Istanbul Old City: Part 1

 On Sunday, September 20, we had the Welcome Briefing for our Overseas Adventure Travel "Turkey's Magical Hideaways".  We met our Trip Experience Leader, Selim and the other seven members of the group.  This was tied with our 2015 southern India trip for the smallest group in our nine OAT tours.  After the meeting, it was off to the bus to cross the Golden Horn to the Old City.  Two days was not much time to see Istanbul, and Selim packed some extra visits (the Blue Mosque and the Basilica Cistern) into the itinerary, so the first days of the tour were rather hectic.  After the tour, the consensus was that OAT should add an extra day in Istanbul.

First stop was the Blue Mosque, the Sultan Ahmet Mosque, built in the early seventeenth century.

 

Next, we went to the Hippodrome, which during Byzantine times was where the chariot races took place.  The people of Constantinople were crazy about this and which of the four teams (the Reds, Blues, Greens and Whites) one supported took on major political importance.  Not a few people were killed in riots or fights relating to the races.  There isn't much left today except the large oval space.  The bronze horses ended up at St. Mark's in Venice after the Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople in 1204.  There is a much older obelisk brought there from Egypt.

We then went to Hagia Sofia, which is more than a thousand years older than the Blue Mosque.  The Emperor Justinian had it built, the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom, in the sixth century.  When the Turks took the city in 1453, it became a mosque.  With the arrival of the secular Republic of Tukey in the 1920s it became a museum.  A few years ago it became a mosque again.  Now it is part mosque, part museum.  Unfortunately, it is currently under renovation, so we didn't see it to its best advantage.

Next, we took a quick look through the Spice Market, had lunch at a nearby restaurant and went back to the Spice Market on our own.

 

Next was a cruise up and down the Bosphorus, which is the strait that connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara and separates Europe from Asia.

 

That evening we had the Welcome Dinner, again at a restaurant in Galata overlooking the Golden Horn.