Turkish Delight

  As we get ready to finish up this portion of our journey, we would like to reminisce a bit about this past month. While Italy was familiar to us, we had little prior knowledge of Istanbul. The many sights and sounds here provided a somewhat unique experience. From the melodious sounds of the "Call to Prayers"echoing across the city from its 2000 mosques five times per day, to the shop keepers chasing us down the street urging us to explore their inventory, to the smells emanating from the many restaurants we passed, and to the beautiful carpets everywhere, Istanbul provided a very pleasant picture of East meeting West. It is an exquisite city and the people are very friendly. We are glad to have added Istanbul to our traveling itinerary.

The following collage hopefully will provide a glimpse of what we experienced.

The Milion stone marked the beginning of the road to Europe. At one time it was considered to be the center of the universe during the Byzantine era.

Which way do we go next?

The Blue Mosque by day...

...and by night.

Making preparations to pray.

Lion mosaic from the "procession street" in Babylon, circa 600 B.C.

Believe it or not, this is a water clock, seen in the archeological museum.

Beautiful three panel carpet in the archeological museum.