I have been agonizing over a title for the post this evening and finally decided on a generic location to location designation.

I thought of Balloon and Bus Voyages, Through the Cilician Gates and several others. None of them were grabbing me.

We did start out the day with a balloon voyage.

We were up before dawn again, but this time we did make it out to the launch area for the balloons.

Our balloon company was Kapadokya Balloons. You can visit their website at: Kapadokya Balloons

The process of launching a hot air balloon is a very involved process, but finally we were ready to rise up into the air. I do plan on writing a post in the future about the launch process.

Here we are finally ready to launch. You can see me anxiously looking upward into the balloon in this picture.

We were soon off floating over the beautiful Cappadocian landscape. This is what our balloon looked like, except that the lower shroud color was red instead of blue. Our group was split between two balloons and this is the balloon that our other tour mates were in.

The sky was full of balloons of many colors. There are many different balloon companies in the area and I would estimate that there were over 100 balloons in the air.

After we landed they had a short ceremony and gave out certificates. We then went back to our hotel to get our bags and have a quick breakfast.

We were soon on the road toward the Cilician Gates. Along the way we could see the snow covered Taurus mountains in the distance.

After a lunch break we completed our transit of the Cilician Gates or Gulek Pass. This has been the main roadway between the East and West through the centuries. The pass is at just over 1,050 meters or at almost 3,500 feet. Today the pass is much wider and many tunnels have been built to smooth out the roadway through the Cilician Gates.

Paul would have come through the Cilician Gates with Silas.

We also saw the Plain of Issus where the great battle between Alexander the Great and Darius III took place. I could just imagine this pivotal point in history as we looked out over the plain.

We finally ended up in Antakya. This city is also known as Antioch on the Orontes or Antioch of Syria. Of course we know this city as Antioch of Syria and remember it as the launching point of Paul’s Missionary Journeys and where the Disciples were first called Christians.

The picture above is the check-in desk at the Buyuk Antakya Oteli. We were glad to be at our hotel after a very long day.

The internet is very slow and spotty, so I have been having trouble uploading my pictures. I am also very tired, so perhaps this post is a bit disjointed 🙂

I will hopefully get a great night of sleep and be ready to explore Antakya and Selucia tomorrow.

Oh, one more thing that I forgot that I was going to post this picture of our tour group. Do you know any of the tour members? Can you find me in the picture?

For a larger picture visit Ferrell’s post and click on the picture there: The Tour Photo

Steven

Make sure you visit my Turkey page to find out more information and for links to the blogs of other tour members. We all have out unique styles and perspectives so visit all of them.