Bosphorus Waterfront

Yesterday we went on a combined tour and cruise of Istanbul and it proved to be well worth the money. For the morning our guide, Hatic proved a very able and helpful guy. He has graduated a couple of years ago from a tourism and guiding course and was knowledgeable and keen to please. Our first port of call was the Domalbache Palace a fairly over the top baroque mansion replete with several tons of building and chandeliers. I feel that Ataturk's secular republic has given young Turks a fairly ironic view of the Sultanate period and its excesses. Our next stop was the spice market which is one of the more straightforward bazaars to visit and the stall owners are not as persistent as many I have encountered in the past. We also popped into the New Mosque but could not go inside as it was Friday prayers. We visited the pet portion of the market in order to sate our absent dog loving needs. They were too bad for the pets and reasonably hygienic. We had a very relaxed and full lunch at restaurant on the old bridge and got to know our fellow passengers, a couple of Tunisian engineering students and a couple from Lodz in Poland (textiles and computing)

In the afternoon more older people joined the tour, a really cosmopolitan mix, including an Uzbek couple which is a first for us. We went to a viewpoint at the top of the cable car where there was a great view of the Golden Horn and the trip was finished off with a cruise of the Bosphorus in which you could see so much conspicuous wealth in the waterfront housing. I've chosen in the list Friday prayer traffic to avoid the obvious historic palaces and chosen a mix of modern and in one case dilapidated housing for my blip.

Unfortunately the tour ended on a sad note, a minibus return to the hotel which took one and a half hours in the list Friday prayer traffic when it would have only taken ten minutes on the tram. Turks may be a great trading nation but they have a bit to learn when it comes to traffic management.