6th to 9th, Istanbul

Had another sleep in day today then headed of to Topkapi palace after chatting to John and Jennifer (Catriona's Brother in law and Sister) and Catriona's Mum on Skype. We didn't leave the guesthouse until after 11am. We walked up the hill and into the grounds of the palace. There were many groups of small children walking along holding hands, they were all very cute. The grounds were lovely, with shady trees and garden beds full of flowers. We entered into the palace proper through the Gate of Salutation.  We bought a map from the museum shop to help us find our way through the complex. There was much to see, first we saw an exhibition of Russian artifacts that had been presented to Sultans over the years. So much of the items were covered in huge precious gems. We bought an extra ticket to walk through the harem, hamam and privy rooms of the Sultans, with the finest 17th century iznik tiles, gold leaf and mother of pearl inlaid into wood everywhere. We learnt that the harem was only disbanded in the early 1900's. After our visit to the harem we walked through the Gate of Felicity and into the library of Ahmed III. Then on to see a display of artifacts collected during Ottoman rule. We saw the footprint of the Prophet Mohammed, the Rod of Moses (which he used to part the red sea, etc) an 86 carat pear shaped diamond and small chest of large emeralds. We saw many other emerald, ruby, diamond and pearl decorated ornaments and weapons. The palace has great views over the Golden Horn and Bosphorous.

We spent the early evening relaxing on the rooftop terrace watching the ships sail out into the sea of Marmara and chatting with John and Lorna on Skype until they cut the connection at the Guesthouse as they were upgrading their modem. We had dinner on the roof terrace of a restaurant with views of the blue mosque and the sea of Marmara. It was very cold and we both had our beanies on during dinner. We walked back to our accommodation via the blue mosque which was very peaceful at that time of night.

7th We were at breakfast at 8am and had front seats on the terrace with the views over the Bosphorus, but did not end up leaving the guesthouse until after 10am. We had decided to visit the Ayasofya and the Basilica Cistern today. Our first stop was to view the Mausoleums of some sultans in the grounds of Ayasofya. They were very interesting, many of the dead were small children. You can tell which were male and female as the males coffins had little turbans on them.

By the time we made it to the entrance to the Ayasofya the queue was around 100 meters long.We decided to wait until later in the day to go inside so headed off to the Basilica Cistern. The cistern was one of the underground water storage places built by Byzantine Emperor Justinianus between 527 - 565. The cistern is 140m long and 70m wide and contains 336 columns. This cistern has the capacity for 100,000 tonnes of water storage. It was amazing to see all the columns and the fish swimming in the shallow water. There were 3 interesting columns, one had teardrop shaped carvings on it the other two have bases that are carvings of Medusas head. She is apparently placed upside down so she can't turn anyone into stone.

After leaving the Cistern the queue into the Ayasofya was still too long so we went for a walk down to have lunch at Konyali restaurant (Recommended by Levent from David's work) It was established in 1897, the food we had was excellent and we ate too much. We had a bit of a walk around before heading back to the guesthouse for a rest. We watched Get Smart the movie on the ipod before heading back out to the Ayasofya. This time there were not queues or crowds. We headed upstairs first and viewed the main dome and mosaics on the upper level. It is huge and we were amazed to think it was built 1500 years ago. These mosaics had been covered with plaster and paint when the church was converted to a mosque. The site is still undergoing restoration works and they are in the process of moving scaffolding from one place to another. After our visit we headed back up to the roof terrace for a last view of the Bosphorus over a glass of red wine. A tough life but someone has to do it.

8th We had our last breakfast at the guesthouse in front row seats on the terrace then went back down, packed and checked out. We would definitely recommend this as a place to stay. The lady we dealt with (We think she was the daughter-in-law of the owners) was fantastic, nothing was too much trouble for her. We left our bags at the Constantine and set off for another walk around Istanbul. We headed down to the Galata bridge stopping off to look in a turkish delight shop. David bought a sticky sweet pastry out the front of the shop.

We wandered around the lower deck of the bridge before setting off to walk around the foreshore. There is a main road that runs around there as there are a few car ferry terminals, so it was not that pleasant. When we came across the entrance to the Gülhane park we decided to go in and check it out. We stopped up the hill at a little tea shop and Catriona had a tea while David had an Ayran (Yoghurt drink) looking out over the Boshporus and Golden Horn.

We then had a lovely walk through the park and back to the hotel to check in. We spent the afternoon relaxing, waiting for our 6pm welcome meeting for the new trip. After all the formalities we set off for dinner with the group at a small Lokantasi, just next door to the place where we had lunch. Of the group of 12 there is a Husband and Wife with their daughter from San Francisco, David and Catriona from Sydney and the rest are from Melbourne.(Andrew and Sam, Anne, Chatt, Robin, and Helen and Hamish)

9th We met the group in the lobby at 8.30am ready for our walking tour with Ozan, our new leader. We revisited many of the places we had been over the last few days and a few places we had not been. He showed us the abloutions section of the Blue Mosque and the end of the hippodrome which we had been past before and not realised what it was.  He also pointed out the carvings at the base of the obelisk showing how they got it into place. We stopped along the journey for a rest and a drink in a cafe with magnificent views before finishing off outside the spice market. David and Catriona set off to have a late lunch at the Balkan lokanta where we had dinner the night before.Great value and delicious food. We met up with the group again at 7pm for dinner at a restaurant in Sultanahmet.