Inscription from 600 BC. About two inches high. At Delos, statue platform.

Events of the day:

Group photos in front of Blue Mosque. Basilica Cistern. Hagia Sophia. Bosphorus Cruise, with lunch in Asia. Dinner at Ceylan for those who went out yesterday, rest out.

My first trip to Istanbul was triggered by a wish to see the Hagia Sophia. It gets its own page of photos. I knew there were other reasons to visit, but the Hagia Sophia alone would be sufficient reason. And, if you haven't visited, doit... there is a reasonable chance of a large earthquake under Istanbul. While the Hagia Sophia, and other wonders, have managed to survive so far, who knows...?

Started day with group photo in front of Blue Mosque... great choice. Tour director turns photo shoot director. Versatile, or what? (Pretty good EMT, on occasion, too... though he will probably want to forget those episodes?)

Visited the vast cistern near the Hagia Sophia, which you may have seen in a Bond film! (Link is to Wikipedia's article)

Cruise on Bosphorus

Both on my previous trip to Istanbul, and on this one, I felt welcome. (Ha! It was only in the final moments of 15 minutes of editing the fishermen picture that I noticed the fish! Okay, it is small, but that's not what the fisherboy said! (Just below right hand rod, half way from reel to top of frame.)

Joking aside: It was pleasing to see so many fishermen plying the waters of the Bosphorus... apparently a healthy ecosystem.

Tauck did an excellent job of finding good, interesting, and varied places for us to eat. And in balancing the times when we were in their care, or allowed to find our own memories. Today, in the midst of our cruise on the Bosphorus, we had lunch on the Asian side. I've never been persuaded that "Europe" and "Asia" are two continents... look at a globe... but it was still fun to say we ate on two continents in a day! An "interesting" stop... on our way in we lost one member of the family, and on the way out, Bee seemed to like the place so much that she wanted more time here!

After a satisfying day, , we had some free time in the evening. I started off down to Taksim Square from our hotel (Ceylan Intercontinental... very nice). Noticed hot air balloons rising from the square, and some faint chanting. At one point there were about two dozen currently active balloons, each about two feet high, rising up to impressive heights.

When I got to the square, I found an impassioned but orderly demonstration against Israel and the US for what is happening to Gaza and the rest of the Palestinian Authority territories.

The police were standing by, on the edges of "the action". Just quietly "ready". They were there in significant numbers, and looked very capable.

The crowd were mustering, and eventually set off down one of Taksim's "fancy" streets, to make their protest. During the mustering, a leader would initiate a chant via PA, and then the crowd would repeat it, waving flags, etc. This young girl was on the side of the main action, but had done a good job of finding a photogenic perch! This is a frame snatched from a short video clip. It doesn't do justice to the kid's perky, engaged, demeanor.... but never fear! We have the technology! Unless you are reading this on an iPad, the following should load and play the 45 second video clip, from Flickr. (iPad users excluded because Flash technology is employed. Sorry!)

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This page © TK Boyd 5/12. Click here to contact him.

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Page tested for compliance with INDUSTRY (not MS-only) standards, using the free, publicly accessible validator at validator.w3.org. An early draft of the page was valid apart from several things inside the code to embed the video clip of the demonstration.