Our hotel in Göreme was stunningly beautiful. White and pink stone arched walls, floors, and stairs, wrought-iron railings, Turkish carpets, views across the valley floor, little courtyards, wood beams and doors, artfully placed antiques, cats, and more cats—you couldn’t look in any direction and not see something beautiful.
The hotel was laid out like a labyrinth up the side of a hill with a variety of stone buildings situated around little courtyards, connected by stairs. Breakfast was in an all-glass room hanging over the side of the hill. The reception was at the very top of the hotel. To get from our rooms, located near the bottom of the hotel, to the Reception, we mostly went up, but then down a few stairs, and then more stairs tucked in and around the hotel. We were there three days, and it wasn’t until about the last day that we could get directly from our rooms to Reception without taking at least one wrong turn and sometimes, regrettable, a wrong stairway. I wanted to take a video of the walk from our room to Reception, narrating the journey, so you could get a feel for how many stairs we had to climb from the bottom to the top, but I couldn’t record much on the camera. Suffice it to say, we’d start out in normal conversation and by the time we got to the top, we’d be gasping for air, and our leg muscles would be screaming for us to stop and take a break. After three and a half days, I don’t think the journey got any easier. Instead, it would be, “Honey, why don’t you just run up there. I’ll stay here in bed for the day.” Bert and Bill’s room was different but equally beautiful. We had a non working TV, they didn’t have a TV, they had a phone and we didn’t—not that any of us would have used either.
