As the sun comes up on this beautiful Tuesday May 11, I will add a few notes about yesterdays photos. As many of you know, Istanbul is situated both on the Asia continent and the European continent. Just cross the bridge to change continents. The river between the two is rather narrow but is the only access to the countries bordering the Black Sea. Thus freighters are going back and forth all the time. We took a sight seeing ride up the European side and back the Asian side yesterday morning. Interesting to see the differences in housing. The most important point is the homes on the Asian side and very expensive and right on the water. We understand that on a number of occasions, ships have collided in the night and then run into the odd living room. A rather rude awakening to find a ship in your house.
We then went to the Blue Mosque. A beautiful structure with mostly blue mosaic tiles inside. On to the Topkapi Palace to see magnificent jewelery and textiles and then the Kariye Museum which is an old Christian church that w2as converted to an Islamic Mosque then to a museum. Fantastic frescos and mosaics dating back to even before I was born. (13th century)
While on the bus we drove under an aqueduct that dates to the 4th century. An amazing structure to last so long.
After seeing all these treasures I can only say that I really am not that old... :-), in fact very young.
Stay tuned folks, more to come.