We're BACK!

Just a brief note to say that everything went on schedule today -- we were at Heathrow at 5 a.m. and our flight left right on time at 7:45 a.m. (Only problem was the lack of movies I wanted to watch on the way back ... so watched Leap Year yet again...3 times...) We had about 5 hours of connecting time in Chicago, but that did enable us to have Chicago style hot dogs ... gotta love those poppy seeds! Bumpy flight over the central U.S. because of thunder storms (and I still think I'm moving!) but got to Phoenix about 6 p.m. Picked up rental car and got home around 9:15 p.m. As of this moment, everything is unpacked and laundry sorted and mail in process...Thank you so much for joining us on our trip! We loved having you along with us! And as always, it's nice to be home!

Signing off for now ... next trip scheduled for late August, which will be Mom's 90th birthday trip -- France and Italy!

Much love,
m
x

We're on the way!

Monday, May 24, 2010

Hello!

No pictures this time, just a quick update! We are now comfortably ensconced in the Sheraton Heathrow Hotel in preparation for returning to the U.S. tomorrow! Nice flight from Istanbul to Gatwick. Everything went on time; of course we were VERY early at the airport, but it beats worrying about traffic!

Got to Gatwick about 3 p.m. and out with luggage very quickly! Yea!! And it was 30C which is something like 89 degrees! The warmest day they've had this year, by far! Rented a car at the airport and drove from Gatwick to Heathrow. No problems, not even heavy traffic! Decided on going out for dinner, and found a lovely pub called The White Horse where R had fish and chips and I had a terrific chicken curry. Sat outside in absolutely stunning weather and watched airplanes taking off! (Including multiple BA flights?!)

Now back in and watching England vs. Mexico in a "friendly" match before the world cup. Clock set for 4:30 a.m.; out the door by 5! More later!

Much love,
m
x

A few more photos!

Our last full day in Istanbul!

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Hello!

Well, the trip is winding down, and we’re just about in the “let’s get home” mode that happens to us each time we travel. Today’s agenda was pretty light – I wanted to look at the aqueduct of Valens as well as the Suleymaniye Mosque. The first was easy; the second, much more complicated!

Out about 9 and to the tram. The sun was shining brightly when we got up, but there are huge dark clouds looming. Took the umbrellas, just in case. Just a couple of stops, and got off one after the university. Nice walk (a bit uphill but not a problem) to the aqueduct. It’s in beautiful shape for having been built in AD 373! From there, we wound through mostly quiet, older neighborhoods – very uneven streets! – until we came out near the Mosque. One of the problems about this particular mosque is that it has a very high wall around it – and very few ways in! We finally made it to the cemetery, which was just beautiful. Saw the tombs of Sultan Suleyman as well as his (favorite) wife, Roxelana. Quite a story there! The Muslim gravesites are lovely. Because of their religious beliefs, there are only either designs or religious tracts on the headstones themselves, and then usually in the middle (between a stone in front and in back, there is plant space for flowers! It's a neat idea! What we finally came to realize, though, is that the entire mosque itself is undergoing a major renovation – and has been 2007, so it’s closed to the public! Oh! Back downhill (beats climbing!) and returned to the hotel (making a strategic detour past the McDonald’s for coke and a bathroom break!).

Nice rest, but then we figured we needed to find a light lunch. (We’ve got dinner reservations here at our hotel for 7 p.m.) Decided to take the tram over to the New District and then walk to the Dolmabahce Palace. (Went past the palace a couple of days ago on our cruise, but hadn’t realized it was so close to town!) Lovely day for a stroll! Had toasted cheese sandwiches at the little café next to the Palace, right on the Bosphorus. It was just lovely, although a fair amount of smoke around. Oh! The thing that we’ve realized (duh…) is that all indoor Istanbul restaurants seem to be no smoking! It’s MUCH better than Greece, where they don’t even try to accommodate non-smokers. We are very impressed! There was an amazingly long line to get in to the Palace, so we decided to skip it and head back. As I say, we’re just about at the “let’s go” stage. I got the basics organized and ready to pack up – although we don’t leave until 9 a.m. tomorrow …just wanted to see how tight things were going to be, and I think all is well! Yipee!!

I will post dinner tonight after it happens! More later!
Love,
m
x

And the rest of the day - note jewelry store window!

Hagia Sophia

A rainy kind of day!

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Hello!

