by Lufthansa Flyer | Jun 11, 2012 | Trip Reports |
ISTANBUL: THE BASILICA CISTERN
One of the more impressive sights that we took in during our trip to Istanbul actually was underground. Built in the 6th Century, it is one of the largest Cisterns in Istanbul (hundreds of other cisterns exist beneath the city). During it’s functional years it had supplied water to the First Hill area of Istanbul which includes Topkapi Palace and the Grand Palace of Constantinople. The Cistern had functionally provided water well into the days of the Ottoman Empire and beyond.
After paying a 10 Lira admission fee and descending 52 steps to reach the Cistern the initial challenge was adjusting to the extremely low light conditions but after a minute or two, our eyes adjusted and what we saw was impressive. This mammoth Cistern lays beneath the streets above and has withstood 1500 years of war, conquest, fires, riots and growth of the city and really speaks to the engineering and construction skills of the time. To give you an idea of the scope of the Cistern, here are a few key statistics (courtesy of Wikipedia):
Square Footage: 105,000 sq. ft. (9800 sq. meters)
Capacity: 2,800,000 cu. ft. of water (80,000 cubic meters)
Columns: 336 (marble) / each 9 feet high arranged in 12 rows of 28 columns
Today there is only a little bit of water left, perhaps only a foot or so in depth. What surprised me at first glance into the water is the sheer amount of fish that patrol the Cistern.
The fish were a surprise.....
The architecture of the columns and the dome ceilings demonstrate the efforts put into the construction. The columns are believed to have been recycled from other ruins from Istanbul and surrounding areas. You’ll notice in some of the photos that the columns are not all identical. It is thought that 7,000 slaves were used to build the Cistern.
One of the most interesting aspects of the Cistern are the two marble blocks with the carving of Medusa’s head that were converted into bases for the columns. As part of the superstition that exists with Medusa and her ability to turn gazers into stone, one blocks were was upside and the other was turned onto it’s side in an attempt to prevent direct eye contact:
Taking decent photographs in near-zero light conditions was a bit challenging. Don’t use a flash, and images can be a bit blurry, use a flash, and you risk washing out the photo. I’ve picked the ones that I think do the best job of illustrating the Cistern and its beauty. Pay close attention to the variety of column designs that were used.
One of the initial views
What hundreds of years of water does to Marble....
Water's influence on a column
The following picture is of a column thought specifically to have been carved as a memorial to the slaves who built the Cistern. The teardrops are thought to represent the pain and suffering endured by the slaves.
The Basilica Cistern can get very busy and lines can become long especially when tourist groups visit the area. The entrance to the Cistern is only steps away from the Hagia Sophia and Sultan Ahmed (Blue Mosque) and can easily be added to an itinerary that includes visiting these 2 sites. I would suggest planning to spend about an hour in the Cistern (not counting the time it may take to get inside) in order to fully appreciate it.
This is only part of a much larger trip report covering the trip to Istanbul and London. If you would like to be informed of future trip reports, please follow me on twitter: @lufthansaflyer.
Here is the current “index” of the trip report. The one’s with hyperlinks have already been completed:
Lufthansa First Class Services from Chicago to Frankfurt
Lufthansa First Class Lounge in Frankfurt
Istanbul – Sultan Ahmed (Sultanahmet) Mosque.
Istanbul – The Basilica Cistern.
Istanbul – Spice Market and Grand Bazaar.
Istanbul – Park Hyatt Macka Palas.
Istanbul – Our Day with Ihsan (besttaxidriver.com).
Istanbul – Hagia Sophia.
Istanbul – Other Mosques and Churches.
Istanbul – I find out what Zultanite is….
Istanbul – The Food We Found.
Istanbul – Turkish Airlines’ International CIP Lounge.
London – Hyatt Andaz Liverpool Street.
London – Opening of Parliament – Great pictures of the Queen and procession to Parliament.
London – ‘The Sunshine Boys’ at the Savoy Theater (Danny DeVito and Richard Griffiths)…..BRILLIANT, MUST SEE!
London – Spitalfield’s Antique Market – And the lesson I learned.
London – Churchill War Rooms and Churchill Museum.
London – Photos from around town.
London – Dinner at Petrus
London – St. James Park: Feathers and Fur
London – Covent Gardens.
London – All the other things that I can’t think of at the moment….
Pluckley – They said it was haunted……
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jun 10, 2012 | Trip Reports |
SULTAN AHMED MOSQUE (SULTANAHMET / THE BLUE MOSQUE):
The Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Constructed between 1609 and 1616 while Ahmed I ruled the region) or as it’s commonly known, “The Blue Mosque”, is perhaps one of the more popular destinations in Istanbul. Located in the Historic part of Istanbul it is within easy walking distance of the Grand Bazaar, The Spice Bazaar and Topkapi Palace.
