Istanbul has a major highway named after JFK. It goes between their two major airports. Here we toured hagia Sophia the blue mosque the grand bazaar and basilica cistern.
Hagia Sophia was the most impressive to me. Rebuilt 3 times as a church converted into a mosque and now a museum. There are angels on the walls most with covered faces due to mosque fantastic mosaics and enormous bronze doors with 4 minarets.
The blue mosque is imposing you can feel the weight of the Muslim religion when you enter. Beautiful mosaics and impressive columns. It has 6 minarets because our guide says the original builder misheard the turkish word for "gold" for the Turkish word for 6 which are phonetically similer.
The palace cistern is a huge underground chamber that was filled with water. It was based in a subscription fee system. Very impressive and very damp. Incredible columns and a crying column that we made wishes at. Oh and it also doubles as an aquarium. Ian was impressed with the two column bases with Medusa heads on them. One was sideways and the other upsidedown.
Back on the ship mark played the best game of dodgeball with squeegee balls until 1 am. Ian found out there was a kids club for his age group and had a blast without mom and dad for while.
Tomorrow mikonos and the beech
Hagia Sophia was the most impressive to me. Rebuilt 3 times as a church converted into a mosque and now a museum. There are angels on the walls most with covered faces due to mosque fantastic mosaics and enormous bronze doors with 4 minarets.
The blue mosque is imposing you can feel the weight of the Muslim religion when you enter. Beautiful mosaics and impressive columns. It has 6 minarets because our guide says the original builder misheard the turkish word for "gold" for the Turkish word for 6 which are phonetically similer.
The palace cistern is a huge underground chamber that was filled with water. It was based in a subscription fee system. Very impressive and very damp. Incredible columns and a crying column that we made wishes at. Oh and it also doubles as an aquarium. Ian was impressed with the two column bases with Medusa heads on them. One was sideways and the other upsidedown.
Back on the ship mark played the best game of dodgeball with squeegee balls until 1 am. Ian found out there was a kids club for his age group and had a blast without mom and dad for while.
Tomorrow mikonos and the beech
Fabulous. Any sign of the unrest there? Happy birthday Ian!!
ReplyDeletenope. We are hearing of problems in Turkey but we have left that country far behind and are in Barcelona now. We saw a couple of peaceful demonstrations in London, Turkey and here but nothing frightful. The closest to unrest is when we were skipping the line to St. Peter´s and the normal waiting line got restless and loud. I think Ian had a bday to remember.
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