Cappadocia diversions

There's lots to do besides seeing the formations, caves and tunnels in Cappadocia; most involve shopping or eating! We went to one restaurant in Ürgüp, where your lunch is cooked in a pottery jug, so that the top has to be broken off to get it out:

Before the top of the jug is broken off:

And after:

There's simpler eating, too, like making your own bread and baking it on a domed plate over an open fire:

And then there's shopping. The best place for pottery, a craft long practiced in Cappadocia, is Chez Galip, where the fourth (I believe) generation is still making and decorating beautiful pottery. First, a demo by the whimsical patriarch, still making pottery on a kick-wheel after 50+ years, starting with a lump of clay...

...and ending with a beautiful finished pot:

Beautiful dovecotes made with Chez Galip decorated tiles :

A chap who's happy and sad, all at the same time:

But the range of beautiful work they make is really quite astonishing:

Then, of course, there are Turkish carpets in a profusion of styles and colors...