Day Trip to Iznik

Taking the fairy to Iznik.

This church was also called the Hagia Sophia! 

The bricks were from 6th Century!

Cool mosaics in the floor...

Probably not intended to be a dance floor, but don't tell Danni!

The outside of the Hagia Sophia Museum.

On the shores of the Sea of Bosphorous.

Enjoying the sunset on the shore.  I thought it was weird that there wasn't any sand!

She liked throwing rocks!

I did too!

It was too cold to take a swim!

We found a local play ground!

It was nice to get the sillies out on some new equipment!

Monkey girl!

McDonald's on a new continent!  (Iznik is on the Asian side of Turkey!)  Not many kids get to have McDonald's on three continents during their vacations!

She was happy to have a little taste of home!

We missed the early ferry, so we had to take the night ferry back to Istanbul.  The view of the Blue Mosque was worth the delay!

 We took a day trip to Iznik - a town where they produce gorgeous ceramics on the Asian side of Turkey.  While our hunt for ceramics wasn't very successful, we did have fun exploring the town.  We saw ANOTHER Hagia Sophia -- this one was where the Second Council of Nicaea took place in 787.  It was pretty cool that we stood in a place where important people stood to make important decisions hundreds of years ago!!  We walked to the shores of the Bosphorous and enjoyed a beautiful sunset there before making our way back to the ferry terminal.  Our favorite part of this excursion was the McDonald's in the terminal!  Since we missed the earlier ferry, we were stuck there and 'had' to have McD's for dinner.  Danni and I loved having some nuggets and fry-fries on the third continent of the trip!!!