We spent the morning on a panoramic tour of Istanbul, with two stops: the Blue Mosque and the Grand Bazaar, which is not open on a Sunday. Istabul is the only city on two continents. We traveled across the first suspension bridge, opened in 1973, from Europe into Asia across the Bosporus. We saw the walls of the old city, now crumbling, We also saw many other mosques and palaces. We chose these short tours, to give us a flavor of the city and the highlights. I almost wish we had taken a longer tour, to get into some of the other sights. We ended the morning with a look at some authentic, hand-made Turkish carpets, but which were out of my price range. Almost bought a cheap imitation on the street (not for lack of salesmanship) but came home only with a few refrigerator magnets. We still have many ports to go!

 

The weather was more like Seattle than what I imagined Turkey would be. It was very pleasant, a little cloudy, in the low 60s today. It has warmed up since our very cold day in Odessa.