Said goodbye to one of our tour buddies at the airport this morning and left Instanbul . We are off to Warsaw and she was off home to Seattle. We flew Turkish Airlines – nice flight, good crew and best economy class food we have ever had and with a good wine selection. Had fun at the airport checking in as our e-ticket was not recognised by the airline. After 15 minutes it was resolved and when we asked if we should take it up with our travel agent they s...

A quiet day to day. The plan was to meet up with our friend from the tour and visit the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts then have a look through the Arasta Market in the vicinity of the museum. The museum was excellent. It had a great collection of old carpets and in particular Kilims and a small collection of prayer rugs. Many of the rugs (all types) came from Sultan burial chambers dating back to the 15th century. There was also a great section on callig...

Today it was off for a walk to the Basilica Cistern, the Spice Market and the Galata Bridge and Tower. The 10,000 sq m Basilica Cistern supported by 336 columns was built in the 6th century during the Byzantine Empire. Water was supplied to the cistern from the Belgrade woods, 19km north of the city, via aquaducts built by the Justinians. Located near the Topkapi Palace it met the water needs of the palace and other residents living in the area and was used th...

Today, with one of our friends from the tour, we took a tram and train to one of the finest Byzantine churches, St. Savior in Chora (commonly known as Chora). When we got off the train we hardly had time to decide which direction we needed to walk when a local asked us if he could help. Upon informing him where we were going he grabbed one of us by the hand and raced us out into a 6 lane roadway taking us on to a local public mini bus telling the driver, we pres...

This morning we were met at the hotel by our tour guides driver who took us to the ferry for our intercontinental trip across the Dardanelles. This was a private organised specially for us without any additional cost. The plan was to visit Gallipoli, have lunch and then get on a public bus to go to Istanbul. At Istanbul we would be met by someone from the tour company and taken to our hotel. We ended up being put on an earlier bus to Istanbul (2:30pm instead of ...