Istanbul

 After a wonderful few weeks back in the UK visiting family and friends (thank you again to all the people who made it a great time), we came back to Turkey and spent four days in Istanbul. David came with us and stayed for a couple of weeks.


The Hagia Sophia
 A truly magnificent building which, in its time has been a mosque, a church, a mosque again and is now a museum. The  building is just colossal!

 Views around the interior.

The fountain outside the Hagia Sophia where they wash their feet before entering the mosque.

 Milepost in the centre of town

 Chai stop in the Grand Bazaar. The bazaar is a maze of "streets" all under cover and contain over 3,500 shops - a bit mindblowing!

 The view looking down one of the streets. Again, like so many places here, it is beautifully decorated with paint and tiles.

 Back outside to the not-so-good weather and a welcome stop for fish sandwiches from a barge on the river (Golden Horn). Very tasty - thank you Harry and Eimile for the recommendation!

 The amazing colours of the Spice Bazaar.

The old underground cisterns, originally built in 532 and completed in a couple of months. Here they stored the water during wars and seiges when the enemy would destroy the ducts bringing water to the city, or poison it. The cistern will hold 80,000 cubic metres of water and is 70m wide and 140m long. You can just see the fish swimming around in the foreground.