Monday, August 28:
We arrived, exhausted, at the Bram Hotel around 1 in the morning. Ali welcomed us, got us settled in our rooms, and suggested we come down for breakfast about 9, though if we were up earlier or later, we could eat whenever we were ready.
We aren’t supposed to drink or clean our teeth with the tap water. There was a complimentary bottle of water in each of our rooms.
The rooms are small, have everything we need, and spotlessly clean.
Later that morning:
Wow! Enough breakfast for four people! And SO delicious.
Already it was getting hot and Ali made sure we had shade. Between jet lag and the heat, we decided to stay here and blob until the sun started to go down. The minaret is Little Sophia, the practice mosque for Hagia Sophia.
The top of one of the minarets of the Sultan Ahmet Mosque (although technically called the Sultan Ahmet Mosque, most people just refer to it as the Blue Mosque because of the color of its interior tiles) can be seen to the right of the Sphendone. The construction of the Blue Mosque was ordered by the young sultan, Ahmet I, who, at the age of just 19, decided he wanted a building more impressive than the Hagia Sophia.
The buildings behind the netting include Marmara University and their Museum and Art Gallery, the Museum of Turkish & Islamic Arts, and the Sultanahmet Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School.
I don’t know what is going on with this site, I tried to find info about it on the internet but couldn’t.
Here you can see, near the bottom middle, the Hippodrome with the buildings on top of it, to the north east the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia, all the way to the top is Topkapi, and if you know what it looks like, a little left of the bottom middle is the rooftop deck of the Bram Hotel (don’t bother–only Trish and I would be able to “see” it!).
Later, we wandered around the local area, had an early dinner including an exceptional lentil soup, and spent some time at Little Hagia Sophia and the artisan village there. A most relaxing and recuperating day.
Tuesday, August 29:
Today is Eve’s 83rd birthday and Trish arranged with our host, Ali, for a celebration breakfast and they sang the “Happy Birthday” song. Ali looks very fierce, but he is a gentle pussy cat.
Then, off to visit the Hagia Sophia and after that, the Blue Mosque.
All pages: In Transit; Istanbul; OE Day 1: All Aboard; OE Day 2: Bucharest; OE Day 3: Romania to Hungary; OE Day 4: Budapest; OE Day 5: Hungary to France; OE Day 6: Adieu; London & thereabouts; Hampshire; QM2 So’ton to NY; New York; Journey Home