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Scenes from Istanbul

Everywhere we looked, there were fascinating scenes of life and history in Istanbul.

Emily took this photo that I love because of the Turkish Delight shop, the old man playing the sar (?), and one of the street dogs of Istanbul.

The Istiklal Caddesi is a bustling shopping area of beautiful European-style buildings, a reminder that Istanbul is the city where Europe meets Asia.

             

There were areas that looked just like San Francisco!

These women make the Turkish version of crepes, which are then filled with delicious combinations of cheese, spinach, cheese, meat, more cheese, veggies, and/or cheese.

And Doner meat (like we see at gyro stands here) rules the day in Turkey.

At first, I thought the reason the bazaars were so clean is because they’re for tourists. That may be so, but there were many locals shopping at the Egyptian Spice Bazaar. I enjoyed picking out teas and spices from a man who was obviously very proud of his high-quality goods.

We loved walking around Istanbul!

 

Istanbul Archeology Museum

The Istanbul Archaeology Museum opened in 1891 to try to slow the smuggling of antiquities out of Turkey. And what antiquities they’ve got!  Extras are even scattered around the grounds.

The collection of sarcophagi dates as far back as the 4^th century BC. The most famous one is the huge Alexander Sarcophagus. It didn’t actually contain Alexander the Great—it depicted his career in great detail. You can even see some of the original paint!

But I was touched more by the Mourning Women sarchophagus.

Two ancient temples were reconstructed with remnants of their friezes and amazing Roman mosaics.

One building on the site is a magnificent tile museum, housing gorgeous examples of Turkish tile work.

Among the treasures in the Museum of the Ancient Orient building:

One tablet of The Treaty of Kadesh, the oldest recorded peace treaty:

The Ishtar Gate, built by Nebuchadnezzar in 575 BC:

A cuneiform tablet from 2700BC, among the world’s first known writing examples: 

And a tablet from the 6^th century AD, that talks about Jesus and Christianity:

We were amazed and overwhelmed.

 

Hagia Sophia, Istanbul

One of the highlights of our trip was the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. This beautiful cathedral’s third incarnation (built in 537) signaled to the world that Constantinople was the center of Eastern Christianity. It was the largest cathedral in the world for 1000 years.

Some of the beautiful Byzantine mosaics were destroyed by Latin soldiers during the Fourth Crusade, and others were covered with stucco by Muslims. Luckily, this helped preserve them. The face of one of the angels has been uncovered, but the other three are still covered with stucco and iron.

 

         

The mosaic depicting Empress Zoe presenting Constantinople to Jesus gives rise to many legends about why the faces were painted over. My favorite is that the original depicted her first husband, which was painted over with the face of her second husband, and then her third. She was supposedly vain, so I assume she also had her face repainted to be more flattering. Whichever is the case, it’s a lovely work of art.

In 1453, the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople and converted the Hagia Sophia to a mosque, adding minarets and the huge Islamic calligraphy discs, and replacing the altar with a mihrab pointing to Mecca.

This mix of Christian and Islam elements was really interesting to us because we saw the opposite juxtaposition in southern Spain: the Catholic church constructed chapels in the middle of huge Moorish mosques.

We admired the exterior from different views and in different light.  It never failed to impress us.

 

Grand Tetons N.P. Jenny Lake Area

Jenny Lake is the most popular area of Grand Tetons National Park. Trails wind all the way around the lake, with beautifully situated campsites.

We decided to catch a boat across the lake…

…and hike up the side of a mountain!

The trail was steep, rocky, and treacherous. We were scared for those without hiking boots.

After much huffing and puffing, we were rewarded with Inspiration Point.

Then we headed along the crest. I found the perfect place to meditate by a rushing stream.

Steve scouted ahead and came back to get me to see this amazing canyon.

It was magnificent. I harvested many delicious wild raspberries, and we wanted to keep going, but clouds were gathering. As were hoofing it out, we came upon a moose happily resting. Unfortunately,  I wasn’t able to get a good shot. We made it on the next-to-last boat of the day just as the rain hit. We were happy, wet, and tired!

 

First Look at the Grand Tetons, September 2011

I’ve always been fascinated by photos of the Tetons. Something about their jaggedness and the glaciers makes them different from the southern Rockies. So, for my birthday this year, I got to see them up close! The first day we took an aerial tram to the top of a ski mountain (10,400 ft).

  

We could see Jackson Hole (the valley) even with the haze from forest fires.

We were almost even with the Teton peaks. They were as magnificent as I imagined.

We hiked along the ski trails and access roads along the crest. Opposite Jackson Hole we could see a high valley among the mountains.

 

There are several glaciers on the peaks and Steve headed uphill to get a closer look.

Great first day!

 

Driving Southern Idaho, September 2011

We flew into Boise and drove across the southern part of the state. Lots of potato fields…what a surprise! There are beautiful areas in Idaho, but there is a lot of nothing:

Between Hell’s Half Acre:

And God’s Country:

 

This is Swan Valley, truly one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.

I’m ready to learn fly fishing! I’ll pretend I’m standing between Robert Redford and Brad Pit in “A River Runs Through It”.

