We are heading to the famous hot spring terrace at Pamukkle.
We arrived at the airport at 7:30 and caught the 9:00 flight from Istanbul ti Izmir. (Two full security checks even on domestic. Allow an hour for it.) we had time for a quick coffee and cake before boarding.
We are flying Pegasus to Izmir, about an hour fifteen south west, on the coast. The tickets were $40 US.
No food or water or baggage (except carry on). When we boarded, the stewardess asked me if we would kindly take the exit row (normally a seating upgrade for $$$) because the two ladies there were nervous.
Well sure, I suppose we could.
In Izmir we picked up our Budget rental car. We’ll be driving the next five or six days until we hit the ferry for Greece.
Funny enough, the car license plate is AED, so we call it “Ayed."
This is the way to get a rent-a—car. Fly to a small airport and it is easy to check out and drive away on non-busy roads.
- On the way to Pamukkle we stopped at Afrodisias. You know, the place where the temple to Aphrodite is.
And what a cool place it was. Cool ruins, with a really nice temple and a really well restored small Roman theater. The Stadium (for chariot races?) is fantastic. The seating is all still there, and you don’t have to imagine anything at all like you do in Rome (where it is just a huge, bare field). There is a regular sized theater, and lots of columns waiting to be resurrected.
But, no pigeon to eat or pomegranate juice to drink, and no carvings of old Min.
Afrodisias Photos
We stop for lunch at a little roadside restaurant called Doga. It is very cool and very quiet. We order two chicken shish, a salad, yogurt, and get fries with red pepper sauce and bread. I have an absolutely fantastic red wine (wish I wasn’t driving) and Gail has two glasses of the very good white. The entire meal set us back $21 USD.
Our next stop is Laodikeia, called Laodicea in the bible. From here we can see Pamukkle in the distance.
Laodikeia has great mosaics, surviving water pipes, and nice rows of columns, but I am not as impressed as I was with good old Aphrodite.
There are lizards everywhere, scuttling about.
There are also a couple brides-to-be scuttling about, being photographed in the ruins.
Laodikeia Photos
After a short rest we decided to go see the travertines (terraces) and pools of water that have made this place famous. So we drove over and walked up onto the springs. You have to walk barefoot, and the rock is wet. It is smooth enough to walk easily, but rough enough so it is not slippery. The water is cool, not cold. Some of the main pools are over knee deep.
I was disappointed by the crowds and the way it looked so artificial, the pools all lined up by the trail.
The next morning we drove up to the top of Pamukkale (Heiropolis) where the Antiques (Cleopatra) Pool is. If you google it you will see photos of this great warm pool filled with the remains of a fallen temple.
Here is the real beta.
The cost is 5₺ to park and then 35₺ to enter the park.
The museum and pool cost 50₺ more.
The Antiques Pool is smaller than I anticipated, but the water is clear.
Like all the “in-the-know" people advise, we got there before the 8:00 opening time. Even so, it was really really crowded. We decided to skip the swimming.
Instead, we ate the world’s worst croissant and had coffee.
I thought, hey, why don’t we go out to the upper terraces? This area is a lot prettier than the lower path, because it is more natural. Unfortunately, you can’t swim here even though it is the most scenic and has the warmest water. Instead you have to wade along or sit in the lower pools next to the crowded path in cool water.
On the other hand, we got nice photos.
So overall it was a kind of a bust.
By 9:00 when we left, the tour busses were literally double parked in the big lot and spilling over to the upper Oto Park.
Give me a do-over.
I’d go to top before sunset, photograph the upper terraces, walk down into the deeper top ones by trail to try them out, then retreat and photograph the Antiques Pool and get out.
Where would I go? See the next blog post where I tell about the village of Karahayit.
The first night we had dinner at the guest house. The wife cooked Gail a chicken shish, and I got fresh local fish (trout).
We drank the local red and white wines and it was good enough.