Istanbul on our own.  Tulay was great and gave lots of ideas and directions for how get to places by the tram or street car.  It was very helpful to our planning.  We booked a 1/2 trip from the cruise when we are back in Istanbul so saved a few of the sites for our last day of the cruise.  Then we spend an additional day since our flight leaves at 6:00 am.  Hopefully we will get to spend a few hours with Tulay as she returns from her next tour that day as well.

We found our hotel to be in a perfect location 2 blocks from the Blue Mosque and Haige Sophia in a quaint neighborhood.  Early check in, breakfast rest and were on our way to lunch across the street and off on an adventure.  The neighborhood has many small shops and restaurants and we found a small but very nice up-scale bazaar.  Turkish towels, Kurdish horse bags turned into rugs were our finds in the shops.  Another scarf called to us to add to our collection, teal blue with white and green lightly felted flowers—it seems to be a Turkish style.  We missed our power shoppers from the OAT trip.  We retired early and planned the next day.

We ventured out to the tram and figured out, with help, how to buy tokens.  Ok, on we jumped and off we went to the Dolmabahce palace which is just past the end of the line.  We walked along the Bosphorus past boats to the Prince’s Island and ferries.  We saw this palace from our Bosphorus boat cruise a few weeks earlier.  It was the palace of the Sultan’s and is known for it’s crystal staircase and incredibly opulent and beautiful, not to mention huge, ceremonial hall. It’s chandelier weighs 4 tons, and was a gift from Queen Victoria.   

Built in the 19th century the palace was also used as the place for the first speech by Ataturk when he became president, he kept an apartment there and passed away in the palace in 1938.  All the clocks were stopped at 9:05 that day and remain so.  The palace was used for hosting dignitaries form foreign countries and from here, the Sultan appointed emissaries.  We did not got through the Harem buildings but spent much time in the gardens by the bird houses.  One peacock regaled us with his mating dance, guineas roamed about the some interesting looking roosters caught our attention.  

We visited the small crystal house which has interesting old furniture, a covered terrace with a dozen lamps all with different peacock designs.  From the terrace the Sultan could looks over the gardens or out to the street to watch parades.

 We don't know what the bird on the right is, but the colors and feathers are vivid and the crown was like nothing we have seen before.

We walked back to the tram stop to find the funicular up the hill to go to one of the streets we visited with Tulay and the group.  This funicular took us to the other end of the street, we came out at Taksim Square, a site of student protests.  All was quiet and we set out for our walk in the bright sunshine.  You will recall it poured last time we were here, we enjoyed the building and art nouveau architecture so wanted to try again.  The streets were packed on this Friday afternoon.  

We stopped for lunch and when we came out, low and behold it was raining!  We gave up and bought the plastic umbrellas that materialize quickly once the rain starts.  We finished our walk, took the other funicular down the hill.  We tried to see the Jewish museum but of course it was closed on Friday afternoon.  Back to the tram, over the Bosphorus, off by Blue Mosque and back to our hotel.  We took another walk later through the bazaar and called it quits.  No wonder we were tired, 13,000+ steps, 5.5 miles.  

Saturday.  We set of the Grand Bazaar, walking from our hotel.  We had a discovery when we followed some folks into a cemetery.  Inside was a memorial hall housing among others, memorials to three Sultans lived from 1785 to 1918.  Quite interesting, peaceful and beautiful.

The Bazaar was busy and somehow we managed to enter the same gate as last time so we found the jewelry store we were looking for.  We visited, had tea, visited, met other customers and friends of the owners, looked at 10 carat ring, with 5 2 carat diamonds mounted one next to the other.  Wow.  We bought, but not 10 carats.  Walked the bazaar for a bit and went back to our neighborhood to find a restaurant we ate at with the group.  After lunch we hopped on the tram again to go to the New Mosque near the Galata bridge and spice market.  We watched folks for a while and went to the spice market.  Nothing new there except a million people.  It was a shopping day for the locals and two huge cruise ships were in port.  Time to go home.  Trams come quickly one after the other and all were packed.  Sue got a blister, just shy of 10,000 steps today. We limped home and decided on a day of rest on Sunday.  Unfortunately that meant we could not meet up with Tulay for an afternoon visit.  Feet up, blog time and naps.  We are set to start our next adventure with a flight to Greece  that went well.  We are in the Sofitel Hotel across from the terminal where we will be picked up later to start our pre-cruise pre-trip to the Acropolis Museum, Delphi and another site before boarding the ship.

What?  I turned 60 today!