The Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet) & Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya) are well-known and are part of the traditional tour of Istanbul’s ancient sites. But there are many other mosques deserving a visit. Here’s an overview of my favorites, over 20 years of visits to this city.
Category: Turkey
The Rest of Istanbul – What You Missed on Your 1st Day Tour
While our itineraries cover the major sites in the Sultanahmet area of Istanbul, there are many other attractions in this fascinating city. I always spend few extra days in Istanbul. Here are some of our favorites:
Walking Through History – Georgia & Turkey 2023
We explore traditional and classical sites and seldom visited areas. Originally scheduled for spring 2020, we’re offering these tours starting in April 2023, dependent on pandemic conditions. There are 4 segments which can be combined: Georgia and Northeastern Turkey Southeastern Turkey Lycian Coast light hiking Cappadocia light hiking These can be combined for trips of… Continue reading Walking Through History – Georgia & Turkey 2023
Advice from years of bargaining in souks & bazaars
Here are my subjective general rules and advice for travelers in foreign markets and bazaars gleaned from many years of bargaining in Turkey, Nepal, India, South America, China and North Africa.
Alexander’s Path – Freya Stark
This was the perfect complement to be reading during our hiking trip in Lycia. Challenged by the meagerness of the historical record of Alexander’s progress along the Lycian coast, Stark set out in the 1950s to retrace and discover his most likely trail. Alexander had come to Xanthos, then after starting to the north, towards Gordium, suddenly made a sharp change of direction towards current day Antalya.
Byzantium a trilogy by John Julius Norwich
“Of that Byzantine empire the universal verdict of history is that it constitutes, without a single exception, the most thoroughly base and despicable form that civilization has yet assumed…The history of the Empire is a monotonous story of the intrigues of priests, eunuchs and women, of poisonings, of conspiracies, of uniform ingratitude of perpetual fratricides.”;