The Ciragan Palace is located in Besiktas, on the European side of Istanbul, with a history going back to the early 18th century. At that time, it was the first palace built on the Bosphorus, and was wooden. By early the next century, it was taken down and a stone building was built in its place. By the early 20th century, there was a major fire in the building and it needed to be rebuilt. Today's incarnation of the Ciragan Palace is a beautiful stone building used for events. This is the side view of the palace...
and here is a portion of the terrace and gardens leading to the Bosphorus.
The interior is beautifully decorated, and on the ground floor of this atrium, the Seref Bigali art exhibit is on display.
Seref Bigali was born in Bergama, Turkey (north of Izmir) in 1925 and worked in both oils and watercolors. The current Turkish ambassador to Algeria, with the same family name, arranged this exhibit in honor of the artist who passed away in 2005. On display, were paintings as well as several sketchbooks - one opened to a striking rooster.
My favorite oil in the exhibit looks to have some Cezanne influence.
And the flowers were striking also.
The exhibit is on display until November 23rd. Some beautiful art in a lovely setting.
I was in the Soguksu (Cold Water) section of Pasabahce last week and decided to take a walk down to the Bosphorus. On the map, I found a fairly straight route down, that would take about 30 minutes, walking. But I had only gone about one block down and found that the road I wanted to take to the right was uphill, so I turned to the left and went downhill. At each intersection, I chose the most downhill route. Purple and lavendar colored houses are not as prevalent at pink, but I did find some lavendar on this route.
In front of a well made house, there is a quickly fashioned one room residence, possibly a squatter residence. If a roof can be established, the squatters can have some rights. This work gets done at night, and in one night.
At one bend in the road, I was happy to see a stream, which certainly would be flowing to the Bosphorus. I knew I was heading in the right direction, following the stream.
But at the pretty red leaves, the stream veered to the right and the road to the left and I was soon faced with an intersection, with all roads going uphill. I went to the left again - the hill was not as steep.
You do not see much graffiti in Istanbul. Occasionally, you do see some painted walls, although there has been a plan in painting either by the town or the school by the wall.
After 45 minutes of walking, I could see the Bosphorus in the distance. I had reached Cubuklu (With Twigs) and the rain arrived at the same time. I ducked into a shop for a spinach pastry lunch and then walked up the main street to see the village.
The rain continued, so I walked to the Cubuklu bus stop and rode back to Anadolu Hisari along the Bosphorus. It was an enjoyable walk, albeit not quite the one planned.
Yesterday morning, we had sunny skies with temperatures in the mid 60's and humidity down to 55%. That will be the closest we get to a crisp fall day. We had had a few days of rain, some quite heavy, but the evening before, the clouds broke as the sun was setting and we had a beautiful sunset.
The fall color will not be as diverse and intense as in New England, but we have some color change on the way. The most vibrant will be this vine which turns crimson red.
And a few trees in Bebek are turning yellow. Most other trees seem to be going directly to brown from green.
What we lack in leaf color, we do not lack in berries. Some of the berry clusters are very tempting to consider for an arrangement at home, but I have not plucked any from public or private gardens...well, at least, not yet. The orange is tempting for some Halloween/Thanksgiving decoration...
the purple goes anywhere and everywhere in my book, ...
the white would look nice made into a Christmas wreath...
and the green turns deep purple! My next walk may be with scissors in my purse, rather than my camera.
But after we had the crisp fall morning on Monday, the clouds rolled in and we have rain again and again.
Rumeli Hisari is a fortress built in 1452 by Sultan Mehmed the Conquerer. It is built into the hillside along the European side of the Bosphorus and covers an area of 30,000 square meters. The building work was completed in just 4 months, from April to August of that year. The best view of the entire fortress is from the ferry.
The fortress is comprised of 3 major and 15 smaller towers and the walls that connect them.
Since there was a shortage of time to complete the fortress, anything available was used for building materials, including marble from earlier Byzantine buildings destroyed by earthquake.
The flag tower is in the center front and is a 12 sided tower. This is the only tower you can go in, although no one is allowed to climb up inside the tower.
The inside view shows nicely finished arched windows. Not in this picture, but there is also a modern day elevator installed around 1930. The original purpose of this fortress, was to monitor traffic on the Bosphorus. At night, a chain could be raised to halt traffic trying to get by without paying the toll.
