Second Day in Istanbul
Istanbul keeps getting better. Yesterday we were up and out early with the intention of being first in line at Hagia Sophia (purchasing a three-day, multi-museum pass that would allow us to avoid waiting in lines.) Unfortunately, we got lost but ended up strolling through a beautiful park near the palace. By the time we got to the right place, the lines were reasonable but the ticket office had run out of museum passes (Jim and Stephen had just purchased the last two!) So... we had to go to another museum and wait forever in line to get our passes. Eventually we succeeded and were on our way.
We toured the Topkapi Palace, home of the Ottoman Empire sultans. The palace is built as a series of pods connected by covered walkways. It occupies an impressive site on a hill where the Golden Horn meets the Bosporus. The palace is mostly noted for the spectacular and colorful tilework decorating all rooms, especially in the expansive Harem. The sultan's chamber is considered the most beautiful room existing from the Ottoman era.
Almost adjacent to the palace is Hagia Sophia, a Christian Church converted later to a mosque and now serving as a museum. It boggles my mind that this immense domed church was completed in the year 537. It's showing it's age(!) but is still breathtaking. Throughout Haggia Sophia are complete or partial mosaics showing Jesus, Mary, John the Baptist, etc. They were covered up for many centuries after the building became a mosque. Now Christian and Muslim art and symbolism are displayed side by side.
No trip to Turkey is complete without a visit to one of the historic hammams. A hammam is a traditional turkish bath. The Cagaloglu Hammam is in the Old City and has provided a place for socialization and getting clean (starting long before indoor plumbing was available) to Istanbul's women and men for over three hundred years. Leroy and I were given private changing rooms, draped with towels, then directed to a huge, steamy, domed, marble-clad room. The full treatment included massage, lots of soaping and scrubbing, and having buckets of hot and cold water dumped on us. We left invigorated!
The streets of Istanbul are extremely clean and safe, but they are still pretty confusing. They wind up and down the hills in all directions. Most are very narrow and are lined with tall, ornate buildings. Peddlers of fresh-squeezed juice, bagels, roasted chestnuts, and sweet corn are on every corner, it seems. Cats are everywhere, sunning themselves on stone walls and doorsteps. Most streets look alike to us, but we've at least learned to find our way from Galata Tower across the Golden Horn to the Old City and back. We'll venture further in the next few days!
Istanbul keeps getting better. Yesterday we were up and out early with the intention of being first in line at Hagia Sophia (purchasing a three-day, multi-museum pass that would allow us to avoid waiting in lines.) Unfortunately, we got lost but ended up strolling through a beautiful park near the palace. By the time we got to the right place, the lines were reasonable but the ticket office had run out of museum passes (Jim and Stephen had just purchased the last two!) So... we had to go to another museum and wait forever in line to get our passes. Eventually we succeeded and were on our way.
We toured the Topkapi Palace, home of the Ottoman Empire sultans. The palace is built as a series of pods connected by covered walkways. It occupies an impressive site on a hill where the Golden Horn meets the Bosporus. The palace is mostly noted for the spectacular and colorful tilework decorating all rooms, especially in the expansive Harem. The sultan's chamber is considered the most beautiful room existing from the Ottoman era.
Almost adjacent to the palace is Hagia Sophia, a Christian Church converted later to a mosque and now serving as a museum. It boggles my mind that this immense domed church was completed in the year 537. It's showing it's age(!) but is still breathtaking. Throughout Haggia Sophia are complete or partial mosaics showing Jesus, Mary, John the Baptist, etc. They were covered up for many centuries after the building became a mosque. Now Christian and Muslim art and symbolism are displayed side by side.
No trip to Turkey is complete without a visit to one of the historic hammams. A hammam is a traditional turkish bath. The Cagaloglu Hammam is in the Old City and has provided a place for socialization and getting clean (starting long before indoor plumbing was available) to Istanbul's women and men for over three hundred years. Leroy and I were given private changing rooms, draped with towels, then directed to a huge, steamy, domed, marble-clad room. The full treatment included massage, lots of soaping and scrubbing, and having buckets of hot and cold water dumped on us. We left invigorated!
The streets of Istanbul are extremely clean and safe, but they are still pretty confusing. They wind up and down the hills in all directions. Most are very narrow and are lined with tall, ornate buildings. Peddlers of fresh-squeezed juice, bagels, roasted chestnuts, and sweet corn are on every corner, it seems. Cats are everywhere, sunning themselves on stone walls and doorsteps. Most streets look alike to us, but we've at least learned to find our way from Galata Tower across the Golden Horn to the Old City and back. We'll venture further in the next few days!