This is the down ramp from the balcony of the Aya Sofia. When you walk on this you really get the sense that we are talking centuries, here folks, not decades, but centuries!

On the way there is this magic wishing column. You put your thumb in and turn your hand in a total circle. I don't know what it means but I like this picture.

When I saw these workers outside the cathedral I got the sense that this has been going on for hundreds of year. Since the 1400s when the place was built there have always been workers here doing rebuilding, maintenance, restoration.

Now we are off to see the Blue Mosque.

It's a short walk across the park, which is lovely, especially since we are here during the Tulip Festival.

Street food -- chestnuts and roasted corn. Also, a traditional drink called Salep which, I think, is barley and honey and I don't know what else. David thought it was too sweet. I loved it and found it comforting, sort of like liquid oatmeal.

This is a real working mosque. Visitors are kept on the edge and inside are real worshippers. It is huge and beautiful and peaceful. I wore a scarf and if ladies are in short skirts, they must wrap a cloth around their waist to cover their legs.

Blue mosaic tiles. Heavenly.

Nudgie puts his shoes on and ready for the next stop....

the Hammam! The famous Turkish baths. We were vigorously scrubbed, soaped up and shampooed. Them nicely oil massaged and showered, emerging soft and fresh like babies. I love the raw cotton scarves they wrapped us up in and the olive oil soap. This Hammam has been here since 1584.

Then we visited the Yogashala Teacher Training anatomy class taught by Ken the Rolfer from New Jersey by way of Goa. He knows his stuff, for sure. Here he is demonstrating the rotation available in one of the students who is super flexy and Can, the owner of Yogashala who has a torn meniscus.