We jumped in the van provided by Ziya and away we went to the Topkapi Palace- the primary residence of the Sultans from about 1459 - 1853. It was a very spread out palace with lots of different buildings. The sultans "entourage" was very big - often hundreds of people stayed with him (family, multiple wives, kids, relatives, etc). Despite the rain and the clouds, the views were great from the palace grounds.
After the Topkapi Palace, Amy was very excited to see the St. Saviour Church in Chora. The church was red brick and very unassuming from the outside, but it is known for having some of the oldest and best frescoes and mosaics in all of Turkey. The picture below was of a large mosaic of Jesus on a wall right above the entry to the church. The strange thing was as you walked back and forth past the wall, no matter which angle you're looking at the mosaic from, it looks like Jesus is watching you.
After the church, we headed back towards the center of the old city, walked around the Spice Market (another huge outdooor market selling spices and peanuts). There were very pushy salesmen standing outside the little shops who would speak in different languages trying to get us to come up to their window. Lets just say that Anthony heard a lot of Spanish given his dark complexion. Given the rain, we cut the afternoon short and went back to the hotel to relax a bit before dinner and then got to bed early for our day trip to Ephesus the next day.
We jumped on a BA flight the next morning to head to the town of Ephesus. We met our tour guide at the airport and hit the road for the 90 minute drive to a mountain top right next to Ephesus. First stop - a home believed to be where the Virgin Mary lived (and passed away).
It was a very small house on the top of a mountain with terrific views. People take pilgrimmages to this house from all over the world. They even sold holy water in nice small bottles, which Anthony picked up for his grandmother.
Next stop was the main attraction in Ephesus which was the old Roman city that has been buried for thousands of years. Currently, due to excavation, about 17% of the original city is now visible. The size of what is visible was vast, so it was fascinating to ponder what else lies beneath the surface.
This is the smaller of the two theatres which were visible.
Cool columns everywhere.
We even got a tour of how the old romans used to relieve themselves in the bathroom. Amazingly, they still work to this day as Anthony can testify.
A closer look at the library.
Amy was inspired by all of the statues around the city, so she did some posing of her own hoping to blend in.
You can get a real sense for the size of the library - see Amy all the way in the distance. Imagine how they built the city with no modern tools - those are heavy stones!
While Anthony was fascinated by the city, Amy fell in love with something a little less old - there were cats all around the city.
In an example of how some things never change in the human race, you can see some engraving on the street. Put these symbols together and see what you come up with - foot = "walk this way", heart = "love" and money = "bring your money". Hmmmm....
The last stop on what was clearly one of Anthony's favorite visits was the big theatre. Some of the biggest names in music have played in this theatre - Elton John, Sting, etc. Impressive
After the old city, we grabbed some lunch (as did our driver who didnt speak english) and then headed to a pottery maker. Similar to our visit with the rug makers two days before, a very small portion of the tour was about how they made pottery, and a large portion was a sales job on buying some of their materials. Amy was impressed (and a little saddened) at how easy they made it look. Anthony couldnt think of anything but the funny scene in the movie Ghost. But, the trip was productive, as we were about to get a house warming gift for Mike and Julie's new apartment.
And also continued our tradition of buying a Christmas ornament from each city we visit.
After another stop at a rug manufacturer with the accompanying lesson on rug making and apple tea, we headed back to the airport to get back to Istanbul.
The next morning we got up, met our guide and headed to the boat station for a sail along the Bosphorus.
Both sides of the large river (which separates europe from Asia) were jammed with houses and monuments.
Anthony was comforted when he saw a passenger wearing a very familar hat - NY fans everywhere!
After the boat tour, we drove back down towards the Dolmabahce Palace. First, time for a street side gyro. Good stuff.
We walked into the palace and after putting our little pink booties on to protect the balance floors from the rain, we walked through all the rooms of the head of state of Istanbul. Big grand rooms. Very nice crystal everywhere. Now this is a home!
Following our palace run, we headed to the Four Seasons hotel for a famous Turkish bath. We were sure to request one male and one female (the male for Amy and the female for Anthony, for our blog readers who were wondering). The bath had separate rooms - tiles on the floor, very hot surface. We started with a steam and then headed to meet the person who would be doing our massages. Anthony was a little surprised when he stumbled into the room without his glasses on when it was a male. Lets just say - a little uncomfortable - but at least we were both relaxed and clean from head to toe!
After the bath, we headed to dinner at the top of a hill with a great nightime view of Istanbul. It was a great way to end our trip to a city we like very much and recommend for anyone to go visit.
As every trip has to end, we headed to the airport the next morning to make our way back to the US.
It didnt take Amy very long to get her hands on a Brides magazine to being the planning!
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