We had quite a busy day today. We left the hotel at 9 a.m. and drove along the 5th cent. City Walls, which stretch for 10.5 miles. They were built when the city was called Constantinople. We stopped at Yedikule, the Gate of the 7 Towers, where the original Golden Gate of the city was built.
Next, we visited Tekfur Palace Museum where we could see large screen versions of the mosaics of the Church of St Saviour in Chora. The church was closed for renovations and keep promising to open again but apparently never does.
We also stopped at a Bulgarian Church (not sure why, but it did have lots of icons and gold work). Also we enjoyed a walk around one of the old neighborhoods.
Next stop was lunch then the Mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent, built in the 16th century. We were allowed in, but again the ladies had to cover their heads and we all needed to remove our shoes. I decided I needed to buy a scarf of my own, as it will be used again on this trip, so I managed to buy one at a stall conveniently located in the area.
It just started to rain a little as we came out so we headed to our final stop of the day, our cooking class at Cooking Alaturka. They set us all to work straight away - chopping onions, herbs, and tomatoes, and then we assembled the dishes. (This probably took us 1.5 to 2 hours). We made lentil soup, stuffed eggplant, courgette fritters, dolmades (stuffed vine leaves) and walnut stuffed figs. Once we had everything cooking we were served wine and beer while the food cooked and then we enjoyed our meal - which was delicious. We were all stuffed, so we walked back to the hotel and arrived about 8:30 p.m. I didn’t take any photos here but hope to get some passed on to me.
Note: Photos 1,3 old walls. Photo 2 just outside old walls shows the way they built the old houses. Photo 4 view from near the mosque, towards the Bosphorous. Photos 5, 6 the mosque. Photo 7 Blue mosque at night (near hotel), photo 8 inside Bulgarian church.
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