 

Vince Young Steakhouse, Austin, TX

We've wanted to check this place out, but it's super expensive. So, to celebrate our anniversary (and the start of the football season) we decided to splurge.

The decor is very interesting, contrasting a dark, clubby atmosphere with UT bling.

We had superb steaks, outstanding sides, and a Mt. Veeder cab that I liked a lot, but Steve wasn't so enthusiastic about. Guess that's why I drank most of it!

Our waiter brought us a fabulous dessert on the house.

All in all, a great indulgence!

Can we get eight friends interested in booking the Room of Ten?

We have to agree to spend $1000. That's only $100 each. Easy to do in this place!

Vince Young Steakhouse
301 San Jacinto
Austin, TX

 

San Francisco Victorians

One of the most charming things about San Francisco is, of course, the famous Victorian homes. From the Six Sisters with their lovely view of the city…

…to the amazing details you see in any block.

As usual, I was fascinated by the doors.

     

Even the kids get into the act!

The owners of this Victorian showed us tourists what they thought.

Never mind, I don’t mind being a tourist as long as I get to enjoy these painted ladies!

 

Lovely Napa, Part 4

This is the last post about this trip to Napa Valley. We hope to go again next year. Fingers crossed!

Although the tasting room was closed, we enjoyed exploring the grounds at the Beringer winery. The historic Rhine House (completed in 1884) is full of Victorian flourishes. I’m not crazy about their wines, but would love to return and see the wine-aging tunnels.

The gardens were in bloom. I decided this is where Emily should have her wedding reception (in 10 years or more!). Wonder what she has to say about it?

In the past, the town of Napa wasn’t much of a destination…a few hotels and restaurants and that’s about it. Several years ago, the city leaders starting making the town a destination for visitors to the valley.

 

Our hotel was close to downtown Napa and we checked out a few things:

• Oxbow Public Market – a collection of restaurants, food shops, and wine bars with live music and other events. It’s not as impressive as markets in other cities, but we loved Model Bakery (had their goodies every morning for breakfast), The Fatted Calf (beautiful meats and pates), C Casa Taqueria, and Kara’s Cupcakes.
• ArtWalk - Several sculptures are installed downtown and we saw a couple of them.

• Wine - There are several wine bars and tasting rooms in downtown Napa. You can buy a Downtown Wine Tasting card for $20 and hit 12 tasting rooms for 10 cents each. We thought this would be great, but ran out of time to try it out. Back Room Wines has an extensive selection of small production boutique Napa wines.

We reluctantly said goodbye to Napa Valley. We could have spent a couple more weeks there exploring.

We decided to take the scenic route into San Franciso, driving through Sonoma Valley to the coast. Sonoma was startlingly green, with the most content black-and-white cows I’ve ever seen.

Crazy Bikers fought for space on the Pacific Coast Highway and we were really scared for them.

We had a lovely picnic at Point Reyes under huge oaks. We reveled in our Wine Country cheese, bread, wine, and chocolate picnics in beautiful settings!

And then we arrived at the beautiful Pacific Coast!

Links

Beringer Vineyards: www.beringer.com

Downtown Napa: napadowntown.com

Oxbow Public Market: www.oxbowpublicmarket.com

Model Bakery: www.themodelbakery.com

The Fatted Calf: fattedcalf.com

C Casa Taqueria: myccasa.com

Kara’s Cupcakes: www.karascupcakes.com

Back Room Wines: www.backroomwines.com

Point Reyes National Seashore: www.nps.gov/pore

Lovely Napa, Part 3

Thanks to input from friends and family, we knew that the wine train was a must-do. We decided on the lunch jaunt to make sure we had enough sunlight to enjoy the views. The food was a disappointment after the luscious dinner the night before, but the views were wonderful.

 

The leisurely ride took us up the valley from Napa to St. Helena. At that point, the engine switches to a bypass rail and moves to the other end of the train to take us back to Napa.

 


The décor was perfect for old-fashioned train riding and the wine tasting bar was raucous with vacationers. This was a fun way to get an overview of the southern end of the valley (and to drink more wine!).

 

During the train ride, we enjoyed the quaint look of St. Helena and decided to go back and look around. There were many precious, expensive shops. We tasted the olive oils at Olivier and admired the chocolates displayed as jewels at Woodhouse.

 

Next, we ventured up-valley to the Culinary Institute. This huge stone building was built in 1889 as Greystone Cellars and, later, Christian Brothers. The Culinary Institute of America purchased the property in 1990.

 

 

Several well-curated displays explain the history of this fabulous place. Steve really liked the corkscrew collection that Brother Timothy amassed. In fact, the labels for today’s Greystone wines feature corkscrews from the collection.

Unfortunately, it was the end of the day and we didn’t get to experience the flavor bar, but are planning that for the next trip! Either the happy hour special of 5 bites + glass of wine for $10 or the olive oil tasting or the chocolate tasting or the dessert sampler…hmmm, maybe all of these!

Links

Napa Valley Wine Train: winetrain.com

Olivier: www.oliviernapavalley.com

Woodhouse Chocolate: www.woodhousechocolate.com

Culinary Institute at Greystone: www.ciachef.edu/california

Greystone Cellars Wines: www.terlatowines.com/wines/california/greystone