Istanbul is Constantinople

As promised, here is the Istanbul post.  Obviously, we have loads more pictures but I'm only going to put a few here.  Gotta save something for the family to sit through.

We arrived in the afternoon and our hotel picked us up.  It is almost an hour to the old town where we stayed.  The hotel was really cool and what a view!  We had three days and two nights in the city, so we got moving immediately, wandering the streets.  We happened to be there right in the middle of Ramadan and it was a huge party as soon as the sun went down.  All of the families came out and gathered in the park around the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque to have picnics.  People and children everywhere, it was great!  There was even a festival area hightlighting the food and crafts of Ramadan.

As far as the sights, what can I say?  The Hagia Sofia is absolutely one of the most incredible things I've ever seen.  I studied it in school and was amazed by its age and its size and that it was a church and then converted to a mosque.  But, it seemed so exotic and outside of any possibility to see it.  I was awed that Mike had been there before we were together.  And now I've seen it too!  Something to check off the bucket list.  Everyone should go to see the Hagia Sofia

We went to the Bazaar, we walked across the Bosporus to the new town, we went underground into the Cistern and toured the Topkapi palace.  Everything was incredible with fantastic views!  It is an amazing piece of real estate that Istanbul occupies and I would go back in a heartbeat.  We'll go to the Asian part of Istanbul next time.

Next stop - Bulgaria.

Flying into the city

Ataturk Airport

Our hotel room

The Blue Mosque decorated for Ramadan (or Ramazan as we saw it written)

Women leaving the Blue Mosque, I love this photo because they look like spirits or something.

The Ramadan Festival

Festival entrance - so many people!

Breakfast at the hotel restaurant - what a view!

Inside the Hagia Sofia

Arabic medallions added after it was converted to a mosque

There were cats everywhere in the city and apparently this one likes to sleep right here.

When the Hagia Sofia was converted to a mosque, all of the Christian imagery was covered, but it keeps coming back.  See the crosses?

Aaawww...

View of the old town from the new part of town, the Asian part of Istanbul is on the far left

A vendor in the spice market - see the pyramids of spices?

Dinner on the way to the train station to catch the train to Sofia, Bulgaria

Oh, the places we will go - Amsterdam

Mike's favorite beans

View from the hotel (Yes, we stayed at Best Western)

Dutch Windmill

Bicycle parking in Haarlem

'American Style Hotdogs'

Tulips!

We are back from two weeks in Europe! Actually, we got back on Sunday so I am a little behind. I thought that I would just start at the beginning of our trip and show you some pictures. So here goes. Starting with Amsterdam...

Amsterdam is very crowded. The streets are crowded, the museums are crowded. But, Holland is pretty. We took a train to Haarlem the second day there and it is a great town. Pretty square with a huge church and lots of neat old buildings. We also took a tour of a reconstructed windmill. Oh, and there seems to be a least two bicycles for every person in the Netherlands. So many bicycles! We only saw two people fall over though, so it seems to be working. We went to the Van Gogh museum (awesome except for the people) and I went to Anne Frank's house. I reread her diary on the way there and all I can say is, wow. You can actually go up the stairs and behind the bookcase into their apartment and walk through it. It is so moving and they have her actual diary on display! Amazing. I'm glad that I read it beforehand. No pictures there, but I did buy a book about the museum. We also took a boat tour through the canals as part of the conference. There are so many houseboats on the canals! What would it be like to live on a houseboat in a canal in Amsterdam?