We left Istanbul at 3:15 am local time and now, some 7 1/2 hours later we are waiting for our 8 hour flight to Toronto where we land at 2:30pm. All in all, it has been the most fabulous trip, every day a feast of spectacular buildings and ruins. Ephesus two days ago was one of the best, with its marble lined streets and its flush toilets, huge fountains which also flushed the streets and running drains. It also had a theatre which seated 44,000 and which has been used recently by Elton John etc. The library facade was impressive as you will soon see in the pictures. The terrace houses there have been restored but only 7% of the ruins have been excavated. The ones we saw dated back as far as 2000BC with the focus on 200BC – 100AD.
Yesterday we went to the blue mosque in Istanbul a sprawling city of 14 million people covering 2000sq miles. Thearchitecture is a combination of ancient and modern, all along the Bosphorus strait Beylerbeyi Summer Palace of the Ottoman Empire which was a lesson in how to flaunt your wealth, with a total of 8 tons of gold used to decorate a mere 20 rooms. The rich turkish carpets and silks and brocades from all over the orient were in mint condition. Haiga Sofia, a 4th Century Christian then Moslem church stood 500m from the Blue Mosque, but alas, we had no time to visit it because we still had to go and see the Grand Bazaar, a network of endless streets with small shops selling everything from spices, to leather, jewellery and handcrafts. You had to haggle for everything and they grabbed you and followed you. You can imagine how I loved that.