Sunday - Travel and tour of Istanbul
The day started early, up at 3.30am to drive to Heathrow to catch the 6.55 Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul. Had a horrible Starbucks coffee, with some Gingsters pasties before the flight. Uncomfortable seats with very little legroom and only the flight map and radio channels to listen to. Istanbul had some large cumulous clouds around as we came in for the landing. Quite rough as we flew in and around the clouds. On landing we were greeted by rain, it had obviously been raining quite hard earlier.
We met up with some of the other punters, and our guide Seda, who took us to the hotel Nanda. The hotel had been changed from the Hotel Colour, but the recently updated Jules Verne itinerary was unaware of this modification.
We went for a wander around Istanbul on our own, and eventually stopped at the Suleymaniye Cami Mosque for tea and a toasted sandwich. Seemed to cost more than we expected. There was lots of discussion as to whether to have apple or Turkish tea, large or small, large or small sandwich, with tomatoes or not.
On the way back, stopped at a Supermarket and bought 6 litres of water. There were masses of street traders, selling food (baked or boiled corn on the cob was popular), nuts, loose tea, cigarettes, loose tobacco, mobile phones, jeans. The shop next door to the hotel sold furs. We also appeared to be in the leather area of Istanbul, with many shops selling leather jackets.
Back to the hotel for a wash, and then an evening tour followed by a meal (£35 each). We started with a coach trip along the Marmara Sea, the Bosporus and the Golden Horn. We visited the Galata tower for a fabulous view over the Golden Horn as the sun set. Unfortunately that side of the gallery was filled with people, so no photographs of the setting sun. From there we drove to the Hamdi Restaurant where we had the expensive but good meal. Side salad of tomato, cucumber and parsley, flat crisscross bread with cumin seeds, cheese crumbled and topped with walnuts, mint flavoured lentil soup, thin spicy pizza which we had to roll up to eat. Main course was chicken, lamb kebab, mincemeat kebab, rice served with thin bread. Finished with melon chunks, plum and honey sweet meat, Turkish coffee and raw fresh picked pistachios.
Back to the mini bus for a further scenic drive back to the hotel. City walls still standing in parts. Castellated triple wall with water between the walls, said to be a World heritage site. We passed lots of Mosques. Seda said the pre 1923 Mosques tended to have multiple minarets, post 1923 had only 1 or 2.
