Today I thought we’d try something a little different. Today we’re gonna pop on over to the Asian side of Istanbul. Our destination is Uskudar, a charming district easily accessed by ferry and teeming with historical mosques. Exploring Uskudar gives us a chance to experience the streets of a quiet, everyday neighborhood, without the opulent architecture, modern style and throngs …
To fully appreciate the urban Istanbul of today, you must leave the Old Town and plunge headfirst into the hip, happenin’, lively, upbeat, European-feeling New District, and that’s what we did. After spending the first two full days exploring the classic sites of the Old Town, we indulged in the part of the city where our hotel was located. We…
Today turned out to be one of the most exhausting days of the trip. We decided to tackle the famous Topkapi palace. This is the place where the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror decided to set up shop after capturing Constantinople. It ended up serving as the sole administrative palace for Ottoman sultans for more than 400 years. It housed…
We left the hotel early, since we had a big day ahead. A quick review of geography may be in order here, before we proceed. Istanbul is a huge city, with almost 15 million people. The city spreads over a very large area, on both banks of the Bosphorus strait. The Bosphorus runs north and south, dividing the city…
After many months of being very busy practicing veterinary medicine, in which it seemed that every cat in the city was sick and they all wanted to come to my hospital, I finally got to take a much needed vacation. The destination: Istanbul, formerly Constantinople, formerly Byzantium, the city that straddles two continents, the city where east meets west. Insert…
Holland. The name conjures up windmills, tulips, and wooden shoes. With laid-back friendly people, scores of museums, a multitude of restaurants serving top-notch international cuisine, “coffee shops” that feature marijuana on the menu, gay marriage, and legalized prostitution, Amsterdam is undoubtedly Europe’s most progressive, hippest city. Its beautiful canals have earned it the moniker “The Venice of the North”. For…
Climb aboard Amsterdam’s famous “cat boat” and meet the folks who keep this remarkable floating cat sanctuary afloat. As the owner of a busy feline practice in Manhattan, finding time for vacation can be tricky. All work and no play, however, makes for a cranky veterinarian, so when one of my doctors offered to work an extra two days around…
I’ve been extremely busy since I got back from my trip to Amsterdam and Brussels, plus I have over 2000 photos to sort through, but I want to make sure I share some more pictures. Here are some more from Poezenboot, and I’ll post more from my Europe excursion soon.
Once again, I’m sitting on a train, heading to a new country. This time, the Czech Republic. This train is very fancy. I’m in a private, six car booth. We have all six seats to ourselves. The door is closed, and its as quiet as a tomb. There are many stops between here and Czech Republic, so I suspect the…
Our first stop was the famous Opera house. The metro system (called the U-Bahn) was a breeze to figure out, and in five minutes, we were standing in front of this amazing building. We hopped on the number 2 tram outside the Opera house, and took a 30 minute ride around the circular Ringstrasse, viewing many of the major sights…
As it turns out, arriving late was not a disaster, because the weather in Budapest was horrible. Despite the steady downpour, we decided to make the best of it, and grabbing our umbrellas, we left our perfectly-located hotel and strolled over the modern Elisabeth bridge to Gellert Hill. The climb up Gellert Hill was exhausting, but we were rewarded with…