Blue Mosque

The big, curvy project of a 17th-century sultan, the Blue Mosque sits across the park from Aya Sofya.  It's mostly known for its exterior, but it's blue tiled interior is pretty breathtaking too.

It's the first mosque I've ever entered, and so it was off with our shoes and on with the head scarves (ladies only).  It's quite something to see this extremely popular tourist attraction used by local Muslims for prayer, alongside the hordes of tourists.  Great observations and learnings for the kids, who haven't hadn't had a lot of exposure to Muslim culture and history or the teachings of Islam.

Men entering for prayer must wash their feet outside first:

This is the area blocked off for men to pray.  Women pray upstairs.  The red carpet means that this is a royal mosque.

The hordes of tourists:

The Sultanahmet

Istanbul means "into the city," and in we went, hitting the old part of this old city (called "The Sultanahmet") hard in our first two days. 

Istanbul, however, was officially known as Constantinople until modern times, and much of the old city is dominated by the fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the Ottoman Turks and the subsequent 470 years of history under the reign of the Sultans.

Course, it's no small potatoes that this was also the eastern seat of the Holy Roman Empire 1,000 years before the sultans rode in on their white horses, and plenty of Roman monuments remain too.  And yep, the Greeks before them.

First stop: The Aya Sofya

The Byzantine Emperor, Justinian, had the cathedral built in 537, representing a huge celebration of Christianity's spread as the official religion of the Empire.  It took five years to construct.  Then, in 1453, when Constantinople fell to the Turks, iit only took five days to destroy or plaster over all of the mosaics and Christian iconography in the church and convert it into a mosque.  In 1935, it became a museum.

The mosaics that can be seen today were found under the plaster, which preserved them for over 500 years.

It took twenty years to uncover the face of one (of several) angels just below the dome:

And it will take twenty years to complete the restoration work behind this scaffolding, which just started four years ago:

The dome is magnificent, and at the time (uh, the 6th century) it changed architecture forever.  A circular dome on top of rectangular base.  Nothing better for the next 1,000 years.

The Aya Sofya is now a museum, so it is accepted to view a mosaic of Virgin Mary holding baby Christ, located just above two disks with Arabic calligraphy of the words Mohamed and Allah (left and right, respectively).  Strange indeed, in today's world.

Okay, next stop is the Blue Mosque (seen below from inside the dome of the Aya Sofya), just across the courtyard! I'll capture it in the next entry.

#rootofourlove

Tulips always seem to find us, or perhaps we find them because we love them so much.   We're chasing them all over the globe. Haven't we all had a crush on a bouquet of tulips now an then, or on a single bulb of the most magnificent strain of colors we couldn't imagine nature produced such a thing?  I certainly have, it's even been "our" flower as a couple.

And so, it was downright punch drunk love for us while living in Seattle and experiencing the intensely colored fields of Skagit Valley nestled in the Cascade Mountains.  Then, we moved to Holland and things got more serious.  It's real love this time, our field of vision so flat that there is no horizon in sight, just endless fields of color and love.

It seems, though, we've gotten to the root of our love, now that we find ourselves on vacation in Turkey.  The Dutch are the most celebrated tulip growers in the world, but they weren't the first to fall in love with the bulb, called the "King of Bulbs" by the Turks.  In truth, the Dutch discovered the tulip while trading with the East, specifically in Turkey, during the 17th century.  The tulip became so popular in Holland during this era that one bulb could sell for as much as one house.  But it was the Sultans of the Ottoman Empire who adored the exotic, fragile and fleeting quality of the tulip bulb.  Our hotel is right next to the gardens of Topkapi Palace (centuries-old residence of the sultans) where the annual tulip festival is in high gear.  We could have been at Keukenhoff Gardens . . . but we are definitely not!

But of course, #rootofourlove offers up a double entendre, for it is these two playing in the gardens of a 15th-century Ottomoan palace amid the tulips who are the true root.of.our.love.

Happy Birthday Aunt E!

Huge springtime hugs for my sister-in-law, who is celebrating her birthday today in O-H-I-O.  We miss you guys so much!

Happy Birthday Grandma

A very happy birthday to my grandma.  We are all full of loving memories.

She Can, So She Does

It's not always easy, and it's definitely not always obvious, but our dear friend, A, has found a way to swing through Amsterdam to visit us on a multitude of occasions while in transit to other places around the globe for her work. Her visits have ranged from a few hours to overnight, and there's usually more convenient options available to her but she always routes through here, if she can, just to see us! 

This weekend we had her for all of 10 hours, and she was the perfect excuse to open the roof deck of our new house for business!  We took advantage of the glorious spring weather, biking through Vondelpark, where we went geocaching with the kids, and breaking open a summer rosé.

I love how this lady is always game for whatever we and/or Amsterdam has to offer.  Kisses to you, A!

April 2015

Check out the heap of bikes in my bike!  it's all you can do when the kids peter out. 

April 2015

Dad and R went deep into the park looking for the geo cache:

April 2015

April 2015

This fav brunch spot of ours has a Brooklyn owner and lots of dishes that make us feel nostalgic for the US.  My go-to move is the chicken and waffles (hey, I spent five years in Georgia, which fully justifies my love affair with this dish), but the kids are all over the American-style pancakes.

April 2015

The weather has been spot on for all of A's visits, with the exception of the very first visit, a few months after our move to Amsterdam.  It was one of the rainiest October's on record in Holland, but rain or shine, the kids must be picked up from school.  And as we know, that's always on a bike in this city.

October 2013

Things did not go so well for us that day!   I got a flat tire (my only one in two years), and we had to walk the bike for a mile in the pouring rain to a bike shop, then walk another mile with the kids to tram back home.  We could only laugh about it though, and even more so because A was sporting her signature fashion: heels! 

October 2013

Because.she.can.so.she.does, A came back to Amsterdam one week later on her way home:

October 2013

 Then, there was the visit when we took A on her first canal boat cruise:

June 2014.

June 2014.

June 2014.

Lots of attention to food that trip . . . Febo (because isn't it obvious that a wall is the perfect place to serve all things fried) and an Idonesian rijsttafel, two can't-miss food outings when in Amsterdam:

June 2014

 

June 2014

Did I mention A is game for anything and everything?

Biking through Vondelpark (June 2014)

A then turned around and came back the next week, so she and I took in Albert Cuyp Market, another Amsterdam must-do and part of our everyday routine.

The very next week after that, we met up in London because, well, A was passing through. And it's only an hour flight for us.

Okay, yes, we had to be there for work too.

It was a record 90+ degrees in London that day.  We found relief in Hyde Park:

Princess Diana Memorial Fountain  (July 2014).

July 2014

Pub silly (July 2014).

July 2014

Seeing A off at Paddington Station:

July 2014

Back again in September for six whole hours, we caught lunch along the Amstel River in Ouder Kerk, a beautiful river-side town just south of Amsterdam.

September 2014

This time it was all about the bitterballen, a quintessential Dutch (fried, of course) snack.  Here's all you ever needed to know about Dutch snacks:  http://www.dutchnews.nl/features/2015/04/10-dutch-delicacies-to-buy-in-snack-bars/

September 2014

Hey, wait a minute!!!!!

 

September 2014

Then, just last October, A visited for her second canal boat cruise, this time with the entire family.  And we couldn't have been happier.

October 2014

October 2014

October 2014

October 2014

October 2014

October 2014

This doesn't even take into account our visits to see them while we've been living in Amsterdam, like our trip to the country of Georgia (the starting point for my blog) and back to Bainbridge Island last Halloween (post coming soon!