Istanbul

Woke early and looked out to find that we were in the Bosporus sailing past the Blue Mosque. What an entry to a city. All the famous landmarks were passing outside our window.

After breakfast we caught a shuttle bus into the old part of the city. The ship was docked on the northern side. The shuttle dropped us off near the Grand Bazaar and, as we had shopping to do, we set off inside. There are streets galore in the bazaar and they seem to be group according to the merchandise. Most of it seemed overpriced and of a questionable quality but I bought a pair of pretty gold earrings and some apple tea.

The city was packed and there were long queues to get into everything Alan and I were interested in so we really didn't see much.

We caught a tram from outside the bazaar which went past the interesting buildings and took us all the way back over the bridge over the Bosporus to the ship.

The bridge was two layered. From the top layer men were fishing and traffic was whizzing by and on the lower layer were shops. It had been a pontoon bridge at one time but in maybe the 1980s the present bridge was built. Ships still can't go past it, however.

We left Istanbul a little disappointed that we hadn't seen inside the Blue Mosque or St Sophia or the Topkapi Palace. A day just isn't long enough in Istanbul.

We sailed off back into the Sea of Marmara and towards the Dardanelles and Anzac Cove.