Just across the square from Spice Bazaar was the 17th c. Yeni or New Mosque, which is quite lovely but it was Friday prayers so we couldn't go in.
The sadirvan (ablutions area).
Waiting for the group to reassemble we amused ourselves trying to work out what this young lady was up to - she seemed to be taking a photo of the mosque through a simit.
Simit, quintessentially Turkish street food, is sesame seed covered bread or bagel.
I was also intrigued as to what this chap was doing with this corn cob.
Just making pretty displays for his cart I think.
Back now to the ferry docks on the Golden Horn's waterfront to catch our boat for a cruise along the Bosphorus. This wasn't our vessel and I'm actually quite glad as it doesn't look very seaworthy.
Ian helpfully making his presence known amongst the crowds.
We got on the boat at the Black Blob then went left up the Golden Hind under the Metro Bridge for just a short way before turning around and heading back and along the Bosphorus to the bridge on the right.
Metro Bridge and further away (although it looks underneath to me) the Galata Bridge.
I didn't realise at the time of taking this photo that the building arrowed on the right was our hotel - Eresin Topkapi, well do be perfectly honest I wouldn't have even seen it in the viewfinder. The flag must have been enormous - our hotel was quite large with 250 generous sized rooms.
Looking across the Galata Bridge to Istanbul New City. The bridge is two storey with shops and seafood restaurants on the lower level.
The Galata Tower dominates the skyline. This watchtower was built in 1348 by Genoese settlers who had been granted free trade and independent status. A wonderful but crowded place to watch the sunset apparently.
Always comforting to have rescue teams on standby but I'm not sure about the helmets; surely they'd make them sink.
Yeni Mosque
Istanbul has always been a popular port for cruise ships and even more are stopping here now because of the troubles in Gaza. This one has docked at Galataport, a recently completed 400,000sqm waterfront complex.
As well as the cruise terminal; Galataport houses a huge shopping mall and numerous art galleries. This piece İsimlerin Şehri İstanbul (Istanbul The City of Names) is by Ahmet Güneştekin.
University of Fine Art.
Dolmabahçe Mosque. Our first hotel must be one of the buildings behind as we weren't far away.
The 258 room Dolmabahçe Palace we visited on Day 1 - gosh that does seem a long time ago now.
On the Old City side, the impressive Blue Mosque.
Çırağan Palace, a former Ottoman palace but now a 5* Kempinski hotel.
Mid-19th century Ortaköy Mosque, situated at the waterside of the Ortaköy pier square, one of the most popular locations on the Bosphorus.
Rumeli Fortress.
The Maiden's Tower, a Greek watchtower rebuilt as a lighthouse in the 12th century stands at the southern entrance to the Bosphorus and has been completely remodelled several times since.
Well that was an hour and a half of our lives gone forever.
I thought these rubbish bins were just hilarious, almost as good as St Petersburg's drainpipes.
Time for a short lunch break and as we weren't particularly hungry we settled for a toasted snack (Ian) and me a chocolate muffin. Don't ask me why there is a saddle next to us.
A couple of produce stalls nearby
Back on the coach for a short ride to the Grand Bazaar. One of the largest and oldest covered markets in
the world, the Grand Bazaar was a trade hub during the Ottoman Empire. Construction of the marketplace began in
1455, two years after the Ottomans seized Istanbul then known as Constantinople
from the Byzantines, under the reign of Sultan Mehmet II - Fatih the
Conqueror. With the rise of the empire, the bazaar thrived and by the 17th
century it had taken on its current shape, giving the bazaar its Turkish name
Kapalicarsi (Covered Market). The Grand Bazaar plays host to around 3,000 shops
where over 30,000 people work.
I've pinched this super aerial shot to give an idea of how vast the place is.
The main entrance and first corridor.
And that was as far as we got - we turned around and walked straight back out. We didn't want to buy anything, couldn't be bothered to engage with the pleasant enough stallholders, didn't fancy getting lost and were quite frankly just too tired.
Instead we wandered into the nearby Nuruosmaniye Mosque for a quick look around.
We watched these two in amusement, wondering if they'd try and go in, but it looks like they were just asking for directions.
We then walked into a nearby plaza and found a wall to sit on and watch the world go by, only to find we were sitting right next to Göksel. This column was built for Roman emperor Constantine the Great to commemorate
the dedication of Constantinople in 330 AD and is the oldest
Constantine monument to survive in Istanbul.
This is the first area we've seen hand carts in.
This young lad was part of a gypsy gang of 3/4 ladies and 6 or so kids - the ladies would spot likely opportunities for successful begging and off the lads would go.
When the rest of the group joined us we had a short walk down to the hippodrome area and waited for Aziz to pick us up.
Very helpful signage (I think it just means waterfront).
No clue about these little houses.
Loved this girl's outfit.
Our last meal was included and we went to a very nice restaurant with a roof top terrace. The meal was the usual cold mese starter, soup and then piles and piles of different meats (luckily just chicken for me). I don't think anyone managed to clear their plate. Then up to the terrace for a few awful night shots.
The restaurant's stairwell.
The following morning was, finally, the anniversary of Atatürk's death and a 2 minute silence was to be held at 09:00 so we wandered outside to see what was happening. Our hotel staff having a commemmorative photo taken with the great man himself.
Out on the streets we saw quite a few groups of people, of all ages, gathered to mark the occasions and at the appointed time, the sirens sounded and all the traffic stopped.
The rest of the group were leaving at 10:30 so we met them all in reception to say our goodbyes and hand over tips to Göksel and Aziz. After which we checked out but left our bags as our airport taxi wasn't arriving until 14:30.
We'd held off buying Lokum (Turkish delight) for anyone as we don't like it ourselves, but we hadn't got anything for Cress as a thank you for the airport run so we headed off to try and find some. We found ourselves in a very residential area and luckily one that had a specialist Turkish delight shop and so bought a large box for her (turned out she loves the stuff!).
Having spent the last of our cash on the Lokum we decided against getting the tram back down to the main areas and walked a short way in the other direction where we found part of the old city walls built during Emperor Constantine's rule.
We then broke into a cemetery! At the end of the walls was a sort of park area and a metro station. We spotted the gravestones over a wall but couldn't see a way in so decided to climb over - watched all the time by this black cat.
What we couldn't understand was why so many people seem to be called Ailesi but I found out later it just meant family. We climbed back out again and walked further on where we found the proper entrance but there were a few people around so I didn't like to take photos.
We got back to the hotel around 13:00 hours and got a message from the taxi firm asking if they could collect us half-hour earlier which was fine by us. Shortly after that the most torrential rainstorm started and continued for several hours so we were very glad we had extra time to get to the airport. The driver was good, not as fast fortunately as the one when we arrived, and I'll definitely considered using Booking.com again for transfers.
We had to hang around at the airport for a good hour wait for check-in to open - they we late, but we soon cleared security and headed for the IGA lounge which unfortunately was not one of the best.
All in all we had a good holiday, the usual VJV style, but we both feel that the crowds and reorganised itinerary in Istanbul detracted from the whole trip.