Hitting Istanbul's Major Attractions

Bryan and I have spent the past day+ hitting many of the more headline sites in Istanbul.  There's a lot to see, but much of it is concentrated geographically within a pretty tight area.  You can accordingly move relatively fast.  No time for extended commentary here -- you're heartbroken to hear that, huh? -- so I'll give you some primarily pictorial highlights.

The Spice Market:  A feast for the senses -- at least the visual and olfactory senses.  BTW, Geri, if you're reading this, get some air freshener before Bryan gets home.  Let's just say he made a few purchases.....errrr, a few kilograms of purchases!

The bird and animal cages were my favorite part of the Spice Market.  Maybe not so good for the animals -- but interesting to see.

The Sunken Cistern:  This is great.  A relatively quick place to visit, and it's a good 20 degrees cooler than the rest of sweltering above-ground Istanbul.  This is an underground cistern that is buried beneath the heart of Sultanahmet.  It's massive.  Very dramatic too.  Part of From Russia With Love was filmed down here.  And, I won't give anything away about Inferno, but I'm sure you'll see Tom Hanks down here as Robert Langdon in a couple of years too.

Aya Sofya (Haghia Sophia):  This is the stunner.  This is at the top of everyones' Istanbul list.  I'd say it lives up to the billing.  It's an enormous structure.  Get this -- construction was completed in 537 and, for almost 1,000 years, it was the largest enclosed space in the world.  The world.  The Aya Sofya was a huge Byzantine church, and then it was a mosque.  It has both Christian and Muslim art and history.  You can't believe how immense it is.  My only criticism -- and this is mostly for Shannon -- is that I'm not in love with the color scheme they chose.  I guess not that many palettes were available in the 500s.

The Blue Mosque:  The other must-see monument is the Blue Mosque.  Part of the wonder is that the Blue Mosque is across a plaza from the Aya Sofya.  They are a wonderful combo.  The 6 minarets of the mosque make it instantly recognizable on the Istanbul skyline.  The mosque gets its name from the over 20,000 blue tiles that line the internal space.  The inside is nice too; but it's crowded.  I think I may have liked the inside of the Suleymaniye Mosque better because of this.  

 P.S.  Another great breakfast.  The hotel fare is not quite at the level of The House Cafe.  But it's good!

We're still figuring out when we can get over to the Taksim Square area......  Our front-desk guy on the night shift was a protester; he slept there for basically the past 2.5 weeks.  He is keeping us apprised on the events over yonder.