Istanbul

We have returned from our trip to Istanbul, where we spent an interesting 5 days. We flew up from our "local" airport, Izmir, which is 2 hours from us. The flight took exactly an hour compared to the overnight coach, which takes 11 hours .... no contest!! After a brief mix-up at the airport at Istanbul, (our booking agent had omitted to send the promised transfer vehicle for us), we were whisked off to our hotel, which was very comfortable, quiet and well-placed for everything we wanted to do.

The afternoon of St Valentine's Day was spent getting our bearings, (or as Sue describes it, getting lost ... funny how we see things differently isn't it?). Sue's convinced she's right, just because we walked a few miles, sometimes in the wrong direction ... oh well she's female so she must be right!! During our wanderings we did look round the Suleymaniye Mosque, which apparently is the most important, built by Suleyman the Magnificent.

We also managed to find the Grand Bazaar and the Spice bazaar, walked back along the Bosphorous, and the 4 or 5 Kilometres to the hotel .... so just a short stroll to discover the lie of the land!!

Next day, after an excellent breakfast, we set off for Taksim Square, a pedestrian precinct where everyone seems to hang out and promenade. We spent a good day perusing shops and viewing the sights, and then used the tram to return to our hotel. After a short interlude we went down to the basement, which housed the Turkish bath and Sauna. There we indulged ourselves for two hours, having the scrubs and treatments, (a birthday treat) after which we were too relaxed to go out so we had our evening meal in the hotel.

On Thursday, we did a bit of sight seeing, starting with the Blue Mosque

Followed by the Basilica Cisterne. That was amazing. It's a vast underground reservoir built by the Romans around 532 AD. For the first hundred years after the Ottomans conquered Turkey, they didn't realise it was there. As the entrance looks like a public loo, it's probably not surprising, but when you get down there ... Wow!!

We found a café with a great view over the Blue Mosque, the Haghia Sophia (which is another large mosque that seems to have been turned into a museum) and Sultanahmet Square.

Then we walked to the Topkapi Palace and browsed the archaeological museum, as well as the artefacts and buildings in that part of the palace grounds. We also ambled through the Gulhane park within the palace grounds down to the Bosphorous.

The tower in this picture is the Galata tower. It has been a lookout tower, a prison, a naval building and now houses a restaurant on the 9th floor.

We returned to Taksim square when we left the palace to have our evening meal in a lovely Italian restaurant we had discovered on our previous visit. We had a great table upstairs, which overlooked Istiklal Caddesi, which is where all the locals and tourists promenade at night, to see and be seen. It was packed.

Saturday we woke to find it was raining, so we made the decision to go to the boat show at the International Exhibition Centre out near the airport. When we got there we found there were two boat shows, one just beginning, and one just ending. We went to the one we had intended to visit which was Istanbul's International boat show, but were very disappointed. Lots of very big, very expensive power boats, but no sailing boats, so we went to the other one round the corner. That was better, but not much for us ... still lots for the power boat person and the luxury yacht purchaser, but for the humble dinghy sailor .. zilch. However, we were able to get a new cover for our canoe and some epoxy resin, so it wasn't a total waste of a day, and we did stay dry. Fortunately, the metro and the tramline in Istanbul operates frequently and at one fare however far you travel, so getting around is not expensive, and is very easy.

That evening we ate back at Sultanahmet Square at a tourist restaurant with prices to match ... it looked nice though. We strolled around a few of the back streets, browsing as you do, before heading back to the tramline. Just as we were about to pass through the turnstile, we spotted someone waving frantically at us from a "pub". It was Gary and Karen from here in Yesilkent, also up to see the boat show, quite an amazing coincidence. We spent an hour or two with them, and then tried again for the tram before they shut down for the night.

That brings us to Sunday, a very cold day. We decided we should spend our last full day at Topkali Palace, where we could pop in and out the various sections of the palace and try to keep warm. It's huge and did take most of the day. We gave up before we got to the harem chambers, as the queue outside was far too long, and the next tour was scheduled nearly an hour later. Too cold to wait that amount of time, so we went in search of sustenance. A pastinese and coffee house provided us with these:


We polished off a few of these. Having had pudding, we then headed off for Taksim Square to eat again, our main meal this time, (Fish and Chips would you believe .. isn't that sad).

And that brings us to Monday, time to head for home. We were picked up from the hotel as arranged, Flew back from Istanbul to Izmir as planned ... had a long wait in Izmir for a connecting bus to Didim, and arrived home a little exhausted at 9.30pm ..... a good break.

February

February has started with some really icy blasts. Yes, winter has definitely arrived. Thursday 1st was sunny though, if a little chilly, so after we had completed the necessary chores, we decided to get a bit of exercise and walked the coastal clifftop path to Altinkum. It's always a beautiful walk, and this day was no exception.

Even though the weather has turned colder, some plants are poking their heads through the soil.


Once we got to Altinkum, we went to book our airport transfer to Izmir for our flight to Istanbul later this month. On the way we spoke to several people. After that we walked up into Didim to check our post box. More people to say hello to on the way. It made us realise, that although our motorbike had freed us up to travel when and where we wanted, it had also cut us off from a lot of contact with our friends and aquaintances, acquired during our transport-free beginnings. We really must park the motorbike up, and walk more, if only for fitness sake.

However the following day, with high winds forecast, we had to go into town for some mastic to glue down our roof shingles, which have a habit of flipping off when the wind really blows. That little job and a few others kept us busy during the afternoon and in the evening we ate at our favourite restaurant, Café More with friends Nigel, Yo, Mandy and Lawrence. A very pleasant evening.