Day 2 - Istanbul, Türkiye (Turkey), October 20-21, 2023 - Blue Mosque

-

After a long three-flight journey from Kansas City through Chicago and Frankfurt on Thursday, October 19, we landed safely in Istanbul, Türkiye at 1 PM local time, Friday October 20.  Diane took two half-hour naps, and I may have dosed 15 minutes during our flights.  No sleep is best when flying east to limit the effects of jet lag.

Inside the airport terminal



Our first two nights were spent at the Istanbul Sheraton Atakoy Inn


View from our hotel room window


Concession area beside swim pool; note the "sails"



On Saturday, October 21 we bused into Istanbul, the bejeweled capital of Istanbul, which sits between two continents and is home to 450 mosques.  We visited the famous Blue Mosque with its six minarets and sparkling interior.  To say the mosque is massive is an understatement!

The Blue Mosque in Istanbul, also known by its official name, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Turkish: Sultan Ahmet Camii), is an Ottoman-era historical imperial mosque located in Istanbul, Turkey. It was constructed between 1609 and 1617 during the rule of Ahmed I and remains a functioning mosque today. It also attracts a large number of tourists and is one of the most iconic and popular monuments of Ottoman architecture.

The mosque has a classical Ottoman layout with a central dome surrounded by four semi-domes over the prayer hall. It is fronted by a large courtyard and flanked by six minarets. On the inside, it is decorated with thousands of Iznik tiles and painted floral motifs in predominantly blue colors, which give the mosque its popular name. The mosque's külliye (religious complex) includes Ahmed's tomb, a madrasa, and several other buildings in various states of preservation.

The mosque was built next to the former Hippodrome (horse racetrack) and stands across from the Hagia Sophia, another popular tourist site. The Blue Mosque was included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site list in 1985 under the name of "Historic Areas of Istanbul."





























The following day we returned to the mosque area to visit St. Sophia (Hagia Sophia)













 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 1 - 2d & 3d Journeys of the Apostle Paul

-
Image
  Diane and I left a day early on the 19th to spend an extra day in Istanbul to have more time at its three main attractions, the primary being the famous Blue Mosque.  We traveled by cruise ship from there to Athens, Greece to trace and follow the footsteps of the Apostle Paul's 2d and 3d Journeys.  We visited many of the churches he established. Our cruise ship was extremely small holding only 600 passengers, of which 280 were from our church, the about 300 from other USA Methodist churches.   Our tour operator, Educational Opportunities (EO), provided great details, including flights:  https://www.eo.travelwithus.com/tours/gc23102023d#eotours A detailed itinerary is below this table. Friday, October 20 Itinerary: Arrive in Istanbul, Turkiye. Continue to your hotel for dinner and overnight. Accommodation:   Sheraton   Saturday, October 21 Pre-Trip Information:  Itinerary: The bejeweled capital of Istanbul sits between two continents and is home to 450 mosques. You w
Read more

Days 1-2 - Intro 2024 Viking World Cruise/Santa Barbara, CA

-
Image
Snow pictures at noon Tuesday January 9, our original flight day at 3 PM. The pictures above were emailed to us by friends "back home."  We watched forecasts for over a week and did not like our favorite TV weather forecasters.  On Monday (1/8) we had an extremely rushed day!  We were to fly Tuesday (1/9) afternoon, however when our travel agent called Monday morning suggesting we fly that afternoon, we agreed but had to step on the throttle to get to KCI on time.  Part of our jumping thru hoops Monday morning was to cancel KCI hotel reservation.  Thankfully our travel agent made the LAX reservation when she changed our plane reservation from Tuesday to Monday, same times. A few days earlier we made reservations at a KCI hotel to spend Monday night then take a shuttle to the airport the next noon (3 PM flight).  This way our friend would not have had to drive to and from KCI in the snow.  But that all changed,  per paragraph above.  We did get off the KCI ground Monday aftern
Read more

Thursday, December 28, 2017, Puerto Quetzal & Antigua, Guatamala

-
Image
We arrived Puerto Quetzal before noon today then shortly we were on our way to Antigua.  It was a little over an hour's bus ride; we saw many interesting things along the way.  To begin with we were greeted with a welcome sign as we walked off the cruise ship. Before we stated an ascent into the mountains, we passed thru sugar cane fields.  We had never seen tasseled cane plants before.  We think it's because we had never been to sugar cane areas in the US at the time of growing to observe the tassels. We passed numerous cane hauling semis along the way.  These double trailer rigs really take up a lot of length. For all you volunteers at COR Furnishings Ministry, I got a little homesick when we passed this sign!  One of numerous fruit stands along the way.  We are enjoying lotsa fresh tropical fruit at breakfasts.  If anyone complains about high heating and cooking costs back home, just send them south. Once in Antigua, we step
Read more