The Hagia Sophia Basilica

We have made it to Istanbul after 4 days driving, ending in a quite extraordinary, multi lane, scary approach to the city after the holey roads of the past 2 days. Our friend who lives here immediately whisked us off on a magical tour using boat buses, trams and lots of walking around "The golden Horn" of Istanbul where most the the "must see" sights are. What a place, and it was just heaving with people. Apparently there are 15 million people living in Istanbul during the week and 17 million at weekends + us now! We could hardly move in the spice market and the oldest covered market in Europe (1460).
The Hagia Sophia was the biggest cathedral in Europe for over a thousand years then in 1453 it was turned into a mosque and since 1931 it is a museum. Equally impressive is the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (the Blue Mosque) which is stunningly beautiful inside even with all of us tourists.