Geo: 39.9439, 32.856From what I understand, you don't get the best deal on your purchases if you go with your guide. I can say, however, you do get to shop in some really nice places with very personalized attention. Avanos is known as Pottery Central in Turkey. During our visit the kids enjoyed throwing pots/vases, whatever on the kick wheel while wearing "clown pants" to protect their clothes.... read more

Geo: 39.9439, 32.856Alex: We went to the underground caves. And I rode a camel. If you think of horseback riding and then camelback riding, it may be funny to you. We also made pottery and we bought three plates for each of us: me, Josh and Kate. We bought and rug and we got to run around on the different rugs and it was fun except mom got mad at us sometimes. Other than that, it was a great day in Cappadocia.Kate: Hi everyone! For the entire day in Cappadocia we had a guide we had to wake up at 7:30 to we could eat and pack. Our guide's name was Ugur (the g is silent and it should have a little smiley over the top). The first place we went to was an underground city ... read more

Geo: 39.9439, 32.856 I think we are all back on a "normal" schedule now. We woke up at a reasonable hour, had another fabulous breakfast buffet, complete with Nutella (chocolate hazlenut spread) on toast. We packed and went out to the store to buy snacks. We settled on breadsticks and simit and pistachios. We still had plenty of time to get to the bus station, but I didn't fancy hauling all the luggage up and down the stairs at the metro, so we took a cab. It was a fine thing that we took a cab too, because a child (I won't name names) left his/her bag with his/her new digital camera inside it in the lobby of the hotel because he/she got couldn't resist the lure of the revolving door. As soon as we pulled ... read more

Geo: 39.9439, 32.856Day 2: Still jetlagged. I got the kids to sleep by 11pm, but I didn't nod off until about 3am (That's 8pm at home). Hopefully I'll have that sorted out in a day or two. Josh was up by 8 and we let Kate and Alex sleep until 9. We decided to try the hotel breakfast which had the advantage of being both close and free. There was a huge array of breads, spreads, fruits, vegetables and olives. There were also a couple cereals, veal sausage and boiled eggs. I think the highlight for everyone was the honey served on the comb:We spent some time back at the room writing up our thoughts on yesterday and then went downstairs to ask the best way to get the the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations. I know ... read more

Geo: 39.9439, 32.856We managed to figure out how to get a trickle of electricity to the computer, so I'm up to about half power. We slept 12 hours and had a very good first day. After getting dressed, we ventured out to explore the neighborhood a bit. Our first stop was a street vendor selling simit, which are pieces of bread, some of which look like pretzels. They are 4 for 1 lira, but she gave us an extra. One lira is about $.75 at the moment. Then we stopped at a small urban grocery and bought some juice boxes and nutella (a chocolate hazlenut spread). The variety of juice boxes was pretty impressive. We all enjoyed our bread and spread. Continuing around in a circle, we came to Genclik Park where Josh tried out his ... read more