Mykonos, Greece

We set sail in the afternoon for Mykonos. It is going to take some time to get back to the Dardenelles and across to the wee island of Mykonos.

We arrived late morning and again another really hot bright gorgeous day. We really have had some incredible weather during this trip. We wandered around the narrow streets, all so typical of a Greek Island. This island is where they shot the movie Shirley Valentine. Gorgeous buildings in the traditional blue and white and many had  the red and white colour scheme too. A pretty wee place, with masses of climbers flowering and flowing over the streets.   I would love to come again and stay for a while. We meandered around the sea shore and up towards the windmills to a bay where we had a swim to cool off. We did not even need a towel as it was so warm we just sat in the sun and dried that way.

 After the swim we went back down to the bars in little Venice . It is called Little Venice   because(as in Venice, Italy) the buildings are lapped by the sea. 

We enjoyed our cocktailswith some friends as we watched the sun set. We had a late sailing tonight so it was lovely to just be ashore and enjoy the local hospitality.

 

Istanbul day 2

Istanbul: day 2: off on a bus trip bright and early this morning..there is lots to do today. The Blue Mosque was our first stop before 8am! Called this because of the blue tiles that line most of the surfaces inside the Mosque.The Mosque has one central cupola and four semi domes. The floor where the worshipers pray is covered in Turkish rugs. Women pray seperately from the men in an area upstairs.

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The Hagia Sophia Museum was spectacular.Yet again such an ancient buikding created in the 6th centturt as a Byzantune work.The walls are lined with colourful marble and the copola is approx 104ft in diameter..huge..the amazing architecture and structure in these buildings is staggering considering there were no cranes or modern equipment to help get everything into place.

The Topkapi Palace on the edge of the peninsula overlooking the sea was again amazing. Here is housed many wonderful artifacts encrusted in jewels including swords, helmets, baby cradles, eating utensils , andit is apparently the richest collection of its kind in the world. I would believe it as the stones in some of these things are hugh.Here the large Kasikci diamond (an 86carat diamond) is housed and is one of the largest in the world . No one was allowed to photograph any of the jewels so here are some shots around the grounds and in some of the other buildings. Like so many other buildings they are very ornate. All in all a magical day.

Our last stop was the baazar which houses 4000 shops and is a seething, moving, noisy and exciting place. Most of the times it is overwhelming as there are so many people and so many men trying to coax you into their shops to buy stuff! Leather is very good here and we both got beautiful jackets.. so soft and luxurious to wear.

Istanbul

Istanbul one of the places I really wanted to come and see. The culture being so different to ours. We sailed through the Dardenelles and past Gallopoli at about 6am of which the Hubby got up to see . It took another eight hours to get to Istanbul and we sailed into the harbour amongst a lot of other local pleasure crafts and yachts. It was a bit blustery for them and I  a bit of a choppy sea because there were so may of them wizzing about

We arrived in Istanbul about 4pm and went ashore to find the baazar and the spice market. Unfortunately by the time we got there things were wrapping up so we sat in a restaurant on the bridge(but under the bridge) and watched the hundreds of fisherman catching little sprat type fish.

As we ate our meal we watched the sun set over this incredible city of 17million people. Tomorrow is another exciting day here.

AThens

Th sky is blue and it is heating up to be warm again today. We have a tour booked this afternoon so we caught a little tourist train around the city to check out the city sites and the harbour.You  can see from the photos just how clear the sky was today.

Our tour went  to the sites around Athens and up to the buildings of theAcropolis. This consists of the Parthenon, The Propylaea, the Temple of the Winged Victory (Temple of Athena Niki) and the Erechtheion . Each of these buildings was built 4 to 5 hundred years prior the birth of Christ. My goodness everything is so very old. It is very awe inspiring.
 By the time we climbed up to the top it was 36 deg and very warm. There was hardly any trees to shelter under and I thought our poor guide was going to expire! She huffed and puffed her way up the hill.
We were told that in its hey day 11000 people worked on building this each and every day. The guide assured us they were not slaves but paid to work carrying lumps of stone up this big hill. The acropolis was built up here because there was a water supply believe it or not!

On the day we visited there were people getting the amphitheatre ready for an evening concert which is a familiar occurance during the summer months.