Day 44: Sun 10 Jul - Istanbul

Weather: fine & sunny 30deg

Directly after breakfast it was off to the Topkapi Palace / Museum to try and beat the queues. We were lucky we did as it started to get very busy as we were leaving and would have been rather unpleasant. A spectacular palace in a totally different style than us Europeans are used to. Extensive use of marble and ceramics and all the buildings had wonderful wide verandahs, so appropriate in this climate. The gold, diamonds and other precious stones in the jewelry, clothing, weapons and furniture were, as normal for palaces everywhere, completely over the top. I wonder how many of their people they starved to death during their rein in order to achieve such obscene wealth. Regardless it is pleasing to the eye now and if they had not built it we would not be able to get such pleasure from it during present times. Unlike European palaces this one doesn't seem to have one big "palace" building as such. The Sultans preferred a more rambling set up with pavilions and garden houses scattered about. Not forgetting the mandatory harem house which every self respecting sultan must have. There have been a lot of additions over the centuries with extensions being added to celebrate various battle victories or a coronation, etc. 

It was then back to the motel to move as the bookings in Istanbul are pretty tight this time of the year, despite the 1000s of motels they have. The new hotel, Erboy, 50m up the road is excellent. The dinner we had at the restaurant was marvelous also. 

Tomorrow I am going to drive a hire van from here to our accommodation for the next few days which is near Gallipoli. All the info says "don't drive in Turkey, especially Istanbul!!!" We'll see, can't be any worse than Sydney?? I hope the two navigators, Bob & Fred, have their GPSs working well.  

Garden shed of the Sultans Palace of Topkapi

Our favourite coffee / Turkish delight shop in Istanbul

Upstairs in the café part