Continuing with more pix from Istanbul on Wed., April 15.

After paying the hotel bill we took the tram to the train station to leave our bags in the locker. We could've left them at the hotel free, but it would have been less convenient and the Istanbul lockers weren't very expensive anyway.

After looking around the New Mosque we visited the Spice Market. Despite the name it has much more than spices. It wasn't quite as large as the Grand Bazaar but much more diverse. It, too, had the tourist trinkets but also had live small animals for sale, plants, housewares, etc. Forget Alice's Restaurant - you can really get anything you want here.

Of course we stopped to rest in one of the places for an obligatory coffee/tea. Can't spend time walking around without having tea ;)

The main agenda for the day was to make sure we made it to the Asian side of Istanbul. Most of the major tourism is on the European side, but we wanted to be able to say we were in Asia. With Nicole heading to Thailand soon we wanted to be able to claim that we were in Asia first ;) Pretty petty, huh?

Kim asked at the tourist info booth at the train station (which had been closed when we arrived Sunday. Why would they have Sunday off in a Muslim country?) and we found it was incredibly easy (and cheap) to get across. There are "dolphin boats" at different docks, each bound for a different dock on the other side. A ticket is less than 1 US dollar. You just need to know which boat to get on, and they are all clearly labeled with the name of the other side's destination. Very efficient.

The Bosporus is much bigger that I ever realized. The boat was not small (I estimated about 150 seats total on the two levels) yet it rocked a little in the water as we crossed.

On the Asian side we never once heard English spoken unless someone was speaking to us. No one tried selling us anything. It was clearly the less visited by tourists.

There was a particular mosque Kim wanted to visit. I mentioned earlier the elderly gentlemen who spoke no English but had us follow to show us the way.

Unfortunately we have no pictures of the mosque to share. It was the only one we visited that said no pictures. Kim thought it was the best of all. Certainly not the biggest (although it was not small). We were escorted around by a security guard who was really thrilled to show us "his" mosque. There was only one worshipped in the place when we visited and I get the impression it is generally treated as just a neighborhood mosque. His English was limited but he walked us around, pointing out the different elements. I suspect Kim will put a picture she took of him outside the mosque on her Facebook page.

It's great to travel with Kim - she is daring and will do things I never would. She stopped at some welder's garage. She wanted to buy an ornamental piece from a local. The guy spoke no English. Kim pointed to a small piece, he said a price and she said OK. AS he was knocking off the soot a part broke and he quickly welded it back on. When we left, he went next door to another shop, undoubtedly to tell them, "hey, look what those stupid Americans paid me for a piece of junk."
Kim shot this video on the train because she wanted to illustrate how small the cabin was on the return trip. In addition to the smaller size, we also felt a lot more motion on this train than the first one. With this video I officially complete the Turkey trip.

These pictures begin the sequence from our trip to Nafplio, Greece, for Orthodox Easter, Apr. 17-21.

View outside our hotel.

Most people leave Athens for Easter: they head out to the countryside. This is evidenced by the ridiculous traffic on the highway: at one point, the back-up was over 4 miles. Fortunately, we didn't hit it. Mark and Martha picked us up at 6:30 a.m. on Friday (the 17th) so we would get out before the craziness. We made it to Nafplio in good time. Our hotel was actually in Nea Kios, just a few miles away. Nafplio itself would be packed for Easter. Mark and Martha have been staying at this hotel for decades and love it. It was very nice and they were right: we had the excitement of Nafplio when we wanted it, and the peace and quiet of Nea Kios.

You can see the fortress over the city. More pix tomorrow.

Nafplio was the first capital of modern Greece back in the 19th century when Athens was pretty much just a small town. The city has a lot of Venetian influence, as it was an outpost of Venice back in the 15th and 16th Centuries, until the

Ottomans took it over.

It's only 2-2.5 hours drive from Athens on the Peloponnese, so a lot of people use it as a getaway. This is especially true for Easter: all hotels were willed and parking in town was very difficult.

Bourtzi, in the harbor, served as a fortress, prison, executioner's residence and for a few years, as a luxury hotel.

More from Nafplio tomorrow.