A quiet day to day. The plan was to meet up with our friend from the tour and visit the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts then have a look through the Arasta Market in the vicinity of the museum. The museum was excellent. It had a great collection of old carpets and in particular Kilims and a small collection of prayer rugs. Many of the rugs (all types) came from Sultan burial chambers dating back to the 15th century. There was also a great section on callig...

Today it was off for a walk to the Basilica Cistern, the Spice Market and the Galata Bridge and Tower. The 10,000 sq m Basilica Cistern supported by 336 columns was built in the 6th century during the Byzantine Empire. Water was supplied to the cistern from the Belgrade woods, 19km north of the city, via aquaducts built by the Justinians. Located near the Topkapi Palace it met the water needs of the palace and other residents living in the area and was used th...

Today, with one of our friends from the tour, we took a tram and train to one of the finest Byzantine churches, St. Savior in Chora (commonly known as Chora). When we got off the train we hardly had time to decide which direction we needed to walk when a local asked us if he could help. Upon informing him where we were going he grabbed one of us by the hand and raced us out into a 6 lane roadway taking us on to a local public mini bus telling the driver, we pres...

The alarm went off at 4:10! but we managed to get back to sleep and wake up at a more reasonable time. After breakfast we met up with our guide and the rest of our tour party which consisted of 3 women. Two of the women were from the USA – Chicago and Seattle, with the other, also an American now living in Lichtenstein. Our guides name is Asil and although he has only just started with the tour company he has 15 years of experience and demonstrated good kno...

Have now finished the second of our long flights having flown Turkish Airlines from Singapore to Istanbul arriving at 0530am, about 40 minutes early, and a cool 13°C. The 40 minutes was quickly eaten up by queueing for immigration and customs – there were no hassles just a lot of people from flights that all seemed to arrive at 0530. Unfortunately we somehow missed the person from the tour company who was supposed to pick us up and deliver us to the ho...