Istanbul, Turkey

Hagia Sofia from the Ship

In case you are unfamiliar with “Constantinople”, it has 16 million inhabitants, 99.9 % are Moslem but only about 35% of those are practising. It recently displaced Rome as the third most popular tourist destination city in Europe (even though only half of the city is in Europe). I can see why, what a city!

The Blue Mosque From the Ship

This morning we traded in our hard earned Big “O” points for a baseball cap and a visor. It was fun mini-golfing and playing trivia to earn them.  We know they do this points thing to try and keep people active and interacting and it seems to work.

We made a point of being up on deck as we sailed through the Sea of Marmara and watched Istanbul loom closer and closer. Stunning architecture in a beautiful location. We can see Asia on one side of the harbour and Europe on the other. This is as close as Norma has been to Asia.

We had booked an afternoon tour which started shortly after docking at 1 pm. We first visited the Hagia Sophia Museum (originally a Christian church, then a mosque, now a museum slowly being turned back into the original church). The interior was breathtaking. It felt really emotional visiting and two women had tears in their eyes.  At one time it was the largest single building in the world. There are wonderful paintings on the ceiling. When it was transformed from the Christian church to the mosque, a beautiful mosaic of Mary and Baby Jesus had been painted over. This has now been restored. The alter was also moved to face toward Mecca so to this day it is still not central. This was a awe inspiring visit and started lots of questioning around how they accomplished this architectural feat all those years ago in 400 AC.

Hagia Sofia Interior

Restored Mosaic

We then walked over to the Topkapi Palace, the home of the Sultans who ruled the Ottoman Empire. It also is now a museum which houses most of the national treasures of the middle east including an 86 carat diamond and the emerald-encrusted dagger of Sultan Mahmud I which a movie centered around. No photography allowed in this area. As you can guess there are also guards in these rooms protecting the treasures.

Sultans Palace

School Class in the Palace

On the way back we stopped in the Old City and the Grand Bazaar which has been a part of Istanbul for 600+ years. It is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, with 61 covered streets and over 3,000 shops which attract between 250,000 and 400,000 visitors daily.  It is customary to bargain in the bazaar. We did a little bit but our hearts were not really in it – why haggle for a couple of dollars one way or the other? Of course we were not dealing with big ticket items (real carpets) either.

Grand Bazaar - Note Intrepid Shopper in Foreground

You think you have seen traffic problems? You ain’t seen nothin’! Cars, buses, motorbikes, bicycles and pedestrians trying to go in multiple directions on way too narrow streets. It seems like there are more cars than the 16 million people in Istanbul.

As I write this evening prayers have started. We know this as there are over 7,000 mosques in the city and lots of them have loud speakers on the minarets that broadcast the 5 times a day prayers. The first one of the day is at 5 am so we won’t need the alarm in the morning. Bet this evening they were praying they won’t be stuck in gridlock until morning!

We were both feeling a little sad this morning realizing this is our last day on the Marina. We have had some wonderful adventures and will spend lots of time reminiscing and reviewing our pictures. Lots of stories to tell. Thus this will be our last post- thanks for reading about our cruise.

Good Night from Istanbul