April 30th, 2016
I know that I have jumped over a month of travels but Istanbul is so exciting and the Blue Mosque and especially Hagia Sophia are so impressive that I will post this now and catch up in the coming week.
Views from our balcony
View from the buffet
View from deck 9
Where we want to go
My initials
Walking to the tram
Seemingly a stray dog but with an ear tag
Going to the mosque
Instructions for visiting the mosque
In the courtyard
Inside
Just outside the mosque - grilled corn
Hagia Sohia
In the garden
Over the altar
One of the original seraphims
A seraphim painted over
A water container, carved from a single piece of alabaster, used for ablutions
A copy of church laws from the 6th century, carved in stone.
The ramp leading to the upper gallery
Very delicate mosaics
Russians and Scandinavians went to Byzantium and were employed there, usually as guards or soldiers.
Rather like 'Kilroy was here', hundreds of years before.
View from the gallery
Their son, who suffered from leprosy
Some of the busses waiting outside - there were at least 12 tours during the time we were there, with an average of 20 per tour.
Our tram - we could have ridden all day, back and forth, for about € 1.
Traffic was so jammed that the ambulance had to use the tram tracks for part of the distance.
Water cannon, in readiness for the May Day parades today - see the news.
Leaving Turkey after a sensational day,
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