Remember that rhyme from childhood, I do, well I am here, Constantinople, Istanbul, the meeting point of Europe and Asia this is the highlight of my cruise, so so much I want to see and only a day to do it in, so have cherry-picked the sites to visit, as I know it won’t take much to convince Mr T that we really must do a weekend break here so I can fit in the remainder. For a while we were concerned that this port of call would be dropped as there was some political unrest and demonstrations affecting Istanbul and other large cities in Turkey, but luckily things had calmed down before hand, and the areas where the demonstrations were taking part were not near the old town, where we were headed.
Up early again, Mr T’s first run ashore today. He has plotted his route already, a nice loop that should take him past Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sofia and the blue Mosque, over Ataturk Bridge and then back to the ship . Off he heads, whilst I have my morning tea and admire the early morning view, and what a view it is. To my left I can see the Bosphorus Bridge and to my right Istanbul’s signature view, Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. After a while I am getting a little concerned, where is Mr T, he should have been back in just under an hour, but no sign of him, about an hour and half later I am just about to send him a ‘where are you’ text, when he appears on the prom deck. His 10k run was more of a 15k run, as what the maps failed to show was how to join the road crossing over Ataturk Bridge, so a rather puzzled Mr T was running up and down side streets trying to find access points, he gave up and had an interesting run across Galata Bridge, dodging the fisherman casting into the river. His run through Istanbul was challenging to say the least, not from heat, an early morning run solved that problem, but traffic, in all its forms, cars, Taxis, trams, bikes, mopeds and pedestrians, no rules of the road exists,…never again I heard him mutter.
At last we were off to see the sights, my cherry picked list, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Cisterns and then the Spice Bazaar with a walk across Galata Bridge to conclude the day. We had the parents in tow, and as my Mum has a few mobility issues (knee replacement that has gone badly wrong) rather than walk or face public transport we take a Taxi, no, let’s rephrase that, we take a white knuckled ride! We have a mini Mexican stand-off with a Coach on a narrow lane, which due to size, Coach v Car we lost, high-speed reversing hand brake turn then off up another narrow lane, mounting the pavement and scattering pedestrians, all the while the driver is looking everywhere but the road and with much fist shaking and shouting in Turkish, before we finally draw to a halt outside the Blue Mosque, the driver then enquiries if we would like him to wait as he can then take us on a guided tour, we politely decline.
The Blue Mosque is stunning, both externally as a fantastic piece of Architecture and internally, intricately decorated, painted and tiled, and as the name suggests full of beautiful blue tiles. As entry queues go this one was rather short, less than 5 mins and we were in. As we were doing this tour independently we did not have the benefit of tour guide, but luckily once in, there are guides inside who for 10 Euro would provide their services. We had a lovely gentleman show us round and bring the building to life, not only giving us the history of the mosque but an understanding of the differences between Muslim and Christian houses of worship. Tour guides do add something extra, they bring the pages of travel and city guides to life, so 10 euros well spent.
We then decided to walk across to Hagia Sophia, a short stroll as the two almost face each other. Disappointed, the queue is huge, there is the first queue, for the ticket then the queue to actually enter the building, I did know that there would be queues but this was something to be seen, it would have probably taken the best part of an hour queuing, so we gave it a miss particularly as I could see my Mum was starting to struggle at this point. Instead we found a lovely little cafe and had a nice cool beer, Efes of course, must do local, and took the weight off our feet for an hour in the lovely cool shaded garden.
By now my Mum was struggling, we flagged a taxi down and sent them back to the ship, whilst we carried on with our site seeing. Next on the Agenda was the Cisterns, we were once again lucky as there was no queue. The Cisterns are amazing, they are an underground water storage facility, very tranquil and cool after the heat of the city above. If you have read Dan Brown’s latest Book, Inferno, this is where part of the story is set.
We then wandered down to the Spice Bazaar, what a great place. Istanbul is in many ways a ‘European’ city, but once you enter the Bazaar you are in no doubt that you are in Asia (if you are being specific, not quite as we are the wrong side of the Bosphorus, but allow me poetic license) it is exotic, spices galore, along with Turkish Delight and other sweet treats, and it smells divine, I could have spent ages in there, but time is moving on a we need to get back, although I could easily spend a few more hours here, I would rather the ship did not sail without us. The last part of our route takes us over Galata Bridge, there are fish restaurants underneath, and rows of fishermen fishing from above, if you are that way inclined you can hire a rod and have a go. But as I have a fish phobia, I avert my eyes and march across.
Back on board, we find the parents, order a refreshing Cocktail and enjoy the sail out.
Now we come to the only low point of our holiday, as the parents had decided to head back to the ship, when we flagged them down the taxi, we confirmed the price back to where we had been originally picked up, 38 Turkish Lira to the Port Terminal Building. This seemed about right as we paid 15 Euro to get up to the Blue Mosque, we again confirmed 38 lira, not Euro, ‘Yes sir, the driver confirmed 38 Lira, Port Terminal we made sure Dad knew the cost and sent them on their way. This is what actually happened, the driver carried on past the Terminal, my dad told him to stop, which he did, but not until it was quite a walk back, he then asked for 38 Euro, my dad gave him 38 Lira, and he kept asking for 38 Euro and would not turn round and take them back. So although my Dad is Deaf he is not Daft, he got out of the car, helped my mum out, gave him 38 lira and they both walked quite a considerable way back to the Terminal Building. He picked on the wrong Pensioners!
By now we have got our evening routine sorted, sail-away cocktails, change for dinner, quick pre-dinner G & T. We have managed to stay with the same waiter this week, a really lovely young man called Francis, who brings new meaning to the words ‘service with a smile’ he and Ben the sommelier looked after us fantastically. Then afterwards drinks in one of the bars. the parents retire earlier than us, taking a night-cap with them. They are feeling very proud that they can now find their way back to the Cabin, Mum is very pleased that we are on ‘Port’ side as this is one of her favourite drinks so she remembers what side she is on.
We have a couple more drinks, and head off to bed, tomorrow is Myteliine in Levos and also the Captains cocktail party.