Istanbul, Two Mosques

After our stay in Istanbul, our ship sailed the Bosporus to the Black Sea, then to Yalta and Odessa, then returned across the Black Sea to Istanbul. At about 11:00 AM we entered the Bosporus, and by noon we were passing (rapidly) downtown, with Istanbul’s beautiful mosques and hi-rise buildings in Europe on the west (our right), and Asia on the east (our left). This photo, taken about the time we sailed past the golden Horn, shows St. Sophia Mosque on the right, and the Blue Mosque on the left of the photo.

There was a Soviet submarine sailing on the surface toward the Black Sea, and the Bosporus, near the Golden Horn, was crowded with ferryboats, ships and boats of all sizes. The bridge that crosses the Bosporus from Europe to Asia was almost stand-still crowded with vehicles. We sailed through the Sea of Marmara, the Dardanelles, then across the Aegean Sea to Athens, where our RV was parked in Camping Athens, on the road to Kórinthos (Corinth).

Home is home wherever it is, and we know it's certainly more enjoyable to return to our familiar "home," rather than to a strange hotel room. I have yet to see a hotel that is as inviting as a campground, and certainly our RV is more comfortable, and more familiar than any hotel room. To each his own!