We were fortunate during our visit that there were no serious queues and we were able to walk around the Mosque and surround courtyard and greenspace without much “competition” from other tourists. The “Blue Mosque” nickname comes from the amount of blue color that had been used in the Mosque’s interior decor. As you’ll see in my pictures, blue is a very prominent color in almost every shot.
The Mosque is impressive. I don’t know how else to describe it. From the outside you can tell that it is an enormous facility with impressive architecture. Something unique to this mosque are the 6 Minarets surrounding it. The Blue Mosque was the first Mosque to have 6 Minarets to surround it. Traditionally, Mosques only have 4 Minarets but when this Mosque was built, it was decided that 6 Minarets would be built. This Permission was granted only after the Grand Mosque in Mecca had added it’s additional Minaret so that the Blue Mosque would not have more Minarets. In ancient days, the Minarets were used to call the faithful to prayer and to share other important news with the surrounding areas.
The Exterior Of The Blue Mosque:
Sultan Ahmet Mosque (Blue Mosque)
The Mosque’s Courtyard:
Entrance to the Courtyard is on the right. The Mosque's exit is to the left.
The interior of the Mosque was simply amazing and you can understand why it is referred to as the “Blue Mosque”. The tile design is exquisite and the Mosque is covered from floor to ceiling in these tiled designs. I think its better for me to let the photos do the talking:
Initial view upon entering
The area for Prayer was cordoned off from tourists
Honestly, I don’t think the pictures can do the Mosque proper justice. A picture only takes a snapshot of a certain area, but to fully appreciate the beauty of this Mosque requires one to take in a panoramic view. When you stand in place and just turn 360 degrees, you get a far better perspective of just how beautiful this Mosque is. I highly recommend that no visit to Istanbul goes without at least a brief visit to take in it’s beauty.
I do have one criticism not of the Mosque itself, but of some of the visitors.
I do have to admit that I slightly disappointed with my visit to the Mosque. Though it is an important religious home for those of the Islam faith, I couldn’t help but feel that the Blue Mosque has been transformed more into a tourist stop and less as a house of worship. Granted we were there when prayers were not called and it was not a Holiday but part of my feeling stems from the disrespect that many visitors had shown.
When entering the mosque, women were given a large blue piece of fabric and asked cover exposed skin or hair. I noticed in far too many instances that once a woman entered the Mosque, the blue cover was disbanded and they continued to tour the Mosque in their shorts and tank tops. Men were not innocent either. Men who wore shorts were asked to use the blue cloth to cover their legs, and again once inside the Mosque, the blue sheets came off.
As visitors, we’re asked to abide by simple rules and yet some are challenged to abide by them. Cellphones were in heavy (even though signs asked them to be turned off) use inside the Mosque and we could hear many “critically important conversations” while trying to appreciate a holy place. An unsolicited piece of advice: If you visit a holy place, whether a Church, Mosque or Synagogue, please respect where you are and follow the proper protocol and show the respect these places deserve.
This is only part of a much larger trip report covering the trip to Istanbul and London. If you would like to be informed of future trip reports, please follow me on twitter: @lufthansaflyer.
Here is the current “index” of the trip report. The one’s with hyperlinks have already been completed:
Lufthansa First Class Services from Chicago to Frankfurt
Lufthansa First Class Lounge in Frankfurt
Istanbul – Sultan Ahmed (Sultanahmet) Mosque.
Istanbul – The Basilica Cistern.
Istanbul – Spice Market and Grand Bazaar.
Istanbul – Park Hyatt Macka Palas.
Istanbul – Our Day with Ihsan (besttaxidriver.com).
Istanbul – Hagia Sophia.
Istanbul – Other Mosques and Churches.
Istanbul – I find out what Zultanite is….
Istanbul – The Food We Found.
Istanbul – Turkish Airlines’ International CIP Lounge.
London – Hyatt Andaz Liverpool Street.
London – Opening of Parliament – Great pictures of the Queen and procession to Parliament.
London – ‘The Sunshine Boys’ at the Savoy Theater (Danny DeVito and Richard Griffiths)…..BRILLIANT, MUST SEE!
London – Spitalfield’s Antique Market – And the lesson I learned.
London – Churchill War Rooms and Churchill Museum.
London – Photos from around town.
London – Dinner at Petrus
London – St. James Park: Feathers and Fur
London – Covent Gardens.
London – All the other things that I can’t think of at the moment….
