Travelogue Istanbul: Day 7

We woke up to another beautiful day and enjoyed another great Turkish breakfast. Really, it is so much better than the Romans with their croissant and coffee. They have rolls and cheese, tomatoes and cucumbers, yogurt and juice. It was a nice change. Anyway, we headed out our front door to the Blue Mosque
The Blue Mosque was built in 1609 and is gorgeous. It is named for its rich blue tiles and the stained glass is beautiful. I was impressed with how light it was inside. It is quite a contrast from the dark and dreary cathedrals of Europe- not to mention the ubber dark Greek Orthodox churches. Apparently they are more lenient on their rules, because I wasn't required to cover my head in here.

This is looking from the gates of the Blue Mosque at the Hagia Sofia- which was our next stop. Emperor Justinian built this massive building in 532 AD. For 900 years it was known as the "east vatican".

When the Ottoman's took Constantinople in 1453 it was converted into an imperial mosque. It was Istanbul's most important mosque for five centuries until it was converted in 1930 to a museum. This is the apse of the church (facing Jerusalem), when it was converted to a mosque a small off-centered niche was added (facing mecca) to show the direction to face during prayers.

This is the legendary "perspiring column", or the column of St. Gregory. For centuries, people believed this column "wept" holy water that could cure afflictions.

Put your thumb in the hole and if it comes out feeling damp- your prayer will be answered. If that doesn't work-it is also recommended that you put your thumb in and turn it 360 degrees to produce "wetness". :)

We all gave it a whirl.

This is in the upper gallery. The green marble circle is the spot reserved for the Empress' throne. Their is our empress- Katry on a pretty nice throne.

I love this picture with the domes and minarets. Beautiful!

This is one of the mosaics that was uncovered when the mosque became a museum. They had plastered over all the frescoes and mosaics in the building to make it a mosque.

I loved having Katry along on this trip. She was always by my side and always took my hand to help me on long upward climbs. You couldn't ask for a better companion.

Is Brig holding up the columns or attempting to knock them down? Brig was also a great companion. He made sure that I never carried a bag, and was kind to share his ice cream, and everything else. :)

Our last stop was this underground cistern. This massive reservoir was built to store water in case of a water shortage. There are 336 columns down here in this massive room. (the size of 2 football fields). James Bonds adventure, "From Russia with Love", was filmed down here- when you could only move through it, by row boat.

After picking up some more tasty Doner Kebabs and Baklava we headed to the airport and barely made the flight to Athens. The passport check line was unbelievable with people taking forever to get through. We finally cried "uncle" and found a security officer sympathetic to our flight leaving in five minutes. Once we made it through- Brigham and Brig high tailed it down to our gate- which of course was as far away as possible. Katry was flying in front of me and I was moving as fast as possible. Thank heavens for the moving walkways- they made my "running" a little more effective. I am sure people got a kick out of watching a pregnant lady trying to run. Well- we made it onto our flight, but just barely and had a couple of hours to catch our breath.

We landed in Athens, found our rental car and drove off into the sunset for the Peloponnese. We found a nice hotel, some amazing souvlaki and then crashed for the night.

What a great adventure!