Pamukkale Turkey Friday 11th April

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We had a restful day of catching up on the blog and emails, lazing around and sleeping. Late in the afternoon we went for a walk around this village and discovered that it is geared for lots of tourists and must have had a heyday some time ago. Many large scale hotels look abandoned. It is strange to see a very wide street with wide footpaths in a village, until you realise that it was designed for buses and groups of tourists heading for the restaurants and discos. Elsewhere the houses are fairly slap dash and set out like the village up the mountain, with paddocks under cultivation between them. Some buildings are obviously very old and others are the two or three storey concrete box design. In contrast to Greek villages, where every house is white, in the villages and towns around here colour is a matter of choice and is used liberally, with pastels of every hue mingled with mustards and darker shades.




In the park we met Tony, an Australian who is travelling for 18 months and who lived most of his adult life in London. He told us that he has friends who bought carpets and never saw them again! He had noticed a difference in the travertines since he had stayed in a hotel on the plateau above them twenty years ago.

After our meal, we went down to have a cup of tea with our pension owners so that we could meet their daughter, her husband and their five year old grand daughter, who was really sweet. Two travelling salesmen staying here returned and the son-in-law tried on their wares in the street. The grandfather is often present and tonight, he and another man who I had no idea about, were part of the group sharing tea together. There is a real sense of community and hospitality, and we felt honoured to be included in it.