Our official tour start time was 1 PM, due to a bicycle race that closed a lot of streets. Danita and I went out during the morning to visit the Hagia Sophia one more time. We were there early, and had plenty of time to walk around and look. There’s a few pics on the web site. In the first picture, you will see that the Muslim equivalent to the alter is off center. When they converted the building to a mosque, they found that a centered “alter” didn’t point to Mecca. So they moved in 8 degrees clockwise.

We took a ferry to the Eastern side of Constantinople and had a good lunch (but no where as good as yesterday). Then we walked around some food stalls. It was a cool, rainy day. Danita and I got a little burst of rain in the morning. It more or less rained the entire time of our tour. Our guide offered us some time to walk around and take pictures, but nobody’s heart was in it, so we came back to the hotel.

Tomorrow we fly home. We leave the hotel at 4 AM, expect to get home somewhere around 2 PM. I hope this finds everybody doing well.