A long weekend in Istanbul

Going to Istanbul was a bit of an impromptu trip for me as Dave had to be there for work and it WAS a long Holiday weekend.  I booked a ticket through my UA Mileage account not realizing that I was in Business Class while poor DH had to suffer through Economy :) but really I'm not that fancy - and could have done without the pigeon mouse hors d'oeuvre and sesame meatballs with pepper foam entree -  and I would have preferred to be sitting with the hubs eating the beef stew.  I just wanted to make sure we were on the same flight.  Good thing because I don't think I would have had any sanity left if I had to find my way to Hotel Daphne alone in Istanbul!  We arrived around 5:00 pm and didn't reach our hotel until nearly 7:30 but all was good because once we went up to the Terrace Restaurant on the rooftop of Hotel Daphne we didn't care, it was a beautiful view!

The Marmara Sea in Istanbul

During dinner we experienced our first "call to prayer" that is amplified from loudspeakers on the minarets of a mosque.  Previously, the prayer leader (imam) would climb the minaret 5 times a day and announce the call to prayer.  Now, they just blare it over the speakers and it can be heard all throughout the city - 5 times a day.  The video is from the next night but the chant is what is played each time the people are called to pray.

After dinner we strolled around the streets of Old Town Istanbul.  We were in a prime location, just a few minutes walk from the Hippodrome and mostly all of the major sights including Hagia Sophia which was pretty amazing to see against the night sky.

Hagia Sophia

Sunday morning we enjoyed breakfast at the hotel and then went to the Blue Mosque.  It was exciting because we hadn't seen a mosque before and it was just so different than all of the European churches and cathedrals that we've been in so far.  The Blue Mosque was built in only 7 years (1616) and is unique because of its 6 minarets.  The minarets flaunt the wealth of the Sultan or the ruler who financed it.  Stepping inside was impressive!  With the rich blue colors and all of the tiles that dominate the interior, it was really stunning!

Inside the Blue Mosque

Shoes have to be removed and shoulders and knees have to be covered, for both men and women.  Heads don't necessarily have to be wrapped but I put my scarf over mine out of respect.  Inside, it is one large open space that filled daily with people for prayer but they are segregated.  Men are in the main hall while women are in the areas behind barriers at the back or on the second level.  One reason is that men are better able to concentrate on God if the women are not bent over in front of them :)

In the Sultanahmet Park between the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia

We went across the Sultanahmet Park to the equally impressive Hagia Sophia which was the patriarchal church of Constantinople for centuries built around A.D. 532, but was converted to a mosque in 1453 when the Ottomans captured Constantinople.  Today it is a museum and very beautiful and ornate one at that.  The large round things in the picture below are 24 foot wide leather-wrapped medallions.

The Nave and Apse in Hagia Sophia

Dave purchased an audio guide but I just followed Rick's tour throughout the entire building.  The mosaics inside were old and beautiful and the dome was enormous!  Paris' Notre-Dame could fit within it!

Dave in the Nave with the Dome above soaring so high!

We spent a good amount of time in Hagia Sophia, really just taking it all in.  Moving on, we ventured behind there to the grounds of Topkapi Palace.  This Palace is at the tip of the Old Town Peninsula and is a former residence of the sultans.  We arrived to find a super duper long line and decided not to wait.  So far we'd been very lucky with getting through lines pretty quickly but didn't want to press our luck and didn't really feel the need to go in so we walked around the courtyards that are not walled in.  It's quite a massive complex and there were some other things that we wanted to see so we decided to move on.

The Gate of Salutation in Topkapi Palace where we stopped because there is no getting through without a ticket 

The edge of the European Istanbul peninsula - across the Bosphorus is the Asian side of Istanbul

Across the busy Divan Yolu street was the entrance to the Underground Cistern, a vast reservoir that dates back to the 6th century A.D. with 336 columns and capacity to hold 27 million gallons of water!

