On Thursday, after touring the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, we had lunch where we celebrated Courtney's birthday (note the cake in the photo).
After lunch, we went to the Spice Market where we sampled Turkish delight, among other things. We then boarded the van to travel to a small church called Chora (meaning something like "in the country" because the church was originally built outside Constantinople's city walls).
Chora contains many beautiful mosaics depicting the lives of Jesus and his mother. The photos of the mosaics on the left depict first, Jesus and his mother and second, Theodore Metochites (who restored the church in the 14th century) presenting the church to Christ.
After Chora, we returned to the hotel and said goodby to Ersin, our wonderful guide who has been with us throughout Turkey.
Today was a free day and we all did some shopping and explored Istanbul. We are getting ready to fly back to the US in the morning. We leave for the airport at 6:20 am. It will be sad to leave Istanbul but I am sure that everyone is looking forward to getting back home.
No comments:
Post a Comment