Blue Mosque, the Palace and the Bosphorous

4th June 2011

This morning we all headed off to explore the Blue Mosque, a short walk from our hotel. After lining up for a short time, the requirements for entry to the mosque were very liberal with regards to dress and in most cases all you needed to do was remove your shoes. It was as impressive from the inside as it is from the outside. The engineering involved in building these huge domed structures in the era they were built never ceases to amaze.

The Blue Mosque

After a good look around inside the mosque, the Quinns and Macdonalds headed off to explore the Topkapi Palace, whilst the Hollingsworths wanted to see some more markets, having not made it to the Spice Bazaar yesterday.

The Palace covers an enormous area of waterfront land and includes a multitude of buildings. We had only allowed about an hour and a half to cover what we wanted to see and soon realized that a lot more time could have been spent there. There are beautiful gardens, probably some of the best water views in Istanbul, opulent buildings and some fascinating history all wrapped up in one site. Unfortunately we only got to see some of it.

One of the many Palace buildings

View from the Place grounds

We had agreed to meet the Hollingsworth’s at 12 noon outside the Spice Bazaar for lunch and a cruise of the Bosphorous. We ended up dining in one of the restaurants under the Galata Bridge and then booked in for a 1.5 hour Bosphorous cruise.

The cruise was great and really helped put in perspective the size and importance of this waterway, which carries a lot of commercial shipping in and out of the Black Sea. It was also interesting to see how luxurious some of the waterfront properties were.

Leaving the Bosphorous Cruise terminal (with Glata tower in the background)

Looks like there is still a bit of money around on the Bosphorous

After the cruise we headed back to our hotel on the local tram service just in time for our dinner reservation at the hotel restaurant on the rooftop terrace overlooking the Blue Mosque. The view was sensational and the meal pretty average.

Dnner at the Hotel

View of the Blue Mosque from the hotel restaurant