D63 Turkey - Istanbul

A Snapshot of Our Day

Photo 1 - One of the wonders of Hagia Sophia, a mosque turned museum. It has an amazing fusion of religious displays, including Christianity and Islam. This mosaic wall design is 13th century AD, with Christ in the middle, John the Baptist on the right and Virgin Mary on the left.

Photo 2 - Story of our lives, another beautiful building we can’t fully appreciate due to maintenance works! Being one the major attractions of the Golden Horn we had to go, but there was only about 50m square of tiling that we could admire!

Photo 3 - The Basilica Cistern is the largest of the underground cistern network in Istanbul. It was built in 6th century AD and is now kept open purely for public access and for the occasional movie.

Photo 4 - In the north west corner of the space we were able to see the two columns that had Medusa’s head as the foundation stones.

Photo 5 - A brilliant way to see both sides of Istanbul in 2 hours is a public boat ride along the mighty Bosphorus River! It was great being able to see many of the different districts from the boat as we wouldn’t have time otherwise!

Photo 6 - It’s becoming harder and harder to not buy these beautiful hand painted (and for the most part, authentic) tiles. We would both love to have these tiles make a appearance in our future non-existing kitchen!

Photo 7 - The main bridge near the Golden Horn is lined with stalls and restaurants specialising in fresh fish dishes. This gentleman was smashing out delicious looking fish sandwiches at an amazing rate.

Photo 8 - Anthony is Andy while we are here. Either that or we stole some other guys coffee...

Photo 9 - We went to the top of the Galata Tower for sunset, and although the glow across the Horn wasn’t particularly intense, we had a great time seeing the light bounce off the city.

Photo 10 - Ant and his new found friend, Brent. We all had fun roaming the streets together today and are sorry to say goodbye to another new friend.Read more