The Cross Over

 

It’s the fourth largest bridge in the world. It crosses the Strait of Bosphorus. Geographers consider this to be the cross-over from Europe to Asia, West to East, and Christianity to Islam. And we cross-over in pouring bloody rain.

I feel like an ice block on the outside but an electric storm on the inside. Lightning bolts of significance zap me silly.

Imagine! Waterways of Europe (and the Danube we followed in Serbia) rush into the Black Sea. Here they dilute the waterways of Russia. Together they squeeze through 32 km of this Bosphorus Strait and spread into the Sea of Marmara, at the feet of ISTANBUL. A little further along is the Aegean Sea, then the Mediterranean Sea and then the WORLD!

Istanbul stands solidly like a three-legged stool on three shores of the Bosphorus. Istanbul (Constantinople until 1453) is the casserole where Europe meets Asia, where West meets East and where Christianity meets Islam.  It jumps out in the places, the people and the products we see.  

This is where Churches become Mosques and then Churches again. This is where markets line streets, pathways and courtyards for kilometers squared and display the wares and wealth of the world. This is where people, 20 million in total, embody the most hardy, most savvy, most striking of the world’s gene pool.

Istanbul is the start (from the west) and the end (from the east) of the Silk Road. The Silk Road from Istanbul to Beijing! The trade route we are about to mosey along. It’s not a single highway, but a network of endlessly changing tracts and networks. It’s not a reel of elaborately woven silk, but an exchange of goods and ideas and development; of writing, horse riding, paper, printed money, the magnetic compass, gunpowder. A trade route, by land, that dominates for 1500 years. It takes the advent of ocean going ships, and trade by sea, to squeeze the life out of the Silk Road.

Istanbul is the mystic seam where east meets west and we even see belly dancers, dancing boys and whirling dervishes slip through …..

 

The Bridge over the Bosphorus.

 

Istanbul!

 

 

The grand, old and new, side by side.

 

The Aya Sofya (the Church of the Divine Wisdom) is built by Emperor Justinian in 537 AD. It reigns as the greatest church in all of the Roman Empire and Christendom until 1453.

 

The inside of the Aya Sofya (see the cat at the bottom).

 

Then, Conqueror Mehmet brings about the ‘Fall of Constantinople’ (if you from the west) and the ‘Conquest of Istanbul’ (if you are from the east) for the Ottoman Empire. He re-builds and re-populates the city. He re-models the Aya Sofya, plasters over Justinian’s elaborate mosaics and places fine Islamic art and calligraphy on the walls.

 

Today, the plaster of Aya Sofya peels away to re-veal the original mosaics.

 

The Blue Mosque peeks above the Aya Sofya.

 

Sultan Ahmet who in 1615 builds the magnificent Blue Mosque, to rival the Aya Sofya, only a stone’s throw away.

 

The beautifully tiled blue of the Blue Mosque.

 

 

Istanbul, a city of 20 million people.

 

The markets & the people ....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We make a wonderful friend in Adam, an Indonesian working in Istanbul.

 

Sight-seeing and shopping is exhausting work!

 

Harry & I are so often 'caught' by the rain in Istanbul.

 

This is our 'matchbox' of a room in Istanbul. I'm pressed up against the wall to take this picture. Check all our stuff!

 

And there is barely room 'at the inn' for our bikes.

 

Here our bikes take cover under potted plants.

 

The east calls ....

 

 

 

And the rising sun (each morning!!!!) shows the way ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

13 Responses to The Cross Over

  1. Anonymous
    Published June 7, 2012 5:55 am

    Really great to see this part of the globe through your watchful eyes—the pictures are most interesting. May you journey safely on heading for that Eastern sun !
    Love as aye J and Mxx

  2. HeuningBal
    Published June 7, 2012 6:45 am

    Awesome!
    Envious is not the word.
    Thinking of you guys — stuck here in my garage
    Drive safely Harry & Linda

  3. johnson
    Published June 7, 2012 7:54 am

    Hi Harry and Linda, I’m really shocked by that you know so much about the Silk Road. But there is a mistake, the east start of the road is not Beijing, it’s Changan(now we call it Xian), the capital of the Western Han Dynasty. And also look forward to reading more travel diary form you. 加油！

  4. Mr.T
    Published June 7, 2012 8:15 am

    What a great adventure. Ride safely & stay in good health.

  5. Schalk Potgieter
    Published June 7, 2012 8:30 am

    Hi Guys, the opening shot is mysterious – almost scary – and then the colours! and I believe more of that is to come – the architecture is once again something that we just don’t have – thanks for sharing it in your usual fashion – safe journey LoL

  6. Naude
    Published June 7, 2012 9:49 am

    Salam! Wonderful, beautiful, mystical world. Again you remind me when I worked in Jordan :-) . “Shokran” for sharing with us with the beautiful photo’s. Can’t wait for more pic’s.
    Ma’a salama my friends.

  7. Naude
    Published June 7, 2012 10:00 am

    مع السلامة

  8. Ndaba Ndzombane
    Published June 7, 2012 1:47 pm

    Great experience. I would have passed my history with flying colours if my the history lessons at school were conveyed in such beautiful phraseolgy and great photographs!

  9. jan and gail
    Published June 10, 2012 6:09 pm

    Jan loved it too. It brought back my history teacher in The Netherlands – Mr Paulides with obvious Greek ancestary even in his looks – who disliked Turks with passion to say it mildly – who would roar about the calligraphy in Haya Sophia : Rigting Mekka, like a railway station he would say!
    However Ataturk, the father of modern secular Turkey, considered there now were enough mosques and turned Haya Sophia – Holy Wisdom – and some other traditional Christian churches into secular musea; he was a wise Turk.

  10. Wendy and Amelia
    Published June 10, 2012 7:37 pm

    Have put Istanbul on our bucket list. Love the colours & the textures of the markets! Your description of the city is awesome and has put the Silk Road into perspective!! Thank you & enjoy!!

  11. jan and gail
    Published June 12, 2012 4:07 pm

    Gail’s turn. I loved the opening photo as it puts feeling to what lies ahead, both for you both and what the traders of old must have felt. Misty, wet, mysterious and unknown. Brave indeed all of you
    Great photos of Istanbul.

  12. Lance Del Monte
    Published June 21, 2012 8:49 pm

    Liked Istanbul without the Turks endlessly forcing over priced goods in to palms of my hands.

  13. Scottish Stephens
    Published June 24, 2012 1:41 pm

    Loving it all. You are so good at letting us readers feel your feelings. The Blue mosque is magnificent.
    I have not been to Istanbul or Turkey but Alex has with his camera and I can remember all the reading he did
    about the architect/builder Sinon who had amazing technical,scientific,geometricand artistic etc. etc. etc. skills
    V.

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