Istanbul #2 - on the Bosphorus

Here I am, back at the Frankfurt Airport.  Not much time for blogging in Dallas.  It was a busy week!  But might as well use this downtime while I still have access to the blog.

The Bosphorus Strait was of great interest to Frank as it is the channel that allows all the oil tankers to move from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea and vice versa.  I honestly didn't even know this existed before we went but am now well informed.  We hung out on the Galata bridge, went to the top of the Galata tower for a bird's eye view and took a Bospohorus cruise.

On the Galata Bridge

with view of the Old City - European side

Now a view of the New City - European side

(we did not see the Asian side of the city)

Fishermen on the upper deck of the bridge

Emily and Marcy enjoyed watching them reel in their catch

(while we enjoyed a beer on the lower deck)

On the cruise (it was cold that morning!)

I wouldn't want to swim anywhere in the water because it wasn't too clean but there were also these jelly fish floating everywhere in the water.  The girls really wanted a picture of them!

One of the bridges that crosses the Bosphorus

 We watched this tanker make it's way along the strait from the Galata Tower

They regulate the traffic so we only saw one or two tankers the whole time we were there.

Certainly our trip to Istanbul was an educational one - historical, religious, and in the case of the Bosphorus and the city's location, geographical!