CAPPADOCIA, TURKEY in the EARLY morning

The wake-up call came at 4 am, and we were too tired to be excited. But we bundled up into long underwear, parkas, hats and gloves and drove through the dark to the launch site for our hot air balloons. Then the first challenge: getting into the four foot high baskets. Those balloons look so graceful as they float through the sky, but climbing into them is anything but. The nice guides helped with comments like "Get your leg up higher," but our legs were sometimes hard of hearing. Eventually we got all our parts tucked in and took off and were in a magical space as the sun rose. We floated up to the sky and into the valleys, looking down at fairy chimneys and fruit trees bursting into blossom. And when we returned to the hotel, a huge Turkish breakfast awaited us. The next activity: exploring an underground cave town. We waved goodbye to the young and hardy and took a nap.
Hope and Bill