Our ship arrived in Istanbul by mid morning on Saturday. We spent the afternoon exploring the
Spice Market, the Grand Bazaar, and several mosques, with Sulieyman Mosque being the largest. There were millions of people out and about on Saturday afternoon. The streets and sidewalks
were filled with a sea of humanity doing their weekly shopping.
We had to disembark the ship on Sunday morning by 8, the end of our cruise! I had booked a "day hotel," Hotel Hettie, near the Galata Bridge. We checked our bags and set off to explore more of Istanbul. We spent the next seven hours seeing Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, and everything else we could take in between the Galata Bridge and the top of the Old City. By 3, we made our way back to Hotel Hettie to freshen up and eat a late lunch. We had an incredible view from our hotel window, particularly as the sun went down and the lights came on.
From Istanbul, we'll remember all the fishermen on the Galata Bridge, so many mosques, over 80% of the women covering their heads, SO many people, the beautiful water and hill setting of Istanbul, retail shopping on steroids, the mosaics of Hagia Sophia, the tiles of the Blue Mosque, the opulance of Topkapi Palace, the back and forth of the ferry boat traffic, Turkish delights, mounds of baklava, so many fish restaurants... Istanbul is like no other city in the world!
