Quote of the day: “Our guide did nothing but talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. So by the end of the tour, there was no time left for shopping!” Another passenger.
Istanbul is such a wonderful place. We did a walking tour through the old city, including 2 mosques (the famous Blue Mosque, plus an older one), a carpet showroom (“No pressure to buy.” Yeah, right!), drinks in a beautiful, shaded café, and the hippodrome (ancient racetrack).
We then left the group, and headed for the underground Cistern, a water reservoir originally built by the Romans, but upgraded several times over the centuries. Fascinating place, and another example of the engineering skills of the ancients… definitely a highlight of my visit to Istanbul.
From there we wandered around the shops, through a park, and ended up dining in a strip of restaurants under the bridge linking the city to the piers. There they did the Turkish version of “would you like fries with that order”, waving plates of tempting starters under your hungry noses while you wait for your food. We resisted and won…
We were so fortunate to get great weather again, rather than the high humidity of our last visit 3 years ago. And being Sunday, the traffic was no problem at all.
So Turkey gets full marks. We will definitely be back!
thanks for keeping us up to date, it has been great.... and your quotes always brings a smile to our faces....
ReplyDeleteJoanne and Garry
Hi Joanne and Gary - pleased to hear you're enjoying the blog - it's been fun writing it too.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes.
Philip