Woke to an overcast and misty kind of day, but as we Tucsonans enjoy rain, no problem for us! Out about 8:30 for our first stop on today’s tourist trail, the underground cistern, located between Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. Took the tram to Sultanahmet. It’s still early, so many places not yet open. Located the cistern – and it’s amazing! The cistern itself was built in the sixth century A.D. by Justinian to serve as a massive reservoir to provide water in case of a shortage. And massive it certainly is – the size of 2 football fields and holding 27 million gallons of water! In all, there are 336 columns supporting the brick ceiling, and apparently when it was being built, Justinian just grabbed columns from wherever he could take them. There are columns of all kinds, and capitals ranging from Doric to Corinthian – including two huge carved Medusa bases. Interestingly enough, the two Medusa bases aren’t standing upright – one is on its side, and the other is upside down! Does make for interesting pictures!

From the cistern, we joined the crowds across the street at Hagia Sophia. This building – again originally constructed by Justinian – has had a great many iterations over the years – it has been both a mosque and a Christian church and is now a museum. While this is one of the most famous sights in Istanbul, I really prefer the Blue Mosque which is a much more peaceful place.

After these two sights, we were on to the Grand Bazaar – our last visit, for sure! And to be really honest, I know that there are many people who like to bargain and negotiate; who think it’s all part of some big game. We are not like that. Neither of us likes to bargain, and I for one get VERY uncomfortable when we’re in that situation. This time, we looked around quite a bit; lots of interesting things to see. Went through the silver area and it was amazing! I mean, we like to entertain, but whoever uses all that ornate heavy silver anymore? Robert did a good job negotiating for some ceramic bowls that I wanted, and once we had those, we’d had quite enough!! This time, however, we were able to negotiate our way back the same way we had come in – YEA! Took the tram back to the hotel to deposit our “loot” and then out for lunch.

Down the street, Faros Restaurant; have to say it’s the first bad food I’ve had this entire trip! I ordered an eggplant and feta plate, but somebody REALLY burned the eggplant and absolutely toasted the feta! Pretty bad! R had a Greek salad – and I teased him, as he made it all the way through Greece without one! I did have a good glass of white wine, though, and R a big glass of fresh orange juice. A big screen Sony TV was being installed while we were there – and of course, the first position of the mounting bracket was too low, and they had to move it – leaving HUGE holes in the wall! But no problem! Just move a picture! It was a solution after my own heart!! Very friendly folks, even though they can’t cook!

Back to the hotel for a nice nap and R caught up with some Caltech work that had come in.

Decided that we needed an opportunity to look at the lights of the city, so we’d go to Taksim Square in the “new” district for dinner. And of course, this was a rainy day! By the time we were ready to go out, it was raining fairly hard; glad we have our umbrellas! Out and over to Ghilane for the tram to the new district. Took it all the way to the end, got out and headed directly into the funicular which goes to Taksim Square. From there, headed down the main street in the direction of the Galata Bridge. Okay…really think that we were the oldest people there by at least 10-20 years! It’s quite an area, just NOT for us! There were Burger Kings, Pizza Hut, a Kentucky Fried Chicken, as well as numerous Starbucks and Gloria Jean’s coffee! Rather disappointing! Made it back to the old district without finding a place we liked for dinner, so decided to go to the place we went to a couple of days ago for lunch. Excellent choice, as we had a great dinner! For starters, I had an eggplant and tomato sauce dish; R had two roasted peppers stuffed with rice. I won! For mains, we both had the HOT (that is, spicy) ground beef kebab with rice, fresh tomatoes and onion. That was great; glad we came back!

From dinner, directly back to the hotel as Bayern Munich is playing Inter Milan in the Champion’s League final. Was hoping to find it on TV, and it is – in Turkish, but at least we can get the picture! In case anyone is interested, Inter is up 1-0 at the half!

So – that’s it for today! More later!
Much love,
m
x

And the fish...

A cruise up the Bosphorus!

Friday, May 21, 2010

Greetings to all!

It’s Friday already – not sure where the week has gone, but it’s certainly passing quickly! Today’s plan is to take the public ferry boat that goes up the Bosphorus (the water course that divides Europe from Asia) almost to the Black Sea, with various stops, and then back. In all it is a 6 hour journey – not that it’s all that far to the end of the line, but there is a 2 ½ hour stop for either exploring the castle at the top of the hill or eating! We’re both looking forward to a day with not too much walking and lots of sitting and seeing! The guidebooks advise getting to the ferry boat at least half an hour early if you want to get a good seat…so of course we were there an hour early, and got great seats on the top deck! However, it seems like everybody wants up there too, so it was quite the scrum for a while before things settled down…but I caution people that I’ve had experience holding places against the railings on the first stage of the Tour de France … no problem! We decided that we would sit on the European side on the trip to Kadivoy, and return to Istanbul by the Asian side. That way we could see everything at least once! With the wind blowing, it got REALLY cold on the top deck, and with about 15 minutes left to go on the up leg, we took refuge downstairs inside just to try and get warm!

