Dawned in Kutahya, after we took breakfast at the hotel, we left to walk the city by daylight. So we started from the central square Belediye Meydani with the fountain that has a colored vase in the middle of it. As we said Kutahya is famous for her porcelain. From the square walked until the main pedestrian «Cumhuriyet caddesi» with the tourist shops. At the end of the walkway, there is Ulu Camii (= Great Mosque) mosque, the largest and oldest of the city. In front of the mosque is a large square with a statue of a Whirling Dervish. The Dervish is a man with traditional Turkish costume that seems to dance. The statue has been used many times as a meeting point by locals. Now beside the Ulu Camii, is Kutahya Cini Musezi (Ceramics Museum). This is a small museum which contains decorative tiles, vases, jugs and porcelain ware manufactured in the city from the 14th century until today and there in the middle of it there is a beautiful fountain. Finally we did a short walk through the small streets with old houses and buying souvenirs porcelain objects from the tourist shops.
In the afternoon we left town to a new destination Pamukkale, via path Gediz - Usak - Civril. The route many times exceeded 900m high and at some points crossed piney forest. After some kilometers we reached to the village Cavdarhisar, where there is the ancient Phrygian city of Azan. The Azan is considered as one of the oldest Greek tribes which eventually settled in Asia Minor. The most impressive monument is the ancient temple of Zeus built by the Emperor Hadrian (117-138 AD) and under the temple there is a crypt where worshiped Cybele, the mother goddess of Anatolia. The temple is in fairly well condition and worth someone to visit it!
Then we drove south to the city of Usak with the temperature rising and us reminiscing the cool breeze of the mountains. We made a brief stop to refuel and check the progress on our map to Pamukkale from the most central street - through Civril. Since we traveled some miles, we expect us a surprise! The road, by projects that were in the area, was turned into a dirt road and the vehicles raised so much dust that hardly anyone saw ahead. All this lasted for about 10km so in the end we had become white with red and swollen eyes by dust. Fortunately, from there the road was good crossing farmland and many granaries. After 50km, we reached to the main road Dinar - Denizli where we turned right to Pamukkale and now moving west.
In the afternoon we saw from afar the white slopes of Pamukkale, which are those that make the area stand out. Coming attraction found the village filled with accommodations. Search a specific hotel we found online defying all the rest with their various "decoys" trying to persuade us to follow them. The hotel that we chose was full of foreign customers. It had an amazing pool where we spent most of the time chatting and enjoying a nice coffee. We stayed at the hotel for dinner and met the owners who were quite friendly with us. Interesting discussion we had with Husein who knew English and we discussed the similarities and differences between people, social and political issues, etc. In the end, he invited us to his house which was in a village about 2km from the site. We had a nice and quiet evening next to the pool overlooking the white slopes of Pamukkale.