Pluckley – They said it was haunted……
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jun 5, 2012 | Trip Reports |
On June 3rd I returned home on the new 747-8i from Frankfurt after attending the ceremonies surrounding the inaugural flight of “Brandenburg” (nick name for the new 747-8i) that took place June 1st. For my flight, I was seated in 1K in the First Class cabin of the aircraft and as luck would have it, I was the only passenger in the cabin for that flight. This basically gave me untethered access to explore the cabin and go into more detail than would typically be possible. Along with a phenomenal crew, we explored most of the “nook and crannies” of the cabin. It was this crew’s first time officially flying on the aircraft so they had as much fun and interest as I had when it came to poking and prodding the cabin.
This is a fairly lengthy write up, including videos of various aspects of the cabin, so hopefully you can take a few minutes and go through it.
The first class seat on this aircraft is the same as the “new” first class seat that is gradually being retrofitted on existing Lufthansa aircraft so there’s not much new in terms of the seat itself. However seeing this seat in the first class cabin on the new 747 gives it a completely different perspective. Until now, Lufthansa’s 747 had their first class seats located on the upper deck “bubble” of the aircraft. For the 747-8i, the First Class cabin has been brought downstairs into the section immediately behind the nose of the aircraft. This actually creates a very intimate and comfortable cabin. Even though the cabin narrows at the nose of the aircraft, there is still plenty of room for passengers and it does create a wonderful environment that has a very “exclusive” feel to it as I hope my photos demonstrate. For this post, I’ll skip the food service portion of the flight and focus on the seat and cabin. The food service was the same as other First Class flights and was outstanding as usual.
Let’s begin….
Here is the view as you enter the cabin:
A well decorated cabin. Colors are soothing and rich.
Other Cabin Views:
View From Rear Of Cabin
View from front of cabin
Right side of cabin
Left side of cabin
The only 2 middle seats in the cabin.
Seat Converted To Bed Mode
SEAT DETAILS:
The upgrade over the previous First Class seat is a dramatic one. With these seats, you can see the quality construction and engineering that was involved. The seat is well though out, with fantastic features and is fairly simple to use. The seat comes with it’s own user’s card so a passenger can very quickly master the features of the seats. The build quality is outstanding and rivals the quality interiors of Mercedes Benz, BMW and other high end car manufacturers. I examined the fit and finish of seats closely and found them to be extremely well built.
However, there were a couple of things I would have liked to have seen done differently. The plug for your headphones is in an awkward position within the headphone storage compartment. The positioning of the plug requires very small or deft hands to maneuver the plug into the port. If you have an average sized hand or larger, you may need to play with the plug a bit to line it up with the port. Not a major issue, just something that I noticed. The other item that I would say is more important to address is the glare of the IFE (In-Flight Entertainment) video screen. It seemed that the screen would lack some contrast at full cabin lighting or if you had a window shade up. Even adjusting the brightness control did not help much. I think the best fix here would to apply anti-glare shields on the screens to help with the screen contrast.
Following are photos highlighting some of the seat details:
This is a typical seat in the cabin. You’ll notice the Ottoman in front of the seat. It serves as a storage space for the passenger. It also is integrated into the seat controls and will move closer to the seat to be used as a foot rest and also becomes part of the lay-flat bed when the seat converts to in “sleep mode”:
Seat 1A
As you can see in the following photo, there is plenty of room for a passenger, the seat is generously wide and extremely comfortable.
View as a seated passenger.
The left arm rest contains the seat adjustment controls for the seat, including the privacy barrier that rises from the left armrest (apologies for not have a photo of the privacy barrier). It’s covered by an integrated door built into the arm rest. The door helps to prevent spills from reaching the control buttons as well as keeping the smooth lines of the seat intact:
Seat adjustment control panel cover
The control panel allows for a myriad of seat adjustments:
The right armrest contains the IFE (In Flight Entertainment) controller. It integrates both the IFE menu controls as well as the game control for the games installed on the IFE. One item of note is that with this new First Class cabin technology, First Class passengers can join the onboard games that are going on during a flight. Up until now, if there was a poker game being played together by passengers, only business and economy passengers can play against each other. Now First Class passengers can join in.
The controller is removable from its armrest cradle and has a retractable cord to help guide it back into place:
Both Armrests also have integrated buttons for various controls. The left armrest has “short-cut” buttons for various seat positions while the right armrest has IFE controls such as volume and channel as well as the flight attendant call button:
LEFT:
Left Armrest Seat Controls
RIGHT:
The seat area also has storage compartments built into the area between the seat and the wall of the fuselage. This is also where the “tray table” is stored when not in use. The compartments are lit and include storage for headphones along with a general storage compartment. One item of note is that first class passengers are issued a set of Bose QC15 noise canceling headsets for the flight. There is also a pocket built into this area that contains the Airline magazine, safety card and “Quick Start” guide for using the seat:
Headset storage: The headset plug is in this compartment.
