ISTANBUL

During ski week I went to Istanbul! The flight is only about three hours, and I took full advantage of the fact that I have cousins living there.  Not only did I stay with them, but they gave me the grand tour.  I loved it! My pictures can't begin to do this place justice, but I'll show you anyway.

My favorite: the Haghia Sophia; originally a church, then a mosque, now a museum

inside the Haghia Sophia

Field trip to the Haghia Sophia: one teacher (not shown), a couple of moms, and at least forty students...We ran into them again at the cistern. I wished so badly that I spoke Turkish; I wanted to tell the teacher how impressed I was with how well her students behaved.

It doesn't look anything like any cistern I'd ever seen!  Thanks to my cousin Lee, I saw it again that night in the James Bond movie From Russia, With Love.

Sultanahmet Mosque ("The Blue Mosque") 

inside the Blue Mosque

Turkey has so much history, it doesn't know what to do with all of it! These pieces were in an alley behind the Archaeological Museum and the Topkapi Palace with a sign that said "Please don't touch the artifacts!"

Inside the Chora Church; it was built in the 11th century and decorated in the 14th

How's this for a family tree?  24 of Jesus' ancestors are depicted in this mosaic "The Genealogy of Christ" (Chora Church)

I forgot to mention the fabulous food!

Spice Bazaar

a look inside the thick walls of Constantinople

 

Rumeli Fortress, built on the Bosphorus in 1452

There weren't any handrails in the 15th century!

Schönes Wochenende

Last week we were off for "ski week".  I don't ski, but I did travel to a fabulous location where there was some snow (more on that later!).  I didn't leave right away, though.  The Saturday before I left, I decided to get on a train and just ride. The Germans have just the thing for that; it's called the "Schönes Wochenende Ticket": on Saturday or Sunday up to five people can ride anywhere on the regional trains for just 40 Euro.  The regional trains are slower than the ICE trains, so it's perfect for just sitting and staring out the window...which is what I did on the way to Koblenz.

The train took about two hours to get there from Frankfurt, and the train followed the Rhein...I was able to see many of the castles I saw on the Rhein River cruise.  Once I arrived, I made my way to the Deutsches Eck, where the Rhein and Mosul rivers meet.  There Kaiser Wilhelm II had a massive monument made to honor his namesake, Kaiser Wilhelm I.   

 

The Kaiser was knocked off his pedestal during WWII. When he was returned to the top of the monument in 1993, a memorial was erected behind him:

The memorial is dedicated to those who suffered from the partition of the country; June 17, 1953 was the date of uprisings in East Germany, and November 9, 1989 was the day the Wall came down. It seemed to me to be an odd place for that memorial, but then I thought better of it...Germans have a thoughtful sense of history--perhaps they feel they have to counterbalance this massive memorial's show of might with some mitgefühl, or maybe it serves as a warning of what that might could lead to when left unchecked.