Inside the Cistern

Turks calls this yerebatan sarayi which means sunken palace and you can certainly see why.  It's really something, about the size of 2 football fields!  Water used to fill space but now there are large fish that live in there.  It was dark and cool, kind of creepy, but otherwise quite interesting.  My favourite part were the two mysterious heads of Medusa that were in a dark end of the cistern. 

Medusa head that appears to be a support to the column that it's under!

We found a nice quiet outside restaurant for lunch on a side street away from all of the busy-ness and touristy-ness.  It was a beautiful day and the city was just filled with 1000's of people.  With any new place visited comes new experiences.  In Istanbul for example there are very aggressive street and store merchants that basically will follow and bother you until you give them the time of day.  It's best to NOT make eye contact and pretty much act like you didn't hear them!  It sounds rude but it's really what has to be done to enjoy time in a new city.  If I happened to make contact it was best to nicely say, "no thank you" and keep on walking!  It was getting kind of old so our lunch break was very nice indeed!!

After lunch we took the city tram to the Golden Horn which is an inlet off the Bosphorus Strait and walked across the Galata Bridge.

The Galata Bridge over the Golden Horn

The upper level of the bridge is completely filled with fishermen catching mackerel and anchovies and the bottom level of the bridge is lined with seafood restaurant after restaurant.  The bridge goes over to the New District of Istanbul which is a bit more modern and bustling than the Old Town but we didn't linger - we made our way back down to the hotel for some R&R.

Sunday night we dined at Tarihi Cesme which was delicious Turkish cuisine, rated high on Trip Advisor and close to our hotel.   We were joined by a little stray cat who made her way around the tables looking for food.  The outside was under vines and trellises that the strays would walk on above us and we even witnessed one cat fight where one of the cats climbed right down a tree in the middle of the sitting area.  There were so many strays in Istanbul!

Our dinner companion at Tarihi Cesme Restaurant

We walked around a bit after dinner and went back to the Hippodrome and people watched on a park bench before calling it a day.  The Hippodrome area is so neat - it was built in the 4th century A.D. and was the primary venue for chariot races.  It's about the size of an NFL stadium and it could seat 100,000 people.  There is still a type of "track" that surrounds it with the occasional car or scooter but mostly it's a pedestrian area filled with tourists, watermelon carts, corn carts as well as the monuments- Egyptian Obelisk, Column of Constantine and the Column of the Serpent. 

Watermelon cart seen everywhere!  Other carts sell corn on the cob, ice cream and pastries.

Monday morning we woke up to rain so we were happy that we crammed in so much the day before.  We had breakfast at the hotel and checked out but left our bags there so that we could go visit the World's Oldest Shopping Mall, the Grand Bazaar which was about a 15 minute walk from the hotel.  What a sight at the Bazaar!  The lights, the colors, the shops, the people! 

Inside the Grand Bazaar

It was closed on Sunday so no doubt was Monday going to be a zoo but we had to see it and we only saw a fraction of it.  It's a maze of covered streets with over 4,000 shops with pushy merchants trying to all give you the best deal and get you into their shop to drink their tea!  I wanted to get some pashminas and I knew DH had had enough so I picked a shop where the nice little fella said he could give me a good deal but I really don't feel I got the best deal - I'm not a wheeler and dealer so I'm sure I paid more than I could have but I'm quite happy with what what I got!  It started pouring outside and the drainage inside the Bazaar was getting backed up with water spilling out into the inside streets.  I was getting thoroughly disgusted thinking that it most likely was sewage and I was in flip flops so we high tailed it out of the Bazaar!  I wanted to go to the 17th century Spice Market a little further away but with the rain we decided to head back to the hotel to retrieve our belongings and make our way over to the Asian side of Istanbul. 

The reason we moved locations was because the JD office is on the Asian side - across the Bosphorus - which meant we walked to the Tram from the hotel, took it to the Ferry that crosses the Bosphorus and then take a bus to our hotel.  It all cost only 10 TL ($5!)  but it took nearly 3 hours!  We weren't really in any kind of hurry though and taking ferry across gave us opportunity for some great pictures.

