075 Turkey: Istanbul

Turkey: Istanbul
We have arrived a day before the tour is supposed to start as there wasn't much time on the tour for exploring the city and it has a lot to offer.

The transport for the local police was varied but this alternative Segway and smart cars took our attention. As you can see he is very focused on policing the area.

The Blue Mosque. A dominant feature of the landscape and quite a magnificent looking building.

So we are strolling down some random street and the Richmond cap (spot the rest) catches our attention. WT...

Loved this Basilica Cistern.
The James Bond movie, From Russia with Love, has some scenes shot here. It really was different and amazing to find how far we walked under the city.

Turkish Delight like we've never seen. An amazing selection of flavours all beautifully presented and yummy. Certainly was 'delightful' :)

No trip to Istanbul would be complete without a visit to the Grand Bazar (although we at first went to the Old Bazar and discovered our mistake). We'd heard some pretty awful stories about this place but while obviously for the tourist (Turkish as well as other nations) we really enjoyed it, felt safe and loved the diversity. We were disappointed not to be offered coffee when we bargained though :)

 

There were some amazing fashions in the stores. Jumpers and boots/shoes that I'd never seen the like of. However never saw any being worn on the street, where the dress was very conservative.

We found the train station where on June 2nd, each year, for 2 days the Orient Express 'docks'. Lots of movie star pictures in the restaurant.

This was possibly our most entertaining dinner. A stew type meal is cooked in a clay pot which is sealed by bread dough. Once cooked they heat the clay over open flame and crack it open along a pre-marked line. I thought that perhaps the clay from the pot could be reconstituted but it is simply thrown away. As he cracked the pot we clapped and he was thrilled. Another 5 people ordered the same meal after us!

Inside the Blue Mosque. A very beautiful expansive building. As it is a 'working' mosque there are lots of restrictions on when you can go in but we managed to get in just a few minutes before midday prayer (our third attempt at getting in).

wonderful atmosphere inside but it did smell of sweaty feet!

Topkapi Palace.
Had some amazing mosaics. This is a fire place. Unfortunately none of the rooms had furniture in so you didn't really get a feel for the place. Perhaps if we hadn't just seen remarkable palaces in Europe we would have been better impressed. The 86 carat massive diamond was OK though !

The combination of patterns is quite something. It shouldn't work but it does.

Hagia Sophia Museum.
Ataturk was an outstanding man. This building was a church then a mosque etc. So of course the religions were fighting over it. He said it was too important a building, architecturally, to belong to any one religion, so he had it made into a museum. :)
Here the Islam symbols and the Christian symbols are side by side.

There are three extraordinary Christian mosaics dating back as far as the 7th century. Mind blowing. Who do we know that is making something now that will be available for others to still see in over 2000 years time?

and this is just to give you an insight into the number of minarets around the city.