Europe Fall 2025 Highlight #4

From Malta, Newton and I flew to Istanbul, Türkiye. This is the spelling that "Turkey" prefers, with the extra syllable at the end.

Istanbul's history is rich. From Greek Byzantium to Roman Constantinople to Ottoman Istanbul, Pagan to Christian to Islamic, it literally straddles the line between Europe and Asia by way of the strait of Bosphorus. Istanbul is built on two continents! 

              

The city is bustling with people—ubiquitous bearded men who smoke profusely—others, clean-shaven and tobacco-free; head-scarved to bare-headed women, families, tourists. And cats. They are everywhere, healthy and lovingly indulged by the populace.

Our brief stay featured a daily stroll past side streets full of eateries to the crowded pedestrian thoroughfare. A winding downhill street of charming stores, restaurants and cats ended at our tram station.

         

Tram with Sultan Ahmet Mosque

HONORABLE MENTION: The Sultanahmet neighborhood was our repeated destination. History is stacked on top of itself here with the infamous Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace—home to Ottoman sultans for 400 years—and hidden gems!

Hagia Sophia was built by the Roman Emperor Justinian I in the 6th Century as the Cathedral of Constantinople, the center of the Eastern Orthodox world. Its enormous dome was considered an architectural miracle. The Greek name means "Holy Wisdom," though Europeans mistakenly dubbed it, "Santa Sophia," not realizing the church was dedicated to divine wisdom, not a female saint.

The Ottomans converted it to a mosque, with the signature minarets.

The call to prayer that emanated from Hagia Sophia was the only live voice we heard marking the five daily pauses for prayer during our two weeks in the country. Sadly, many were marred recordings full of static. A favorite passage from a favorite book will always come to mind regarding this one of the five Pillars of Islam...

Patrick Bringley, a brilliant writer, sought the refuge of becoming a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York while grieving the loss of his brother. His incredible account of the healing experience in All the Beauty in the World recounts his impressions when assigned the Islamic galleries. Regarding the "mihrab"—a niche facing Mecca used for daily prayers, he wrote:

“I think about what it must be like to return five times a day to a ritual designed to fix the mind on oneness. I belong to no particular religious tradition, but I often feel the need to be tied-back—reconnected—as the roots of the word re-ligion connote…to brush away trivial concerns & commune with something more basic. I stare into the mihrab not as a pious worshipper, but as a worshipper nevertheless.”

We visited the Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmet Mosque) that sits opposite Hagia Sophia. Headscarves are required for women and no shoes required of all:

The exquisitely beautiful Arabic calligraphy in which the Qur'an is written all over the world. 

These panels of blue Islamic tiles—full of the sacred geometry and vegetation that adorn Islamic art rather than the forbidden images of the Prophet Mohamed— were this textile designer's dream!

HIGHLIGHT #4: 

A poster with the image of "Basilica Cistern" intrigued us, so we descended to this underground wonder.

What a vision immersed us: over 300 marble columns salvaged from ancient Roman ruins and pieced together, lit in subtly changing colors, rising around 30' from the shallow water under walkways. You can see why this other-worldly place got the 'Basilica" name. Emperor Justinian built this in the 6th Century as a cistern—water reserves for the city. There is something mysteriously enveloping about the air, the quiet, the changing shadows that made me want to stay and stay. 

                  

         

     

Still savoring the hauntingly beautiful Basilica Cistern, we got in line to pay for entry into Hagia Sophia. The Cistern had cost $85. There was comment about extensive construction underway inside the mosque; we were hungry...so we left the line. Regrets, I've had a few, but this decision is a big one. Newton and I briefly enter every church that's open on our path as we travel through Italy. Each is inevitably unique. I had to resort to online photos of the interior of one of the most famous religious structures in the world that was merely some money and some yards away. Here's one:

Later, we entered these two Eastern Orthodox churches, serving the small percentage of Christians.

                                   

Of course, the compulsory Istanbul market could not be avoided...

My gigantic bar of olive oil soap is now down to a sliver; I'll start the almond soap soon. The perfect Kilim pillow cover called out "take me home!" The only other thing we bought was a tiny Sufi Dervish figure to hang on the Christmas tree. I'm haggling over it here:

                    
The spices were so beautiful, along with a mirage of items, and the Turkish Delight sample I was offered was so very pistachio and delicious that the nice man gave me another sample...even though we had no room to carry a box home. Sad. I'm salivating.

After three days of wonderful cuisine and our new favorite beer, Efes, off we flew to experience HIGHLIGHT #5...coming eventually to you! 

Hint: "High."

 

Europe Fall 2025: Highlight #3

                                                              

HONORABLE MENTION: 

Newton and I remained for a few more days in Provence once my fancy docent trip to London, Paris and Provence ended. We marked the transition by staying in a convenient home exchange with leftover exchange points. 

