A stopover in Turkiye.......

 First stop  in Istanbul was rechecking historic Istanbul.... and I found a great hotel close to everything....

the Boutique  Saint Sophia..... one has to be careful when booking... 2 hotels have almost the same name!

It was very quiet except for the calls to prayer from the very nearby mosque!

the view from my window was amazing.....

......as was the breakfast...

The staff of the hotel were extremely helpful and arranged a private tour for us and a cruise on the Bosphorus.......

First stop was the Blue Mosque...

Then on to Hagia Sophia,,,,,,, initially a church, then a mosque, then a museum...now a mosque again!

Vestiges of when it was a church!

Then on to the Topkapi palace....first the  harem........ which I always thought was for the concubines! However it is really for female family, including concubines!

...amazing tilework!

........our first view of the Bosphoros......

Next was a visit to an old Caravanserai 

where we were shown rugs.... being made.........

...and for sale.......we did insist that there was no way we might be interested in buying!!

Then on to the Grand Bazaar, there since 1481...... probably the world's first shopping mall!

We finished the day by going to the Cagaloglu Hamman......... amazing experience!

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next day we had a cruise on the Bosphoros arranged....pick up from the hotel......

... great view of the huge ( unneeded!)mosque built by President Erdegon..... a little over the top!

We learned about Boris Johnson's great grandfather  Ali Kemal.... the area he lived in was pointed out to us...... the tour guide opined that he wasn't sure if the family had remained in Turkey, whether Boris as a politician there would have been preferable to their present President!

...and of course we had to stay on board until sunset!

We followed the sunset cruise by a visit to the Basilica Cistern....which was conveniently just across the street from the hotel!

Amazing!!

One wonders the significance of the heads holding up some of the pillars!!

On to the Gobi desert.....

 We arrived at an unpronounceable named town, Dalanzadgad... shortened thankfully to DZ!

Our first stop was the Natural history museum, newly opened. They found lots of dinosaur bones and eggs in the area!

Then on to our ger camp... over very bumpy graded earth roads.... no paved roads en route! Nor signage!

The ger was welcome when we arrived one hour later!

Then on to see some camel farmers.....

We finally got to meet their camels!

We got a lesson in rope making from the camel hair........ 

... and in making felt.......

... then back to our non existent .......... and very bumpy roads with obstacles, animals!..

no guidance at junctions!

... we wanted to see a sunset at the Flaming cliffs..... so got there a little earlier to check out the area... where those dinosaur bones were found........

The sunset was spectacular......

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This was probably the most dramatic sunset I have ever seen!

The following morning I decided to get up at 5.30am  to check out what a sunrise in the desert would look like...and to compare with the night before's sunset!

...horses were on the move..... towards the light!

Then on to the Yol Valley/Gorge where Genghis Khan hid 100,000 men to do a surprise attack into China......... now getting used to these almost non existent roads!

the walk into the gorge had us traversing a stream multiple times.... frozen ice in winter.

We decided to turn back when the gorge became quite narrow and the stream became a waterfall!

Before leaving the area we attended another local Naadam.....

First we waited for the 8-13 year old children finishing their 25 km ride...

Then on to the Naadam fairgrounds.........