A few links from that chain... each link is about 20 inches long.
Here is the major tower to the upper right, which is the tallest tower.
And here is the major tower to the upper left. Each major tower had it's own builder, so that may account for the different styles.
The gardens inside the fortress are maintained by Erkan. He has been working there for a year after having been the gardener at the Topaki Palace. In his self taught English, he told me the names of the various fruit trees on the property. There are also 5 kinds of pine. He broke off a sprig of a pink flowering tree for me and also picked a few walnuts as a gift.
On the ferry back home, I took a picture of the Anadolu Hisari that this fortress connected to via the chain. If you can see the flag over one of the towers, it is aligned with my red apartment house here.
In addition to walnuts, figs are now in season. Here are some from the food store, ...
and one opened to see the fruit inside. Much tastier than a fig newton. I highly recommend the real thing.
Nezahat Gokyigit established a botanical garden at the tntersection of two major highways on the Asian side of Istanbul. The gardens are in the loops of the clover leaf patterned highway ramps. A clever use of this type of land. The entrance to the gardens is on one of the ramps - a little hard to find, but you are rewarded if you find it.
The garden was established in 1995 and b
eyond the near gardens, you can see the buildings of the Atasehir section of Istanbul.
The rock gardens were very nicely arranged.
The Japanese garden, complete with a little bridge.
A very unusual shell shaped flower on a vine outside the orchid pavillion. No label, so I don't know what it is in any language.
Just opened this past May, is a mini replica of the Bosphorus, with some of the major landmarks on displayed.
A library on the premises contains lots of resource material on plants and gardens. The Missouri Botanical Garden journals are available as well as other journals in German, English and Turkish.
There is a section for children, which includes a labyrinth for those under 3 feet tall.
Two buses of school children were visiting the gardens at the same time as my visit. The garden staff gave them talks about the plants and the environment. The free range ducks were tempting for the children to chase.
The gardens were very nicely established. The noise of the traffic zooming on the roads was loud and continuous, but probably only bothered me, not the school children. For those intested in more information about the garden, here is their website in Turkish http://www.ngbb.gen.tr/
Last month, the Pera Palace Hotel reopened after the completion of a two year renovation project. The hotel was originally built in 1892 for visitors arriving in Istanbul via the Orient Express. Many famous people have stayed here, including Agatha Christie, who stayed in room 411, now called the Agatha Christie room. Her novel "Murder on the Orient Express" may have some inspiration from this hotel. I went to the hotel for a visit and to experience their afternoon high tea.
A nicely restored Plymouth is parked at the front door, and a friendly doorman opens the front door for guests.
High Tea is served in a large ballroom with a beautiful ceiling, faux painted marble walls and wooden interior balconies. At one end of the ballroom, a piano was being played - Moon River, and other western tunes.
Without giving me a menu, the server asked me what kind of tea I wanted. I asked what was available. English Breakfast Tea, Earl Grey Tea and Turkish Tea. These are all teas available in the food stores, so nothing special... I surpressed my laugh and requested the Earl Grey. The tea arrived as well as the sandwiches. I had a salmon sandwich and a roast beef and cheese sandwich. The pink and white plates were very pretty.
The next two courses of scones and sweets were served together via a buffet table. Yes, that is a bit of gold leaf on top of the square chocolate cake.
The atmosphere was very nice and relaxing and I was glad I had a chance to visit the hotel. Back out on the more hectic streets of Istanbul, I found myself humming Moon River, which did not seem to bother any of the Istanbulites a bit. Reservations are not required for the daily 3 - 6 pm high tea, but are for the hotel rooms. So if you are interested in a stay, here is the link http://www.perapalace,com
and here is a portion of the terrace and gardens leading to the Bosphorus.
The interior is beautifully decorated, and on the ground floor of this atrium, the Seref Bigali art exhibit is on display.
Seref Bigali was born in Bergama, Turkey (north of Izmir) in 1925 and worked in both oils and watercolors. The current Turkish ambassador to Algeria, with the same family name, arranged this exhibit in honor of the artist who passed away in 2005. On display, were paintings as well as several sketchbooks - one opened to a striking rooster.
My favorite oil in the exhibit looks to have some Cezanne influence.
And the flowers were striking also.
The exhibit is on display until November 23rd. Some beautiful art in a lovely setting.