Really great trip; lovely day, but right here and now I’m going to put my plug in for a better CAMERA! With the present camera – an Olympus, but an automatic – there are very few adjustments you can make – it has only so far to use the zoom, etc. – and I think we need more latitude! Sometimes we just can’t get close enough to take the kind of pictures that I want to take – and post! At any rate, we had a lovely day. We passed several royal palaces – summer palace #1, summer palace #2, royal hunting palace, etc., several really upscale hotels (no kidding, they looked amazing!) and some absolutely beautiful private homes, called yali, lining parts of the Bosphorus. Some of the older places were originally built out of wood – which would worry me because of fire danger! – but have been lovingly restored to pristine condition. We saw enough to realize that Turkey is truly an amazing country, and that we’d like to someday come back here, rent a car and do some exploring on our own! (Robert had some interesting preconceived ideas about Turkey in general and Istanbul in particular. And when we got to our hotel – located smack dab in the middle of the “old” town – he felt they were correct. But tours like today’s, as well as last night’s trip out to the end of the tram line, have convinced him that Istanbul really is a very modern city with some interesting architecture and definitely its share of high rise buildings.)

We arrived at Katakoy, the end of the line, on the Asian side, about 12:30 and got off the boat. The small town of Katakoy is comprised almost entirely of restaurants, and everyone is looking for business off the boat; talk about hard sell! (Apparently in the summer, lots of locals go out there just for the day, and it gets REALLY crowded! Glad we only had to deal with tourists!!) We found a restaurant – oh! The entire boat is NON-SMOKING!! YEA! And several restaurants along the waterfront where we got off have no-smoking signs posted indoors – but of course people can (and do!) smoke outside…UGH! So, found a place indoors – for both warmth AND to avoid the smoke! And had lunch. I started with eggplant salad (ok) and R started with the town’s specialty, fried mussels. I didn’t much care for them; way too fishy for me, but R enjoyed them! For mains, I got – yes, of course! – chicken kebob which came with tomatoes and French fries. R got a fresh fish – blue fish, called Luker (with an odd accent mark over the “u”…)…picture enclosed so you can see what R had to work with! He is amazing boning the fish himself, and he said it was wonderful…I’m so thankful for chicken!

Had some time left, so walked around the little town and had my Magnum Classic while R had coffee. R also bought some fresh cherries off a small truck in town which he hopes to get to this evening. Finally, back on the boat. Asian side this time, but on the second deck, which is enclosed. Much more comfortable trip back, but both of us were having a hard time staying awake! Not sure if it was the wine at lunch or all the fresh air, but naps felt like they were really in order – except we still had an hour and ½ to go! Landed about 4:45 p.m. and headed straight back to the hotel.

As we had such a big lunch, and R has some Caltech work to do, we’ve decided to skip dinner tonight and stay in…we are such party animals! Tomorrow will be our second and last try at the Grand Bazaar, as it’s closed on Sunday – so we’ll see what that may bring!

Lots of love!
m
x

This next is posted against my wishes, but it’s very sweet…m

Addendum from Robert –

Margaret’s blogs of our travels are interesting, informative and amusing, yet there is one aspect that she does not mention that I would like to talk about – that is how well planned these trips are. And that is all because of Margaret.

She puts a lot of work into our trips – reading articles and books, pouring over maps, checking hotel reviews, finding special places to see… She has the remarkable ability to absorb all this information about places we have never visited – something I can’t do at all – and put it all together into a complete plan. But a plan with plenty of wiggle room so that we can make it up as we go along.

The result is that we – I – always have a great time, seeing all sorts of things, from the must-visit places that everyone knows about to the out-of-the-way sights that are often off the usual tourist trails. (How many people do we know who have stayed in a cave, for example? See trip to Matera, Italy in 2009.) Over the years, I have been to places I never would have reached on my own and this I owe to Margaret – the best travel arranger, booking agent, guide and travelling companion ever!

Robert

Lunch and the Spice Market!

More palace and mosque photos -

An overcast but full day!

Hello from Istanbul!

An exhausted Robert is sound asleep, so rather than going to the Spice Market, I’m blogging…until such time as I can wake him up and get him moving again!

Up this morning around 6 to a very overcast day; breakfast at 7 and then out about 8:30 with jackets and umbrellas and up to Topkapi Palace – with literally HOARDS of other people! (This is the #1 sight in Turkey.) Fortunately, though, the lines moved fairly quickly and we were able to get our entry tickets and then in line for the security check and entrance. There were already several tour and school groups, but fortunately, they seem to move quickly, like locusts, which is helpful!

