2geonomads

Thursday 7th June 2012.

Another bright sunny day and it’s off to Topkapi Palace, built in the 1450’s by Mehmet the 2nd.
This enormous complex is obscenely opulent and it is easy to tire of viewing gold-encrusted cradles, crowns etc. However, It was good to see the Topkapi Dagger made famous in Peter Ustinov’s film of the same name.
The only other notable moment during our visit was to come across some photos of royalty and statesmen who had lunched at the restaurant in the grounds. One featured a certain Hosni Mubarak so presumably they will shortly be adding a third panel for convicted war criminals!

Leg-weary but determined to make the most of our Itanbul visit we take the long trek to Mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent, rivaling in size and splendor the Blue Mosque.

At first sight G and I were totally underwhelmed by the interior of the mosque but after 15 minutes wondering what all the fuss was about we realized that we were in the wrong mosque! The real one about 500 meters away was suitably impressive.

Another long trek down to the Eminonu jetty to take the ferry over to Kadikoy in Asian Istanbul.
Fascinating to see a far less obviously Islamic culture and there was a real buzz about the town.
One hour stay than return ferry back to Karakoy on the northern side of the Galata Bridge over the stretch of water called the Golden Horn. Visit the famous Taksim Square,scene of so many protests and walk back down the main pedestrian street Istiklal Street, over othe Galata Bridge.Arrive back for late dinner on hotel 5th floor served again by the friendly Junus who asked us to say nice things about the hotel and restaurant on Trip Advisor. Happy to oblige!

Go to bed happy in the knowledge that we only have the famous Grand Bazaar to check out the following day before leaving this incredible city.

Cheers

The Obese Ferret.