Byzantium - Constantinople - Istanbul

After much deliberation we decided to do a day tour of this ancient city! We are not really 'tour' type people but with our limited time and the distraction of the kids, we decided that it was the best way to get a lot of ground covered! And cover a lot of ground we did!!! The tour ran from 9 to 5 and half of it was a bus tour while the other half was a lovely boat tour of the Bosphorus!

Here's a bit of what we saw...

Aqueduct of Valens

Built by the Roman Emperor Valens in about 368 A.D. to provide Constantinople with water.

He looked board already and we had only just set out for the day!!!

Part of the ancient city wall

This was the oldest church with-in the city walls - it has since been turned into a mosque.

A view overlooking the Golden Horn from one of the highest points in the city...

Turkish Coffee...

Man! What a good lookin' brother!!!

This guy fell in love with Thorin!!!

Thorin enjoyed some freedom crawling around on the deck and a break from being held..

...and some time at the wheel with the captain : )

These are really old wooden houses.

Clearly Logan was a huge help with Sterling!!!!

Rumeli Fortress - built in 1452 at the narrowest point on the Bosphorus to control passage to and from the Black Sea.

An ornate palace gate.

A view of the city from the Bosphorus...

Sterling finally gave in and took a nap on Tim's chest around noon!

Another cute one of Logan and Sterling!!

Unfortunately I can't remember the name of this place. It's another church that was converted into a mosque.

Close-ups are the best!!

These mosaics were fantastic!!! I am left wishing that these next few pictures could do justice to the scale of intricacy and beauty that they possessed!!!

Please know that everywhere you see gold in the mosaics, it's real gold!!!

This first picture is an attempt to capture some of the detail close up - click on the picture to see a larger version.

Christ's first miracle; turning water into wine!

Christ feeds the five thousand

The empty tomb - pretty creative how they chose to depict it with an actual hole in the wall!

This was Sterlings favorite part of the whole day; we found a playground at the very last stop!

A big thanks to my mom for this coat and hat for Sterling!!! It was so cold that he/we would've been miserable with out it!!

Turkey!!

We had the privilege of spending 2 weeks in Turkey over Christmas!! It was absolutely amazing!!!! Not only the country itself but the fantastic surprise that my sweet husband arranged for me - Logan (my baby brother) came to join us for the entire 2 weeks!!! It chokes me up even now to think about!! Words cannot describe how dear it was to see him and to share 2 weeks together!!! It was so cute to watch Sterling's reaction to him! In the very first moments there seemed to be but barely the glimmer of recognition. But then it all came back to him within minutes and from that point on Logan could not be out of sight with out Sterling asking, "Where uncle Yogan (his way of pronouncing Logan : ) go?" It was a precious time of reconnecting!!

We spent 3 nights in Istanbul - what a beautiful city!!! And so full of ancient history - Tim was in heaven!!!
We arrived to our hostel the first night quite late - well, late for the boys that is, around 9:30 pm! They did so well considering!!! Sterling fell asleep in the carrier as we were walking around in the dark looking for our place(thank God for the Ergo!!!)! Thorin, on the other hand, was wide awake and taking it all in!
The next morning we had a nice breakfast on the terrace of the hostel with a fantastic view of the Bosphorus!!!
Then the rest of the morning was full of business and trying to get our barrings - which seems to be a much bigger task when you have little ones!! All I could think of was where the next meal for the boys was going to come from! I stayed with the boys in the hostel while Tim went to iron out the details of our domestic travel (we had rented a villa 5 hours to the south and weren't settled on how to get there yet). It was from this outing that he came back with Logan...
I opened the door thinking it was Tim. I looked right at Logan then down at Sterling as I told him to, "Move out of the way so that your dad can come in." Then it sunk in...that wasn't Tim!!!! I looked back up and was shocked to see my brother standing there!!! I LOVE surprises!!!!

This is the fountain in the courtyard between the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (also known as the Blue Mosque because foreigners can't pronounce its given name) and Ayasofya (which means 'Holy Wisdome'). It was one of Sterling's favorite spots!!!

Sterling, Tim, and Logan with Sultan Ahmed Mosque in the background!

This was the street our hostel was on.

This quaint street was just around the corner from where we stayed, and the one we took every time we went out. The Four Seasons Hotel is on the right - check out this website (http://www.fourseasons.com/istanbul/photos_and_videos/#image-istanbul-hotel-IST_022)

for some gorgeous photos!!!

More to come later...my dear husband is finally home (at ten after 8 PM) and I must spend some time with him!!!

Kicking off the Christmas break in style...

...our style that is : )...We threw a big brunch for every in Tim's program!! I think we had something like 25 people!! It was a lovely way to celebrate and see everyone before we went our separate ways for the holiday!

On the menu:

Tim's famous cheddar scrambled eggs (an extra special treat here)

Biscuits - another of Tim's specials!

Baked French toast with cream cheese

Coffee Cake

Fruit

Mimosas

We LOVE the pomegranates here!!!

Our living room was cozy crowded!!

Sterling enjoyed going around asking people for what ever he wanted : )

Sterling and Sara - they had a lot of fun drawing and playing with Sara's little rubber animals!