Our final stop on this wonderful, whirlwind trip was the city of Konya, a somewhat modern and economically strong city of 800,000. In route we stopped at another kervansaray (where trade caravans would stay the night in ancient times). This kervansaray is architecturally beautiful, with both covered and uncovered areas and a section where the animals were kept. It is all empty now, of course, but shadows danced through the rooms and pigeons flew gracefully in the rafters. If you were quiet enough, you could almost here the bustle of donkeys and carts and the chatter of men discussing theirs trades so many centuries ago.

Once in Konya, we visited the mausoleum of Mevlana Celaledin Rumi, who began the theological school that was home to the Whirling Dervishes. No dervishes were in sight that day but there were throngs of Mevlavi followers both inside and outside the mausoleum paying their respects.

To close out my time with you, let me say that this was an amazing...

On our first morning in Cappadocia I awoke to find two dozen hot air balloons floating over the valley outside my window like lamp shades suspended by invisible strings. This is a surreal place; like a dream, but not an earthly one. It’s a moon dream made real.

Driving in the day before, as we got closer to the Cappadocia region, we saw the landscape change dramatically. The colors of the hills ran the gamut from brown to terracotta to mustard yellow. The unusual formations here are hundreds of thousands years old and the result of two nearby volcanoes, Mt. Erciyes and Mt. Hasan, with the assistance of water and erosion, which helped form their very different shapes. The region is full of large rocks, caves, and “fairy chimneys.” I am quite sure Tinkerbell spends her summers here.

We visited the Goreme Open Air Museum (along with hundreds of other tourists) and saw the homes and churches of the early Christians (4th – 11th centuries), where...

Like so many cities and towns in Turkey, Kayseri has a deep and varying history. It was once capital of the Hittite empire, and was later renamed Caesarea under the Romans. It came under Arab rule, then Mongol, and ultimately was taken over by the Ottomans. That kind of past is the reason you’re never quite sure what you’re looking at, and so must lean on your friendly tour guide for information. Our guide’s name is Semih (Sammy).

The citadel walls of this city are beautiful – made of black volcanic stone at the order of Emperor Justinian – and are largely intact, having withstood the elements for centuries (volcanic stone house, anyone?).

We walked around to admire these walls and eventually found ourselves inside the bazaar. We had been told Kayseri is the place in Turkey to buy carpets. Personally I was in no market for carpets, so had chosen to wander through the meandering halls of the bazaar when I heard my name being called...

When we left the hotel in Tokat, we knew this would be a different sort of day.

The bus made a wrong turn and inadvertently took us through the countryside alongside cabbage fields and orchards where local men and women were meticulously working the land. It was a peaceful and serene drive back to the city center, which we hadn’t yet seen. Once there, we visited the ethnographic museum and then made our way up through the snaking side streets of the city, past bakeries with bread in the window, doe-eyed children playing in the streets, mothers yelling from upper windows, and elderly men and women wrapped up in layers of dark clothing (in spite of the 72 degree weather) making their way up the steep streets like pulley cars on a mountainside rail track. One thing I’ve discovered about the Turkish people is that they are always happy to pose for a picture, so like typical Americans we were documenting this unexpected but welcomed journey through the “real”...

We are now in Central Anatolia and I spent half the day climbing the rocky slopes of Amasya, a 3,000 year old city along the Yesilirmak River. The cliffs above the town are home to an old Ottoman Palace, decaying hamams (Turkish baths) and the tombs of various Pontus kings, among other ancient sites. It was to these sites we ascended following a filling lunch and a quick tour of a 19th century wooden house on the river. As we Americans rose higher and higher up through the mountain side, no rails to assist us, we began to drop off one by one with words like “I’ll just wait here for you go come back through.” Yours truly made it to the tippy-top along with a couple of other brave souls. The coup was to simply say you’d done it, because there wasn’t much to see of the caves and ruins up there. But the view was spectacular.

We left sweet little Amasya in route to Tokat. It was dark when we arrived. Our hotel was a sharp contrast to the one we’d...

(Note: I’ve posted two BLOGS back-to- back because the last hotel did not have Internet access.)

The morning found me in better spirits, but I still passed over the bacon at breakfast. Like the others in our group, I expected Ankara would be less interesting than the other places we’d visited considering it is the capital of the country and a large, modern city that looks like many others in Europe. We soon learned we had been too quick to judge.

Our first stop was at the Mausoleum complex of Attaturk, founder of the Turkish state. It is a beautiful array of towers and buildings made mostly of limestone built in the mid-1950s, about two decades following Attaturk’s death, when the country – having recovered from WWII – had amassed the financial means needed to honor him as they wished. Our visit just happened to fall on the birthday of the country’s first prime minister and second president –Ismet Inonu – so we had...

After one night back in Istanbul we said goodbye to many in our group who were only with us for the first week and set out for our next destination: Beypazari, the little village that could. The trip was 200 miles of mostly mountainous countryside. Many times I thought I was driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway, until suddenly the terrain gave way to something more akin to Arizona. We were all amazed at this quick transformation.

My stomach was still giving me problems, so my traveling companions became more like moms, dads, sisters and brothers and began producing pills, powders and potions from their bags, all with guarantees to ease my discomfort. I was a walking pharmacy.

My first glimpses of Beypazari were what I was hoping to find – a picturesque traditional village with colorful buildings and narrow, cobblestone streets. Upon scratching beneath the veneer, however, I found a community of wickedly smart entrepreneurs who knew how to lure tourists and...

