Monday Istanbul

Istanbul is a beautiful city. Today was a pretty day weather-wise but showers were around. At one time you could see it raining on the Asian side of the water and sunny on the European side. It showered several times when we were in restaurants,etc but when we were out and about, it was really nice. We started off by going to a church that had some of the most beautiful mosaics I have ever seen. They were damaged in places when the church was turned into a mosque and the mosaics were whitewashed to cover them up. But despite the places that were damaged, they were just so remarkable and beautiful. All the scenes of Jesus’ life were depicted and the detail was clear.
From there we went to take a boat ride on the Bosperus which was so much fun. Asia was on one side and Europe on the other. People live on one continent and travel each day to work on the other. The bridges and ancient buildings along the banks were interesting and Istanbul looked so different from the water. On the way to the boat ride, we passed the ancient wall and were amazed at how much remains and how beautiful it was. What a history this city has. I have been surprised at Istanbul-I was not expecting it to be modern and well kept and clean and it is all of these things. They preserve the past but it is a very vibrant city and we have enjoyed it. After our cruise, we walked down the shoreline to the restaurant where we ate lunch. Then we were back on the bus for the ride to the cruise ship. I think we were all ready to get onboard and get settled in! The Jade is similar to the other NCL ships we have cruised on. It is very new and well designed and so we pretty well knew our way around. I think the garden café area is the best arranged I have seen. It was easy to get around and not as crowded as some we have been on. We noticed immediately when we got to our room that we had two beach towels on our bed. So they have finally figured it out instead of making you put a deposit down and such like they did on the Alaska trip. Of course, we don’t plan to use the pool as it is way too cool for us for that, but we liked this way of doing things anyway. We hope we can find our way to our room-the carpet is different and instead of the fish swimming in one direction, it is a seashell design but if you look carefully, there are some dolphin swimming on the edges so hopefully that will help us keep oriented! We did like that GCT took our bags straight from the hotel to the ship and checked them in for us. That made check in a good bit easier. My bag was several hours later than Jim’s to arrive, so I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw it. Tomorrow we plan to go out a bit near the ship area in search of a couple of things we need. Who goes off and forgets their deodorant or who expects to break not one but two shoe laces on a trip! Last time Jim’s belt broke so this time he brought an extra one, but instead, he breaks the shoe laces.
Miss you all.