Our next stop was to The Ayasofya.  It is  a former Greek Orthodox patriarchal basilica (church), the a catholic church, later an imperial mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey.  

Between The Blue Mosque and Ayasofya, we explored the Hippodrome.  From Wikipedia: “The Hippodrome of Constantinople (Turkish: Sultanahmet Meydan?, At Meydan?, Turkish pronunciation: [sul?tanah?met]) was a circus that was the sporting and social centre of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. Today it is a square named Sultanahmet Meydan?(Sultan Ahmet Square) in the Turkish city of Istanbul, with a few fragments of the original structure surviving. It is […]

Our first stop on our tour was The Blue Mosque – called Sultan Ahmet Camii in Turkey.

This morning we caught an early ferry ride to the European side of Istanbul for a tour of the Blue Mosque, Ayasofya, The Hippodrome, and The Grand Bazaar.

It is late here in Istanbul – 10:30pm already!  We had a nice dinner out at an outdoor restaurant (they all seem to have outdoor seating).  One big drawback – 75% of the population seems to smoke here.  Since most of the restaurants are indoor/outdoor seating – think of an open sunporch with a patio […]

Another location that I’ve never been to before can now be crossed off that list.  Istanbul, Turkey will be where I am for the next 3 days.

We had a full day in Heidelberg today. We took the early train (10:30am) from Mannheim Hauptbahnhof (Main Train Station) to Heidelberg which took only 15 minutes. Then we walked from the Heidelberg Hauptbahnhof to the old town where all the shopping and sights are. There are very old buildings (some under renovation) and the […]