We left Bursa early, stopping briefly at the towel outlet (think Burlington Coat Factory) and meandered through the hills and valleys to Iznik, another old Turkish town known for its painted tiles. Tile-making was huge in past centuries and can still be seen on display in palaces and mosques throughout the country. It was only about 25 years ago that a retired professor chose to invest time, money and effort to revive the lost art, to the pleasure of individuals and companies far and wide who now have them in their homes and workplaces for every day viewing pleasure. Iznik tiles are special and highly valued because they are made from ground quartz, which helps make the finished tiles more vibrant. We toured the factory to see how each tile is made, baked, and painted. My mouth dropped upon entering the showroom, but it was more about the prices than the beauty of the tiles (although they we beautiful). A collection of exquisite tiles suitable for a lucky shower wall somewhere back home...

Bursa is the fifth largest city in Turkey and one of its economic engines. Textiles are huge here, as are other industries. And while the focus of this tour is on culture and not business/trade, I do have a few statistics to share (given off the cuff by our guide, so consider this is a small margin of error). Unemployment in Turkey ranges from 13 to 20 percent. The average income is less than $5000 per year. A three bedroom apartment will cost you about $200,000 to buy in Bursa (and even more in Istanbul), but most people cannot buy because the lending market – very new to the country – charges 1.4 percent interest per month (yes, per month) for a maximum of 20 years. About 8 percent of the country’s profit goes to 3 percent of the people. So how do people make it? They barely do, and they have to work other jobs – selling in the market, for example – to make up their losses.

Let’s talk silk. Bursa is located at a strategic crossroads along...

It’s always about a woman.

In the legendary city of Troy, that’s supposedly what brought on the war between the Trojans and the Greeks. The Greeks wanted to reclaim their queen, Helen, presented as a gift to the young Trojan Paris by the Goddess Aphrodite (I guess even goddesses liked to throw their weight around). This was all in the 13th century BC. Today the remains are a series of partial stone walls, foundations, and piles of ruble that leave much to the imagination. Thank goodness for signs that show what the city would have looked like. But that’s another point – there are nine ancient cities at the site, built one on top of the other. The first was in 3000 BC. Whether or not the Trojan War took place, it’s a fascinating cultural site with a rich history. And if you can’t buy into the legend of the war, you can’t accept the legend of the horse that was given to the Trojans by the Greeks (“beware of Greeks bearing gifts”)....

Our day began at dawn. We left Istanbul as the sun was rising in route to the countryside of Turkey which would lead us to Edirne, an ancient capital with graceful bridges and gentle flowing rivers and what is arguably the most beautiful mosque in the country – Selimiye Camii (mosque), the last work of the great architect Sinan from the 16th century. After a bumpy but satisfying two hour nap, I awoke to see land of biblical proportions … valleys and low sloping hills of brown grass with a variety of trees (Olive, Oak, Cypress) springing from small river banks. It was a scene out of the Old Testament.

Our first stop in Edirne was at the Health Museum, built for Sultan Beyazit II in the late 15th century. The museum is a complex of buildings outside the modern city that originally housed a hospital, mosque, soup kitchen and asylum. It has been meticulously renovated by a Turkish university. After a video presentation we were allowed to walk the grounds and were...

I have been to Turkey once before, and spent a few hours over a couple of days at the Spice Market (also known as the Egyptian Bazaar). So it was in this spirit of “I’ve been here before and know my way around” that I launched out solo following lunch at the bazaar. They were giving us 40 minutes to look and shop. If you’ve never been to a bazaar in Turkey or other countries, it is the experience of a lifetime. Stalls filled with spices and teas and color gizmos and gadgets that you can’t find back home, and smells of all kinds swirling up your nose. I bought a few things at one stall – Turkish Delight and candied chestnuts – before finding my super salesman at the stall around the corner. I was only planning to buy tea and soap, but ended up with a little more than that. You gotta hand it to the Turkish people – that know how to work a sale. But this guy - whose name is Tonai (not sure about the spelling, but it’s “tonight”...

Listening to details about the many conquests that have taken place in Turkey over the centuries, I am pleased that our group is getting along so well. In fact, I’ve got a new friend in Sen. Pat Engel of Nebraska. We really hit off well from the get-go. Like my dad, he’s retired from State Farm. We seem to find humor in the same things, and neither of us minds taking pictures at every opportunity (such tourists).

Our hosts are keeping us on the go, but it’s all so fascinating. On Sunday we toured the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet, 14th century) and the famous and magnificent Aya Sofya (6th century), my favorite from the Byzantine period. Both are beautiful and sit across a large courtyard from one another. We Americans were once again amazed by the age of our surroundings, and later in the day began to call relics from the 15th and 16th centuries “new.” It’s all relative. We just can’t match the age of these amazing places back at home....

“Our forefathers, who established powerful empires, were also the possessors of great and highly developed civilizations. It is our duty to seek these out, to study them and to make Turks and the Word Aware of them.”

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, father of modern Turkey

NC Sen. Tony Rand and I had not yet read this inspiring proclamation as we stood watching for our bags to drop on the conveyor belt at Istanbul airport. Like me, he was invited on this trip by the Turkish Cultural Foundation. It was 10 a.m. here, 3 a.m. at home. When the belt finally stopped and we saw weary, waiting travelers like ourselves making their way to the lost baggage office, we knew our bags had missed the tight transfer in New York. A guitar glided past and we considered singing on the street to replace our belongings.

I have been here once before, but leaving the airport I was immediately reminded of the magic and beauty of Istanbul. There was an instant familiarity...