It takes a little of maneuvering to get the plug in place if you have larger hands:
Headset Plug
Bose Headset
A general storage compartment behind the headset storage area.
The integrated pocket that holds inflight magazines, safety cards, etc.:
The tray table is extremely large and is very easy to move. Once the table comes out of its storage compartment, it actually slides forwards and backwards so that it is very easy to adjust the table to the passengers need. Getting in and out of the seat is effortless thanks to the table having a 2-3 foot range of motion:
Well though out tray table design
The tray table is stored in an integrated compartment:
Tray Table Storage
The power ports are also integrated into seat an are located on the vertical support of the arm rest. Outlets include 2 USB ports and 2 Power Outlets:
Easy access to power supplies
Additionally the seat features a personal reading lamp that is integrated into the shoulder of the seat so passengers can still have a light source when the cabin is darkened.
Other Cabin Features:
The 747-8i introduces several new things never before seen on a 747. These features deal primarily with cabin lighting, improved lavatories and enhanced storage solutions.
One of the first things that caught my attention upon entering the aircraft was the cabin ceiling. It was domed, with 2 levels of indirect lighting that play an integral role in the cabin’s ambiance:
High ceilings with 2 layers of lighting
This lighting system is designed so that the cabin crew can create lighting moods in any cabin aboard the aircraft. Lighting options include standard lighting for boarding, night and daytime flights as well as more advance features like sunrise and sunset simulation to help passengers slowly awake in the morning, or help them drift into slumber during an overnight flight.
The panel is controlled by the crew from within the galley:
Light System Control Panel
Daytime cabin sleep mode:
Daytime rest mode
Here is a 3 minute video capturing the subtleness of the Sunrise Mode (The modes can be set to last several minutes):
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz9TyUq10Os[/youtube]
Cabin storage is vastly improved over previous 747 versions. In this edition, each First Class passenger has their own personal wardrobe cabinet at the rear of the First Class cabin that easily accommodates 2 carry ons. Additional there is a bar with hangars so that you can easily hang your clothing if you change into the pajamas that are provided for passengers.
Plenty of room......
A view of an empty wardrobe
The attention to detail is evident everywhere. For example the inside of the wardrobe door is lined and trimmed:
Overhead storage is more than sufficient:
A closet in the nose of the aircraft stores the bedding for the seats:
Another feature unique to the new 747 involves the window shades. Previously the shades were manually operated and you would need to lift and lower them. That is no longer the case as the 747-8i now has electronically controlled shades that have 2 levels of coverage. The first level is simply a light shade and the second level creates a true blocking of outside light. The shade is placed behind glass so that it can not be touched directly. The shade can be stopped and set at any position simply by touching a button located under the window. The cabin crew can control all window shades from the galley, but a passenger can override them. Here is a video demonstrating the new shades:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu-bO3bvQqI[/youtube]
Finally, the lavatory. This is among the nicest that you will find in any aircraft. It is nearly twice as large as a typical lavatory and has some enhancements that improve its usefulness.
Sink with electronically controlled water temperature
Water temperature indicator. Adjustable by turning handle left or right
Cabinet and amenity storage
Drawers contain toiletry items:
Lav cover - doubles as bench
Infant changing table integrated into lavatory wall:
Here is another video showing a panorama of the cabin:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI21Hyj82cM[/youtube]
This new Lufthansa First Class cabin on the new 747-8i is a quantum leap from it’s predecessor. The thought and engineering behind its design is obvious. This cabin is extremely quiet. The engines are not heard during flight and only a minor “hiss” of airflow is audible during flight. The cabin walls are covered in a suede-like material that helps with noise supression. Additionally the curtains at the rear of the cabin are extremely heavy and are filled with noise deadening material that block noise from entering the cabin from the galley. It’s easily the most modern cabin that I have ever flown in and I honestly believe Lufthansa and Boeing have a winner here. Moving the First Class cabin to the lower deck certainly creates an intimate atmosphere that passengers will appreciate during their long flights. This takes First Class travel on Lufthansa to a new level.
If you ever have a chance to experience their new First Class cabin, DO IT! You will not be disappointed.
One of the more impressive sights that we took in during our trip to Istanbul actually was underground. Built in the 6th Century, it is one of the largest Cisterns in Istanbul (hundreds of other cisterns exist beneath the city). During it’s functional years it had supplied water to the First Hill area of Istanbul which includes Topkapi Palace and the Grand Palace of Constantinople. The Cistern had functionally provided water well into the days of the Ottoman Empire and beyond.