Crossing the Bosphorus Strait

The Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophi in Istanbul's Old Town

It seemed very different on the Asian side, I guess more, "city and suburbia like" than what we had seen in the Old Town.  And I couldn't believe that we were still in a part of Istanbul - it's huge!  When we finally arrived at The Green Park Pendik Hotel it was about 3:00 so we ate a late lunch and took a long stroll along the coast of the Marmara Sea since there wasn't anything else around us but the view.  Across the Sea we could see mountains (which would still be Turkey) that had snow on them.   It was quite desolate where we were and pretty relaxing which was good since Dave had to be up early to meet with coworkers.   We had a low key evening and were happy to watch the BBC!

My flight wasn't until 1:55 on Tuesday but I had to leave the hotel at 10:30 via cab to make sure I got there in time.  My Turkish cabbie didn't speak any English but what he could say was, "Istanbul traffic is problem" over and over and over.  He got me there in a little over an hour which was pretty good considering it could have taken over 2 hours and I think he was kind of mad when when I didn't give more of a tip.  I tried to tell him no hurry!!

Since I had time at the airport I spent the rest of my Turkish Lira at the Duty Free and met an amazing group of women from Canada.  There were 20 of them, all wearing the same pink shirt, on my flight to FRA so of course I had to ask...they were a Dragon Boat Racing Team made up of breast cancer survivors.  What a concept!  The woman that I was chatting with was telling me all about this worldwide organization of breast cancer survivors and the competitions that they go to.  This group had just done races in Israel and on the Golden Horn in Istanbul - I would loved to have seen it.  They were an amazing group of ladies in age range of 40-75!

We had a good trip to Istanbul.  I can't say as if I would ever go back there. We did say that it would be a great place to go to a resort, on the coast of the sea in the summer months but for now I'm crossing Turkey off my list and focusing on the next adventure.  Baltic Cruise to Copenhagen, Stockholm, Tallin and Saint Petersburg in just over a week!  Oh my let the packing begin.  Happy travels.

Istanbul Pictures

A visit from our Portland friends!

Our second set of house guests were due to arrive just a few days after John and Maureen.  No problem, I didn't need to sleep!  After a quick house cleaning, guest room prep, haircut, grocery shopping, German lesson, and hitting the gym, I was beyond ecstatic to meet my high school friends Stacy and Doug at the Kaiserslautern Hbf on Wednesday as they were arriving via ICE train from a week in Paris.  It had been about six years since we'd all seen each other and the best part about meeting up with old friends is that things seem just the same as they did the last time we were together.  And they sure did!

We did a quick walk around Kaiserslautern, pointing out a Bierstube or two that I thought might be of interest.  There was some pretty big news in K'Town that day a, WWII Bomb had been found downtown and they were defusing it the next day!  Honestly, that all sounds more exciting than it really was.  Because Stace and Doug are such good, long time friends, I knew they would be OK if I ditched them for a measly hour and half to go to my German Class.  They were, as they found their way right into the Bierstubes I mentioned but I'm pretty sure I didn't hear the end of my "ditching" them for the next few days :)

After class I walked over to the Hofbrauhaus-Kaiserslautern to meet up with them and Dave for drinks and dinner.  What a fine German meal!  It's great to see how much our guests have enjoyed the cuisine here, it's really fantastic!  Plus after a week in Paris, Doug and Stacy were in need of a "food change."  It's not Munich but the Hofbrauhaus is still a lot of fun here and a good taste of what the German/Bavarian culture and food is all about.  Plus, the hostess gave me a German menu and the other 3 got English...tee hee. 

Thursday was a German Holiday so the four of us took the train with the Rhineland Pfalz Pass up the River Rhine to the charming town of Bacharach.  I'd been before but there is no getting bored with these towns on the river.  The town was alive and bustling on the beautiful day.  We walked around and settled on lunch in the courtyard of the old Posthof.  Afterwards we made the 15 minute climb up to the castle where we relaxed for a little bit with Weizen's and spectacular views.   We walked down along the old medieval wall amongst the vineyards and grazing goats.  It was beautiful!

