Istanbul Day 1

We arrived in Turkey late this afternoon.

We (and all our luggage) arrived mid afternoon, and we met our driver for the nearly hour long ride to the hotel in the tourist area near Sultanahmet Square.

We were met by our tour leader after checking in and did a short walking tour of the area. We bumped into another member of our group who had arrived a day earlier and was out walking.

Ramadan is almost over, it ends Sunday, May 1. There are a number of mosques around the square and it was a nice day, so there were a lot of people waiting for sundown to eat and pray. We hear the call to prayer many times throughout the day starting at 4:30 am and ending at 9:30 pm.

Hagia Sofia is in the area.

The tulips were very nice in the evening light. We learned that tulips originally grew in Asia, and then came to Istanbul before making their way to the Netherlands in the 1500s.

We then had a light dinner and walked along the Bosporus Strait for a little bit.