Pigeon Valley to the next village of Uchisar. We started reasonably early - driven away by the smell of the plot next door burning an old tyre to heat a large pot in which they were making grape molasses.
The walk along the valley was as spectacular as all the others but not that well marked. We had a few wrong turns but eventually found our way up to Uchisar. We even managed to pick up a 70 year old German on the way. The village is on a hill and at the top is a large castle, having climbed up to the top we stopped at an expensive hotel - for a very expensive beer ,we knew it was going to be costly as they gave us bowls of crisps!. It did have a wonderful view to die for though.
From here, we pressed on to the castle - a ruin - it had fabulous 360 views all around. We came back to the town where the shopping seemed to meet Fran and Judi's approval. The town is known as Petite France for all the French run hotels and French visitors - it seemed to attract a better class of shop.
We were enticed into a little art gallery where a Turkish lady offered to give us a demonstration of water painting. It involved using natural ingredients such as cows pancreas, sap from cactus and horse hair. A special solution was made in a tray and then paint is dropped onto the surface. The artist then manipulates these drops to form a picture which is then transferred to a piece of paper. This is an old technique - we cannot believe anybody could invent this!
After a leisurely lunch, we walked the 4km back to Goreme through Pigeon valley again in time for Fran & Judi to do more shopping.
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