Peter & Melissa in Türkiye

What a beautiful full day we have had!!! walking, walking, walking - glorious weather and day one with our tour. So far we are really impressed. our tour guide is knowledgeable and communicates so much about türkiye easily. A really nice collection of people in the group too.
we began our day being dropped off in the old town - traffic is horrific - not surprising given population in instanbul is over 20 million in a space slightly bigger than new york. We went to the beautiful hippodrome- a sporting and entertainment ground built in 203 AD - with a rich roman, greek and turkish history and many monuments including the monolithic obelisk which has bronze made from roman soldiers shields during battles!!! We visited the BEAUTIFUL Blue Mosque and learned so much about architecture, islam and Türkiye followed by a tour of the Sophia Hagia of 532 which has been the grand mosque, a church and museum and still a mosque now. The mosaics were amazing, the painting and rendering incredible especially the history of what lay beneath some paint - images of christ and angels faces and the history of architecture so interesting - ie dome design etc
then we went to the basilica. unbelievable! a water filtration and storage system built underground by about 7000 slaves in 532 and held 80,000 cubic metres of water! it’s massive. it’s beautiful and obviously now empty except for the water under the walk way - the columns and arches are beautiful and now home to sculptures and art work. Amazingly over time the underground basilica was forgotten until an old lady kept complaining of hearing water dripping under her floor. they dug it up and found this basilica cistern. it has 336 columns - each one different - is referred to as the sunken palace. photos don’t do justice.
then we walked forever and ever through the busy streets and bizarre to the golden horns bridges and caught a ferry. The ferry was amazing - rocky, windy, and choppy water owing to the fact that it connects the Black Sea with the Marmara Sea and Dardanelles Strait. on one side of ferry was europe and the other side asia. Lots of boats out including two tankers on the way to the Ukraine:(
after our 1 1/2 hour ferry ride we walked to the grand spice bizarre - wow wow wow! words escape me- incredibly beautiful!
Then we walked to a roof top restaurant for dinner and to watch the sunset over a grand mosque and the old city. We have had the fullest day and enjoyed it so much.En savoir plus