We took the train from Bacharach to Bingen where we walked along the river walk that was filled with tons of people...because it was a Holiday.  We stopped along the way at a Biergarten for beers and pretzels before heading back to Enkenbach on the train.  That night we brought Doug and Stacy to Stella's for some more culinary delight.  Of course we all had great meals and this time Stella came out of the kitchen to meet our friends!  We love her :)  It was such a lovely day with our Portland friends!

PICTURES FROM THE DAY

Friday was just the three of us as DH was back to work so we decided to train it over to Bad Durkheim - the town known for the world's largest wine festival - because they were having a Stadtfest (City Festival).  Bad Durkheim is a spa town, so beautiful and peaceful that it would be nice to just enjoy the parks and the tranquility there.  We walked over to the TI and picked up a city map, walked through the Kurpark to the mini-golf course that wasn't open and settled for some drinks at one of the little market squares to enjoy some sun and people watching.  

Bad Durkheim is also known to have the longest salt evaporation works in Germany called the Gradierbau.  It's a 333 meter long wall where water trickles down over blackthorn twigs and is then nebulised making for healthy marine air.  Deep inhalation of the air provides relief from respiratory problems.  We made our way over to the wall and Doug payed the EUR 1,50 to walk it because he thought maybe it would help the hearing issue in his right ear while Stace and I walked along below reaping in the same benefits as we got misted.  It's really quite enormous and I don't know how I missed it on my last visit there - oh wait I was there for the WORLD'S LARGEST WINE FEST - I wasn't interested in salt walls.

Doug at the Gradierbau - healed from the miraculous salt water



The Statdfest was held throughout the town in the various Marktplatz.  We found a tent in the Stadtplatz that had Rose Weinschorles that my friends absolutely loved!  After a few drinks, snacks, laughs and people watching the skies started to cloud up and we headed back on the train to Kaiserslautern to meet up with Dave.

Radlers for the ride back to K'Town



We took Doug and Stacy to the Brauhaus am Markt in Kaiserslautern for one final German meal before heading back to Paris the next day for one more night of their vacation.   It was a good dinner, a GREAT couple of days with my old high school friends and lot of laughs and fun.  We played Euchre back at the house for hours, just like the old days!  16 empty 1/2 litres later we had to call it quits.  I hadn't laughed as hard as I did that night, especially at Doug's attempt to pour beers into his Weizen glass...I still chuckle just thinking about it!  We can't thank Stace and Doug enough for coming to see us during their Paris vacation - it was absolutely superfuntastic!   We're already making plans for our 20th reunion...which reminds me of a key topic of discussion regarding how old we are getting!    Age is just a number - LIFE IS GOOD!

PICTURES FROM THE DAY

Our first visitors from the U.S.A. - The Mitchell's do Europe!

We had been anxiously awaiting the arrival of our very good friends from Iowa on Saturday, May 5th for a few months now and were so excited for all of the fun trips that we had planned while they were here.  They got in mid-morning and after a sleepless flight we decided to have a nice low key day around our town and Kaiserslautern.  We took them for their first German meal to one of our favourite places, The Brauhaus am Markt in Kaiserslautern, that has good food and delicious home brewed beer.  They were quite happy with it!  The next day was a bit rainy but we drove up to Bingen on the Rhine River so that we could board a KD Cruise Boat to see some of the most beautiful scenery in Germany - castles galore!  The rain didn't stop us from having a great time, we stayed on the upper deck most of the ride upstream to Boppard.  We had a nice lunch, toured around the cute town then took the train back downstream to Bingen.   It was such a fun day, the slide show below captures it all!

PICTURES FROM THE DAY

 

Monday, while Dave was at work, the Mitchell's and I took the train over to the Weinstraße to visit the towns of Neustadt, Deidesheim, and Wachenheim.  All of the towns along the Weinstraße are so unique in their own way.  There are great places to taste wine, try foods from the area, enjoy a festival or just get lost in the cobblestone streets and find all that the towns have to offer.  We had another fun day!  Taking the train back to Enkenbach, Dave picked us up and we took the Mitchell's to our temporary home when we relocated to Germany - The Barbarossohof Hotel - for another fine German dinner.

