Hieropolis

 Well this is quite a spot. Wonderful enough to have the extensive Roman ruins of Hieropolis stretched across a hill  churches, necropolis, baths, temples, gymnasium and stunning theatre at the top. And only a modest quantity of tourists. Theatre especially impressive, with fantastic views and its well preserved (or at least restored).

But what really marks it all out is the walk up the Travertines.  It all sits on what is basically a leaking marble hill. By that I mean that there is a sheer face down which pours hot springs  To climb up one takes off shoes and socks and climbs up what in places is quite a steep marble slope. It seems like climbing an iceberg its so white  One quickly appreciates how much better barefoot we are for clinging onto a surface. And counter-intuitively its better to walk up where the water is flowing most. The dangerous bits are the level welcoming patches with a thin film of extremely slippery mud. Anyway, a nice sensation when climbing although it is a bit hard on delicate tootsies such as mine  Clean feet at least by the time I got down. And of course I was last down by far. Tempting to go for a swim in the warm pools. Unfortunately a very grey and windy day. Going in would be lovely; getting out just too invigorating!

Would happily have spent another day here, but preferably not at the Fawlty Towers hotel we had. Takes a while to realise for example that the hot and cold taps were the wrong way round! Ken described it best - its as if all the women had gone away for the weekend and left the blokes to work out how to use the washing machine and the cooker.