Monday, September 9, 2013

Day 47 Istanbul

Today we arrive in one of my favourite ports.  The sail in is always beautiful passing many of the famous landmarks.  We were also lucky that we only had a couple of smaller ships in with us, the Seaborn Odyssey and the yacht Wind Spirit.  We also only had to contend the approx 13 million that live in Istanbul, when we told Kagan our guide how many we have in Sydney he suggested that we should know everyone.

Once again Kagan from www.privatetoursinturkey.com was our guide. Having been to Istanbul in 2011 we chose a tour that took us to The Mosque of Suleyman, Beylerbeyi Palace, the Grand Bazaar and a cruise along the Bosporus.

The Mosque of Suleyman is the largest Mosque in the city. They were much stricter here with the dress than they were in Blue Mosque though it was lovely to walk straight in and not contend with hordes of tourists.  Kagan took us to the side, sat us down and spoke to us about religion in Istanbul.  Eventually we decided to get up and leave the serenity of the mosque and soon we were on our way to the Palace.

saw a fly over of at least 6 fighter jets.... hmmm ... no formation flying here so we gathered it was not for the benefit of the South Korean conference that was on!

 

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