Istanbul...

Roasted Chestnuts!!! YUMMY!!

In Topakai Palace

The Blue Mosque

In Topakai Palace

In Haiga Sophia

In Topakaki Palace

The wall to the OLD City

In the Blue Mosque

Outside the Blue Mosque

Traditional Turkish Carpet weavers

Inside the Spice Market at night

A view of the Blue Mosque from the Ferry

A view of the Asia side of Istanbul

Sophia Haiga

The Blue Mosque

Inside Sophia Haiga

 Stop 3 started on day 9 of the trip.  Essentially, all of Day 9 was consumed in travels....

A flight from Sharm to Cairo, a lay over in Cairo (en route, we were able to see the Giza Pyramids once again from the plane...  amazing).  Then the flight to Istanbul.  We got into Istanbul at 6pm but by the time we got to the hotel it was 8pm.  Our hotel was on the Asia side of Istanbul.  Istanbul is the only metropolis city in the world that is situated in 2 continents.  The Bosphorus river separates the 2 continents.  The bridge crossing the Bosphorus is a little like the Golden Gate, and the terrain in the Old Town (on Europe side) is very hilly so it is compared to San Fran.  Istanbul was also called Constantinapole.  Istanbul was the capital city of the Roman Empire (in the 300's), Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman Empire.... pretty amazing, eh.  It is so rich in history!! 

We started the next day with a full day of sight seeing.  We started with Topkapi Palace.  This was home to the Ottoman empire.  There is a museum that Muslim holy relics, including prophet Muhammed's cloak and sword, as well as a foot print of his.  Here in the museum they also have the staph that was used by Moses to part the Red Sea.  Vim has his own conspiracy theories on whether or not this is real...  feel free to take up this debate with him....  After Topkapi Palace, we went to the Blue Mosque, which is officially known as Sultan Ahmed Mosque but was know as Blue Mosque because of the blue tiles inside.  The Blue Mosque and all other mosques in Turkey have the 'domed' architecture that is not seen in mosques in other parts of the world.  The domed structure only emphasizes the beauty....  spectacular.  Did you know that there are about 2,700 active mosques in Istanbul and only 120 Churches.  It definitely makes for an interesting melody during the 5 prayer times of the day.  After the mosque, we went to Spice Bazaar which is a little version of the Grand Bazaar.  That summed up the day.

The next day started in 2 batches.  The first batch (Jig and I) started early to check out the Grand Bazaar.  It is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world.  It has more than 1200 shops....  hence the need for the ladies to get a head start.  We did not need the kids or hubbies slowing us down.  We took a ferry ride across the river to get to old town and then we were off.  Let me just say, Grand Bazaar was GRAND....!!  The shops and the bargaining, I could spend days there....  Later we met up the the rest of the group and went to Hagia Sophia.  This was built before the Blue Mosque, it initially started off as a church aroun 530 AD, and then converted into a mosque in the 1400's.  Today it is just a museum.  A beautiful one at that!!  After the visit to Hagia Sophia, we were off to the Grand Bazaar.  We wanted the kids and hubbies to experience it too!!  It was great.  I bought some beautiful Iznic Pottery which is famous in Turkey.  Hand painted in vivid colors.  After dinner, we took the troops back to the hotel.

The last day was a visit to Taksim.  This in the 'new town'.  It was not nearly as nice as what we had seen in the old town.  After a few hours of strolling, we were off for our 'red-eye' to Dubai.

Turkey was a great city...  we could definitely spend more time there....The people were great, the sights were great....  and beyond just Istanbul, there is still so much to see in Turkey.  The Turkish coffee was great, the Turkish Delights were great....  I feel the need to gobble up some more of Turkey......