Istanbul and the Black Sea

Istanbul was one of the places that I've always wanted to see. The architecture of the mosques is beautiful and unique. This cruise began in Athens and our first stop was Kusadasi (for Ephasus) Turkey. We had been there before, but they have excavated some new areas, so that was what we concentrated on this time. Sirence was a small town nearby and in between was Mary's house. Then, back to Greece for Volos and Thessaloniki. Two days in Istanbul gave us time to see the mosques, huge grand bazaar, spice market and have dinner in a lighthouse on a tiny island. From Istanbul we went around the Black sea with stops in Sinop and Trabzon, Turkey; Sochi, Russia, and Savastopol, Ukraine. Here are several slide shows of each point of interest.