Okay…first things first. There were three rooms of the Treasury open, and unfortunately, no pictures are allowed! We saw the famous Topkapi dagger, star of the 1960’s movie “Topkapi” – the story of jewel thieves trying to steal it! Can understand why!! Truthfully, we’ve never seen so many precious stones in one place before – and that includes the Tucson Gem Show! When we were in Spain, and we’d go into churches, there was so much gold it took your breath away. Here, it is definitely precious stones – mostly emeralds, but also rubies and diamonds. There were multiple uses for emeralds that literally were the size of hen’s eggs or larger! They were carved, polished, hollowed out even (although usually not polished with facets; more cabochons) – and used as parts of lamps and lamp hangers, even boxes! We have never seen anything like this – in fact there was even a small box, about the size of a shoebox, that was FILLED with polished emeralds and other precious stones! Incredible!!

From there we wandered through the other three courtyards – including the harem, the quarters of the sultan, the diplomatic rooms and baths. It is truly a beautiful place, and restoration continues – they have a lot of work to do but are doing a nice job of it. Turkey is famous for their ceramic tiles – and the palace was filled with them, from all different periods of time and from all over Turkey. According to one of the tenants of Islam, images of people are not used at all. This means that all the tiles are either in some sort of geometric designs or of nature, like flowers, or of very elaborate script detailing items from the Koran. At any rate, it’s really beautiful! And exhausting! The palace actually goes up and down on various levels, and winds all around – and there are not nearly enough seats where you can sit and catch your breath for a few minutes!

Once we had seen everything, we headed out a different gate from which we entered, heading now toward the Haghia Sophia which is now a museum. Stopped first to see several mausoleums of past Emperors; very impressive. At that point, to be honest, we decided that we weren’t up for another museum, and decided instead to visit the Blue Mosque. As it was close to a prayer time (Muslims are called to prayer five times each day; this was one of those times.) we had to be quick to take off shoes (they provide plastic bags to carry them in) and get inside. Once inside, we decided to stay for the prayer. It was an interesting process. The mosque is divided between the area reserved for men at prayer, another area for women at prayer, and then an area for tourists, where we stayed. I got to use my new pashmina as all women are required to have their heads covered, but they also come around with head covers in case someone doesn’t have one. We really had no idea what was going on, but it was interesting to watch and listen. Also a good time to rest!

It was now officially way past lunch time, so we headed back to the hotel to drop off umbrellas and jackets. Found an excellent place for lunch down the block from the hotel. We both had kebabs – which are called kabaps here! R’s was ground beef with spices – nice and HOT – and mine, of course, was chicken! Meals came with good seasoned rice as well as the usual sliced onions with sumac. Both excellent – now will we even want dinner?? Of course now that our umbrellas are back at the hotel, it decides to rain! So, sprinted back to the hotel between drops and decided to take a rest.

Up around 5 and off to the Spice Market. Wow, what a place! Many lovely displays – as expected, lots and lots of spices – and lots and lots of Turkish delight! Got some apple tea for my sister-in-law – hope it’s the right kind! Decided at this point to take the tram all the way to the end and back. Quite a ride! We passed the Grand Bazaar, the University, many mosques, a great section of HUGE city walls, and ended up in the suburbs. Really an interesting journey! I’d say that probably half of the women here wear headscarves on a regular basis; it seems to be entirely a personal choice. Of that, maybe a quarter of them wear the long dresses covering them up. Now, as it’s rather brisk out, they’ll wear long raincoats all buttoned up, and yesterday we saw a woman who was not only covered up, but was wearing wool gloves as well! Oh my…decided that what I really needed at that point was a MAGNUM Classic! (Yes, Hil and Katy – here they’re back to their usual self!) Munched all the way back to the hotel!

Take care!
m
x

Dinner on Wednesday!

Hello! Realized at lunch today that I hadn’t written about dinner last night – so figured I’d take care of that before we head out yet again and I get REALLY behind.

We had made reservations at our hotel’s roof-top restaurant for 7 p.m. As the weather was pretty brisk, they didn’t have the outdoor terrace part open, but we were seated next the glass looking out on a great view. The meal started with breads and a tomato tapenade as well as a small bowl of olive oil. Just terrific – they have great bread here too! For starters, I ordered a dish made of eggplant; R ordered artichokes. They were both terrific, but I think that mine was terrificer! Then came the main courses. R, ever the brave man, ordered fresh sea bass and I ordered – guess what? You’re right! A chicken dish with roasted eggplant, zucchini and tomato in a great light cream sauce. As I hope you’ll be able to see from the pictures, R’s fully and carefully boned fish came in a butter caper sauce – on a brazier to keep it warm! It was amazing! His dish also came with vegetables and potato croquettes with cinnamon. My dish was great, and came with French fries. We also had a bottle of white house wine; also great!

After all that, while we thought about dessert, neither of us had any room at all, so we headed back downstairs to our room – and each had a piece of Turkish Delight from the container left for us in our room!

And so ends a terrific day!
Much love,
m
x