Weather - Overcast, cool, afternoon storm
After arriving late yesterday evening Carol, Brian, Henk and I have wasted no time in acquainting ourselves with the bustling, large city of Istanbul. Our accommodation, Amethyst Hotel, is in a great location on the European side of the city and is within walking distance to many of the city's highlights including the Grand Bazaar, the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia.
We all slept well and met at breakfast which was a very tasty blend of European and Turkish food. This was our free day before our Bunnik Tour commences tomorrow so we decided to have a "free range" day and see where our legs would take us.
We walked along the busy main street with its frequent and very modern trams and and a light sprinkling of rain led us to the Grand Bazaar. A sign informed us that there were 66 covered streets with more than 4000 shops which employ about 30 000 people. We were four of the estimated two hundred and fifty to four hundred thousand that visit the bazaar each day!
It was amazing and hard to take it all in with such an array of goods from clothing, rugs, jewellery, pottery and leatherwear and much, much more. We soon needed to find a coffee/tea house and we had our first experience of Turkish coffee and Turkish delight. The coffee is strong but I'm sure we will get used to it.
It gave us the boost to walk for another hour around the bazaar before heading down towards the Bosphorus, the strait that forms the boundary between Europe and Asia. On the way Brian and I couldn't resist buying some samples of Turkish sweets for our group. This included a very scrumptious hazelnut baclava.
We reached a lovely park, the Gulhane Park which had extensive views over the Bosphorus. We found a high, multi-level tea house with spectacular views and had a late lunch watching the many ferries and ships coming and going along the strait.
A change in the weather made the decision for us to return to our hotel. It took us 35 minutes of brisk walking from the Bosphorus along the main street to reach our accommodation just before the storm broke.
At 6 o'clock we met with our Turkish tour guide and nine fellow travellers for a comprehensive tour briefing. Funda is an experienced guide as she has been one for approximately thirteen years and she painted an excellent itinerary for the next 20 days. Tomorrow we meet at 8.15am in the foyer for a walking tour of Istanbul.
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