Busy in Istanbul.

9-30-13 ISTANBUL: After an early breakfast buffet, we bused to Topkapi Palace. It is a huge complex of building in the old city, the Byzantine city that fell to the Muslims in 1453. It then became home to caliphs and was the site of government and the home of the caliphs’ harem. We saw the treasury, library, arms museum, clothing museum, clocks, and many vistas and exteriors and interiors. The extensive tour took all morning and into the afternoon before we broke for lunch at a hilltop restaurant, Zeyrekhane.

After lunch we saw the Suleymaniye Mosque, the first of several, this one for Suleyman himself. To enter the ladies need headscarves and we all need to remove our shoes. The mosques are carpeted for the faithful to pray. Inside the mosque is tiled and painted. The outside is a series of interconnected domes and minarets. We heard the faithful called to prayer at noon, late afternoon and at sundown. We also did the Spice Market, a series of booth inside a huge bazaar complex with loads of other stuff for sale, including t-shirts and souvenirs, hardware, nuts, sweets, clothes, drinks and you name it. Judy found some spices she needed. On the way to the market we stopped at the Rustem Pasha Mosque.

By now it was late afternoon and we went to the harbor for our Bosphorus cruise. We were on the water for a couple hours, cruising up the Bosphorus and seeing many palaces and castles now converted to restaurants, hotels, consulates and schools. After sundown we disembarked at our restaurant, Poisson for seafood.

10-1-13 ISTANBUL: It was another marathon of a day. We started at the Istanbul Archeological Museum, which is part of the Topkapi Palace complex. I’ll show some sculpture at some point. Then we walked to Hagia Sophia. It started as an Orthodox church in the Byzantine era, had a brief stint as a Roman Catholic church during the Crusades and finished its religious career as a Mosque. Now, having served all those religions, it has been retired to museum duty. It is another multi-domed building, huge with a big, open central space surrounded by minarets. Lunch was at a neighborhood restaurant.

The afternoon started with a brief visit to an underground cistern from the Roman era. The water is now about a foot deep and has a big population of carp and two sculptures of Medusa. We went on to the Blue Mosque, named for the blue tiles that dominate the interior. The mosques have all been different. More about today later on.


Interior of the Suleymaniye Mosque, the edge of the big central dome is at the very top of the pic.

Spice Market is a warren of small shops in a huge roofed 'mall'.

Interior of the Hagia Sophia, early Christian mosaic.

Hagia Sophia has been an Orthodox church, a Roman Church and a mosque, but now is a museum.

The Blue Mosque, so called because of all the blue tiles used inside. [Interior pic later.]