Istanbul

Fabulous city - full of life, friendly, happy people, architecture, history, delicious food, tea, traffic, sea and of course Turkish rugs!

Ayasofya Musuem - a big Wow inside!

Hagia Sophia (Turkish: Ayasofya) is a former Christian patriarchal basilica(church), later an imperial mosque, and now a museum (Ayasofya Müzesi) in Istanbul, Turkey. From the date of its construction in 537 until 1453, it served as a Greek Orthodox cathedral and seat of the Patriarch of Constantinople,^[1] except between 1204 and 1261, when it was converted to a Roman Catholic cathedral under the Latin Empire. The building was a mosque from 29 May 1453 until 1931. It was then secularized and opened as a museum on 1 February 1935.^[2]

Inside Ayasofya Musuem

Part of the ceiling of the Ayasofya,
unfortunately the photo does not
give it full credit

More of the Ayasofya- a must see in Istanbul

Turkish style lunch

John standing in Sultanahamet square

The Hippodrome of Constantinople (Turkish: Sultanahmet Meydanı,) was a circus that was the sporting and social centre of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. Today it is a square named Sultanahmet Meydanı (Sultan Ahmet Square) in the Turkish city of Istanbul, with a few fragments of the original structure surviving.

The word hippodrome comes from the Greek hippos (ἵππος), horse, and dromos (δρόμος), path or way. For this reason, it is sometimes also called Atmeydanı("Horse Square") in Turkish. Horse racing and chariot racing were popular pastimes in the ancient world and hippodromes were common features of Greek cities in the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine eras.

The Blue Mosque

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque or Sultan Ahmet Mosque (Turkish: Sultan Ahmet Camii) is a historic mosque in Istanbul. The mosque is popularly known as the Blue Mosque for the blue tiles adorning the walls of its interior.^[2]

It was built from 1609 to 1616, during the rule of Ahmed I. Its Külliye contains a tomb of the founder, a madrasah and a hospice. The Sultan Ahmed Mosque is still popularly used as a mosque.

Inside the Blue Mosque

Outside the Blue Mosque - highly
revered & open to the public for viewing

Grand Bazaar - lost nearly
a good day in here

John having a Turkish shave - looking pretty
chilled I must say!

Inside the Grand Bazaar

The Grand Bazaar (Turkish: Kapalıçarşı, meaning ‘Covered Bazaar’; also Büyük Çarşı, meaning ‘Grand Bazaar’^[1]) in Istanbul is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, with 61 covered streets and over 3,000 shops ^[2][3] which attract between 250,000 and 400,000 visitors daily.^[4] In 2014, it is listed No.1 among world's most-visited tourist attractions with 91,250,000 annual visitors.^[5]