We had an early, but uneventful flight from Istanbul to Nevşehir in the midst of the Cappadocia region in central Turkey, with the minor of exception of the hardest landing we have ever experienced – it really woke us up. Nevertheless, we did enjoy traveling on Turkish Airlines.

Nevşehir Airport is in the middle of absolutely nowhere. To our eyes, we had taken a wrong turn and landed somewhere in Arizona or New Mexico.

We made a reservation for a car rental with Sixt, a German company that we have used a number of times, and the manager of the local rental agency was there at the airport to greet us and hand over the car.

We drove about 5 miles from the airport without seeing anyone on the highway (4-lane divided, by the way) and then the first car we came upon, which was in the right-hand lane, signaled right, turned left instead, then inexplicably stopped in the middle of the road and backed up – unable to see with his trunk open. Unbelievable! We had been warned about rural Turkish drivers, but this was beyond my expectations. I was so shaken that I had to pull over to catch my breath (by the way, notice the cave dwelling behind our rental car).

We drove about 20 miles east from Nevşehir to Göreme where we are staying for the next four nights at the Caravanserai Cave Hotel. Here’s the main street coming into Göreme; our hotel is up the road to the left of the rug shop.

After we checked in, we were taken up to the third floor where breakfast is served. Here’s the view we’ll have in the mornings while we’re here. Notice the [expletive deleted] minaret.

Here’s the courtyard. It’s a family-run business and they’ve been here in Göreme for about 35 years (the breakfast area is on the third floor in this picture).

Turning around from the courtyard is the entryway to our room. This picture is taken from our room, looking up toward the courtyard.

Parts of the hotel are built into the adjacent cliff face. Our room is half in the cliff and half out of it. Here’s the bed which is mostly outside of the natural rock, but it’s partially under the cliff wall.

The wall to the left of the bed is almost completely part of the cliff face. It’s been hand cut into the rock, making these alcoves:

The bathroom is completely cut out of the rock, so that gives the proprietor and us the right to call our room a Cave Room.

It’s pretty cool; literally. We actually need to have the heater on, even though it’s not all that cold outside. The fact that the room is partially underground keeps it cool.