The Blue Mosque at sunrise, my first morning in Istanbul. This is the view from the restaurant on the roof of our hotel.

Inside the Spice Bazaar, an old woman is puzzled why I am taking a picture :-)

More spices than any individual could possibly want or need!

One of the two suspension bridges that crosses the Bosphorus, connecting the European side of Istanbul to the Asian side. On my first morning in Istanbul, I took advantage of the sunny weather and took a cruise along the Bosphorus.

Seagulls in flight in front of Dolmabache Palace, the 19th and 20th-century home to the Ottoman sultans. You'll see pics of the inside of the palace later...

A close-up of the palace. That big blue tower off to the right is the Ritz Carlton in Istanbul. Old wealth meets new.

A flock of seagulls nap in the sunlight atop a roof on one of the many 19th-century villas that line the Bosphorus on the Asian side of the city.

Looking north up the Bosphorus towards the second suspension bridge which crosses from Europe to Asia.

The Fortress of Europe, located just north of the city. It was built by the Ottoman sultan Mehmet II in the 1400s so that he could better launch attacks against Constantinople. It worked.

Inside the fortress is a great amphitheatre.

A view of one of te fortress towers through the trees.

The Basilica Cistern. This cavernous underground space was built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the 500s to hold the city's water. It's a neat tourist site, because you can stroll through the cistern among its ancient columns, now lit by dim yellow lighting and accompanied by eerie background music.

A number of the columns used throughout the Byzantine Empire were actually stolen from far-away ancient sites that were under the Empire's control at that time. This column, with a giant sideways Medusa head, is one such example. It's now found in the Basilica Cistern but no doubt originated from some temple somewhere in Ancient Greece or someplace like that.

The Pera Palace Hotel. This Victorian-period hotel still has the same dark wood interior and opulence it would have had when Agatha Christie lived here for several months, writing her "Murder on the Orient Express." You can see the room she wrote the novel in--it's preserved to look just as it did when she used it. You can also see the room used by Mostafa Kamel (better known as "Attaturk"), the first Turkish president who enacted major modernizing measures, from forcing Turks to take a last name, to switching from the Arabic alphabet to a Latin alphabet, to abolishing polygamy.

The bedroom Attaturk used when he stayed at the Pera Palace, preserved to look the way it did when last he used it. The walls are decorated with photos, paintings, and other memorabilia.

The Galata Tower, a watchtower built in the 500s AD by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian. Today it's mostly a tourist spot for its panoramic view of the city. It's located in the new European part of Istanbul (across the Golden Horn from the old part of the city).

Looking across the Golden Horn to the skyline of the Sultanahmet neighborhood of Istanbul, dominated by the minarets and domes of the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque.

Looking down at the crowded, cobble-stone streets of Istanbul.

Sunset over Istanbul.

Isanbul's Archaeological Museum has lots of cool items from the ancient and classical periods (plundered, no doubt, from the many lands that were once under the control of the Ottoman Empire), but one of the highlights is this, "The World's Oldest Peace Treaty." It's about 3,500 years old and was between the Egyptians and the Hittites. Other cool holdings of this museum include the world's oldest surviving love poem and an ancient recipe to cure impotence (which requires saliva from an erect bull and other seemingly hard-to-find ingredients).

The main entrance to Topkapi Palace, the Palace of the Ottoman Turks from the 1400s to the 1800s or so. You can sort of picture the old Ottoman sultans skulking around the grounds in their colorful kaftans. The place continues to have a feel of tremendous wealth and power. It also boasts a breath-taking exhibit of jewels that puts the crown jewels in Britain to shame!

Inside one of the courtyards of Tokapi Palace.

The main entrance to Istanbul's Grand Bazaar.

Inside the Grand Bazaar, you find aisles upon aisles of jewelery, carpets, scarves -- you name it. It's kind of like an ancient shopping mall :-)

The outside of the Hagia Sophia. Originally built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the 500s AD, it was once the largest religious building in the world. Its tremendous dome hangs over an incredibly large space of worship inside. The church was coverted into a mosque in the 1400s, after the Ottomans took over Constantinople. Today it is a museum.

Inside the Hagia Sophia. The nave of the church is HUGE, with these beautiful dark chandeliers hanging everywhere.

Another attempt to capture the awesomely vast space inside the Hagia Sophia.

A huge mosaic of Jesus. The Hagia Sophia has quite a few of these old mosaics, which were remarkably well-preserved.

Another mosaic, of Jesus flanked by one of the Byzantine emperors and his wife.

The Blue Mosque, with its six minarets. (The mosques that dominate Istanbul's skylines can be told apart by the number of minarets. The Blue Mosque has the most.)

The inside of the Blue Mosque. It's called the "Blue" mosque because the inside is covered in blue stained glass and blue Iznik tiles (ceramic tiles that came from a Turkish town called "Iznik" which used to be one of the foremost places in the world for the production of ceramics).

The main gate into Domalbache Palace, the major palace of the Ottoman sultans during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is impossible to describe in words how ornate this palace is! Move over Buckingham...

One of many ornate china sets we saw in the palace.

The grand staircase. This chandelier is only the third-largest in the palace.

Looking out towards the Bosphorus from the main sea gate of the palace.

The Theodosian Walls. Built in the 400s AD by the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II, these huge walls, which look like a series of about 60 connected castle towers, once surrounded and protected the Byzantine capital of Constantinople. Despite numerous attacks on the city, the walls were not breached until 1453, when the Ottoman Turks captured the city and ultimately defeated the Empire.

The grand entrance to a castle built along one section of the walls. This entrance was called "The Golden Door."

The Byzantine eagle, stamped on one section of the walls.

The Church of St. Saviour in Chora, a tiny church on the outskirts of Istanbul. Built in the 1100s, it is COVERED in amazingly colorful mosaics and frescoes.

The mosaic of Jesus that hangs over the main door of the church.

The inside of one of the domes, showing Jesus surrounded by holy figures.

A beautiful fresco of Judgement Day, on the ceiling of one of the domes, showing Jesus pulling Moses and Adam from the grave.

Looking back through the doors of the church.

My bedroom at the Hotel Nena.

Anne and one of our carpet salesman friends, standing in front of our hotel -- the Hotel Nena. I would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting Istanbul. And with that, that's all the pics for now of my trip to Turkey!