What a lovely day for a boat ride up the Bosphorus "Strait" (I'm told it's not really a strait but not sure what it is...) which connects the Black Sea to the North with the Aegean Sea to the South. The Bosphorous divides the European side of Istanbul from the Asian side. While the Sultans lived primarily on the European side - all the huge mosques and palaces are on that side, the summer residences and "women's palaces" are on the Asian side.
The day actually began at the Queen Mother's Mosque built in the mid-1600's by the mother and vice regent of a Sultan who preferred hunting to governing and whose mother was a very take charge kind of lady. Next to the mosque she built a spice bazaar to help fune the running of her mosque and because it was near the waterfront. It is quite the sight....I need to research the uses for and differences in different saffrons....also, tried TRUE Turkish delight. Oh my my my....what wonderful melt in your mouth stuff! And the price reflects it!
The primary scholarly reason for our trip was to view the Rumeli Castle (Roman Castle) built by Mehmet the Conqueror for he, his soldiers and their supplies while he lay seige to Constantinople in 1453 . It is an amazing castle structure built from the banks of the Bosphorus and up a steep hill, and covering many acres of ground.
We got within sight of the entrance to the Black Sea - may have to take a bus trip up to the Black Sea on one of our days off.
We stopped for about an hour at an amazing private museum that is home to a large collection of ancient pottery as well as the famous Iznik tiles. There were pieces dating back to the ancient Sumerians. Additionally they had a wonderful collection of Ottoman textiles and clothing - extremely intricate and detailed in their designs - on wonderfully rich fabrics of velvet, silk, cotton, and linen.
We returned to our hotel and discovered that today is the beginning of a city jazz festival and that there would be a Jazz band marching up the main street a few blocks from our hotel. Of course we had to go see! From all appearances they were from New Orleans...yes folks, we are a global community.
By the way, next week the Global Conference on Global Warming will be in Istanbul...but I will not. I figure you may see a bit about it in the news.
The day actually began at the Queen Mother's Mosque built in the mid-1600's by the mother and vice regent of a Sultan who preferred hunting to governing and whose mother was a very take charge kind of lady. Next to the mosque she built a spice bazaar to help fune the running of her mosque and because it was near the waterfront. It is quite the sight....I need to research the uses for and differences in different saffrons....also, tried TRUE Turkish delight. Oh my my my....what wonderful melt in your mouth stuff! And the price reflects it!
The primary scholarly reason for our trip was to view the Rumeli Castle (Roman Castle) built by Mehmet the Conqueror for he, his soldiers and their supplies while he lay seige to Constantinople in 1453 . It is an amazing castle structure built from the banks of the Bosphorus and up a steep hill, and covering many acres of ground.
We got within sight of the entrance to the Black Sea - may have to take a bus trip up to the Black Sea on one of our days off.
We stopped for about an hour at an amazing private museum that is home to a large collection of ancient pottery as well as the famous Iznik tiles. There were pieces dating back to the ancient Sumerians. Additionally they had a wonderful collection of Ottoman textiles and clothing - extremely intricate and detailed in their designs - on wonderfully rich fabrics of velvet, silk, cotton, and linen.
We returned to our hotel and discovered that today is the beginning of a city jazz festival and that there would be a Jazz band marching up the main street a few blocks from our hotel. Of course we had to go see! From all appearances they were from New Orleans...yes folks, we are a global community.
By the way, next week the Global Conference on Global Warming will be in Istanbul...but I will not. I figure you may see a bit about it in the news.
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