PICTURES FROM THE DAY

Tuesday morning we got around early because the Mitchell's and I were headed to Munich for the next 3 days.  We took the train, which was a bit chaotic for a Tuesday morning, but finally made it to Munich after a few switches around midday.  Our hotel was a few stops away from the Main Hbf near the English Garden in Munich.  We checked in, grabbed lunch and explored the beautiful city of Munich.  It was a gorgeous day, perfect for sitting in the Viktualienmarkt Bier Garten drinking the beer of the day and people watching.  We went back to our spacious triple hotel room and rested up for our super early departure to Salzburg (via train) the next morning.  Trains were running behind so we barely made it to Salzburg in time to meet our guide for our Sound of Music Tour with Bob's Tours.  Oddly enough as we were darting out of the Hbf I noticed the yellow van and the guide, Anna Rosa, who Dave and I had when we did the tour last October!  It was a fun tour, just as fun as last time!  I was happy to do it again because it was on Maureen's Top 3 list of things to do!   We spent the afternoon in Salzburg, hopped on the train back to Munich and enjoyed great food, litres, and fun back at the famous Hofbräuhaus!

PICTURES FROM THE TRIP 

Thursday we split up as the Mitchell's were heading to Dachau Concentration Camp and I wasn't sure what I wanted to do! I didn't want to go back to the camp so I decided to visit the Nymphenburg Palace because I didn't see it last time I was in Munich. We've seen so many of King Ludwig II's castles so why not see one more!? It was much like the others - a Baroque palace - but this was was the birthplace of the King and the it served as the summer residence of the royal Bavarian family. It was a beautiful day and I took tons of pictures! I met up with the Mitchell's at the Munich Hbf for our journey back to Enkenbach. That night we dined at our little neighborhood restaurant of choice, Stella's, but unfortunately our favourite little Greek/German Hostess was in the kitchen cooking. It was still nice to be able to enjoy the Biergarten!

NYMPHENBURG PICTURES

Friday was another beautiful day and the last day on the Mitchell's Rail Pass so the 4 of us (DH took the day off!) took the train to Stuttgart for their Springfest. We'd never been but the trains take about the same time as driving there so it seemed to be a good choice. That is until we get on a train that had no air, no air circulation, and no open windows...and boy oh boy was it HOT! We were happy to get out in the fresh air and find our way to the Festival. Stuttgart is quite a big city and we didn't really spend any time sightseeing so it will have to be one that we go back to. The Festival was like most others and I'm glad the Mitchell's got a chance to experience it with the rides, the food, the people watching and the Beer Tents!! Another fun day during Mitchell Mania.

STUTTGART PICTURES




Our last day with our friends was spent in the town of Strasbourg, France.  It was another place that we had not been to before and only a two hour drive away.  It is a very cute town with the enormous Gothic cathedral as it's focal point.  We wandered around, found a lovely little outside cafe for lunch and took a boat cruise on the River L'Ill.  I'm usually right on the ball with picture captions but since I dozed off for half of the boat ride you'll just have to enjoy the scenery!  Dave was in charge of pictures during that time.  We walked through the cute little streets, Mo bought some lovely handmade French pottery and I bought some croissants...wel all choose our souveniers differently :p  It was a great last day with the Mitchell's!

STRASBOURG PICTURES

I made a German farewell dinner for them with different grilled wursts, kraut, and warm German potato salad.  It was delish!  We had a great night at home since we had to get them to Frankfurt pretty early in the am.  It was such a great week with our friends from the Midwest and we thank them for coming all this way for a week of fun and exhaustion.  They said that if they stayed any longer they may have killed me :) but good thing they didn't because I had two days to  prepare for our next guests from the USA!  Fun times indeed!!