Frankfurt & Kronberg

Donning several layers of mismatched clothing in an attempt to protect ourselves from the 4 a.m. chill of central Turkey seemed like a great plan when we set out that morning. Eight hours and one country later, our makeshift “winter ensemble" left us feeling just a little conspicuous as we crossed the threshold of Empress Friedrich’s former palace. This wasn’t just a visit to a museum or tourist attraction, we actually had the privilege of spending two glorious nights here. Certainly a wee bit more glamorous than our usual accommodations (recall the 4 Seasons Pammukale where Adam had to engage in some backgammon gambling to acquire a heater for our room); this stay was a very special and most generous gift from Georg and Nadine. Set in the quaint village of Kronberg just outside of Georg’s hometown of Frankfurt, Friedrichshof Castle is still decorated with the artwork and furniture of the Empress who built it as a monument to her late husband.
Despite our “bag lady chic” attire and overstuffed backpacks, the hotel staff was exceptionally gracious. We were shown to our suite and given the scoop on all of our amenities, listening patiently and barely concealing our giddiness to be staying in such a luxurious suite. Once our hostess left, our composure dissolved into a little jig of glee around the room. The evening only kept getting better: chilled champagne, a nice hot bubble bath, fluffy robes, squishy slippers, and a beautiful dinner in the hotel restaurant (minus the robes and slippers of course). We felt like royalty ourselves! Thank you, thank you, thank you Georg and Nadine!
The next morning, the lure of the Christmas markets finally pried us from our downy enclave of a bed. First stop, the Frankfurt market! Having been in a Muslim country for the lead up to Christmas this year, we really missed out on seeing the armies of plastic dancing Santa’s taking over the shelves of Halloween crap to the monotony of overplayed Christmas carols. So it was actually really fun to get plunged headlong into the Christmas spirit without having been desensitized by the usual two months of Christmas commercialism. The market wares were original and locally made; everything from wooden toys to woolly slippers, oh yes, and the inadvertently obscene chocolate covered fruit! That is a banana- I swear!
Instead of the usual panicky and exhausted shoppers battling for a parking spot at the local mall, we observed locals laughing and catching up over Glühwein. We quickly found out why the spiced, mulled wine was so popular. Besides being delicious, it kept the chill off while we perused the handmade wares for Christmas prezzies.
In the evening before returning to our palace we visited the smaller but charming little Kronberg Christmas market. The rest of the evening was spent soaking in every last drop of luxury before setting out the next morning for our lengthy journey to Melbourne. One more time... thank you Georg and Nadine!

Leftover Turkey

You’re probably sick of Christmas leftovers by now but we have one more helping of Turkey for you. Our final destination in Turkey was the magical region of Cappadocia. A geological Disneyland, the landscape is characterized by multiple strange rock formations ranging in form from tall mushrooms, undulating ledges and some oversized anatomical “unmentionables”. Hundreds of these fairy chimneys, as they have been dubbed, have been tunnelled out over the years to be used as homes. It would seem however, that cave dwelling has fallen out of favour in recent times and now, most of the chimneys are vacant save for the occasional hotel and much to our delight a local police station.

Another one of Amir’s geocache adventures uncovered a vacant Flintstones style apartment complex.
The explorations continued below the surface when we visited one of the nearby underground cave cities. This particular city extended seven storeys below ground although visitors are only allowed to weave their way through the tiny tunnels as deep as five storeys, more than deep enough to exacerbate even a mild case of claustrophobia! Our hired tour guide “little Moustafa” was only about 5 feet tall and perfectly built given his occupation. “Little Moustafa” would go scuttling down the tiny passages at breakneck speed crouched over like a little hobbit. Meanwhile, we fumbled after him bumping our heads and cursing along the way trying not to lose sight of him for fear of being lost AND concussed in the underground labyrinth.
Ah yes, then there was “Turkish Nights” an evening of fake “authentic” Turkish ceremonies attended by busloads of other tourists. Seeing Adam and Amir get dragged up for bellydancing lessons was worth the price of admission. Alas, since both were forced to strip off their shirts, the video has been marked as "classified" and we are unable to publish it here.

We bid our temporary family goodbye and after a slight challenge attempting to find the airport, we headed for Frankfurt and then on to Australia.