The beautiful hilltop towns and vistas in the Luberon Valley provided an excellent extension—Bonnieux & La Coste, Gordes, and Roussillon.

This is La Coste, the Castle ruins of the Maquis de Sade. I was puzzled about what the outstretched arms were expressing...

  Here are the stone village of Gordes and the range of sienna hues in the 

  rocks & structures of Roussillon:            

              

                                  
We flew from Marseilles for my birthday weekend in Malta...

Marseilles Harbor

Cathédrale Sainte-Marie-Majeure de Marseilles

HIGHLIGHT #3

One of the strangest moments, so far on this trip, was having to get past a beggar seated at our hotel entrance in Malta's capital, Valletta. He was muttering and moaning under his breath and shaking a cup under his purple wig. We were surprised because the hotel was rather nice.

After hurrying in past him and getting settled, we joined the happy crowds enjoying a beautiful day at the outdoor bars along a nearby thoroughfare.   

How annoying to spot the same beggar shaking his cup as he neared our happy table. "Oh no, that's the same beggar that was at the hotel," I said. He stopped at our table, ignoring Newton's waving him away. Watch to the end: 

If you don't recognize him without his wig, that is our son Jake, who lives in Austin, Texas. He is famous for his elaborate, international pranks! This is the actual birthday surprise I alluded to when the Paris waiters surprised me with the giant fake cake a week early!

His wife, Larissa, was hiding and snapped the photo by the hotel door. To pull off this second attempt, Jake first cleared it with the bar owner, having noticed there actually are no beggars around Valletta. A bar employee got so excited, he insisted that he video the encounter!

Jake explained how he thought we might recognize his clothes, so he bought the soccer jersey, hat and cup at a tourist shop. Shiny new for a beggar! Because we were trying to ignore and not encourage him, we never observed the beggar closely enough until my asking near the very end of the video, "Is that Jake?" Too bad we didn't take the chance to impress generous humanity on our son by giving him some damn money, but the guttural moaning was too creepy.

HONORABLE MENTION:
  
After the shock and delight, we all had a lovely, relaxed, sometimes rainy weekend in Malta. Jake and Larissa treated us to Birthday dinner at Valletta's Michelin 2-star restaurant, ION Harbour, open to the gorgeous harbor at night.


                                           

The  next morning we met at the plaza by 16th Century Saint John's Co-Cathedral (honoring John the Baptist). There are two Caravaggio paintings there I was looking forward to seeing. Not only was it raining, but an intrepid line going down the block of soaked, hopeful entrants discouraged us. There were Jake and Larissa ensconced at a table for four at a plaza eatery, under an umbrella large enough to play Hearts with dry cards. (Jake never leaves home without cards!) 

I was trying to meet-up there with a fellow museum docent, Gina, who was coincidentally visitng Malta with a friend. We didn't manage to pull it off, but Gina did manage to make it into Saint John's and said the long wait in line was worth it.

I did look up the 1607 Saint Jerome painting inside by Caravaggio, who lead the way of 17th Century Baroque extreme light, shadow and drama. If you look closely in the lower right you'll see a Maltese cross! Caravaggio had fled the law in Rome for killing a man in a brawl...this guy was all drama...and he painted for a while in Malta, becoming temporarily a Knight of St. John until he blew that, too and had to keep running. But he continued painting masterpieces till his early death in 1610.

We also tried to see the Basilica of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, but it was closed, so no gorgeous church interiors on this stop.

We did hit some bars in the rain (hotel umbrellas!), including a top-floor bar where the dark and pummeling Mediterranean rainstorm could be observed while continuing our Hearts game inside. 

Once the rain cleared, we joined the great mix of mostly European travelers roaming the wonderful stepped streets heading down to the island's edge.

The most fun dinner was at a crowded pizza restaurant on the steps where the varied nationalities of the tourists was matched by the varied nationalities of the wait staff. Our darling waiter was from Brazil, so I got to brush-up on my Portuguese; however, everyone we encountered in Malta spoke English, and I understood why when I tried to make any sense of this street sign in Maltese:     

  

The harbor by day offered the ins-and-outs of rock shoreline and stone structures, the medieval fort of the Knights of St. John and the 16th Century fortresses against Ottoman invasion and piracy, adapted for WWII defense. A lovely water taxi ride took us to a jutting point across the bay and returned us bathed in the evening light.

We ended the day with Jake's 5-day-away Birthday dinner at an excellent Japanese restaurant, and were all flying off the next day: Jake back to Austin (double jet-lag); Larissa to join her mother for a cruise out of Athens; and Newton and I to Istanbul for a couple of weeks in Turkey.