ISTANBUL

Today was a long but wonderful day. We left the hotel at 8:30 this morning and got back to the hotel about 8:30 tonight. We saw most of the major sites of Istanbul and had time to wander around them, which we enjoy. Our photos do not do the place justice. It did not rain-yea!! BUt being cloudy meant it was hard to get good photos of some of the places. We started off the morning by going to the Blue Mosque. It is called that because of the pr3edominance of blue tiles inside. It was such a lovely place. We had to take off our shoes and put them in a plastic bag which they furnished, then we returned the bags at the end to be recycled. The ladies did not have to cover their heads, but since I had a scarf and forgot to bring my hat, the scarf felt good! After the Blue Mosque, we went to the Topkapi Palace which was so big and we got to just wander around and look at our own pace, once our guide explained everything to us. We also had time to eat lunch at the lovely cafe by the Bosphorus. As we were eating there, our cruise ship, The Jade, was arriving into town so that was neat. I might add that the meals here are just outrageously expensive. For lunch Jim had a sandwich and the guy told me there was nothing they had that did not have onions or garlic so I got a cake-like dessert and we each got a soft drink and it was the equivalent of $25. gulp. Most couples who each got a sandwich and all paid over $40 for the treat....

After the sticker shock of the lunch menu, we all went back to the bus and were taken to the mandatory carpet factory demonstration. The carpets truly are works of art with price tags accordingly. I admired a small wall hanging, about 12x14" at most and it was over $1200. As I said, I just admired it!! I don't know if anyone indulged or not, but it was a warm place to sit and the carpets really are pretty. From there we reboarded the bus and went to the Ayasofya. The Blue Mosque is much prettier to take photos of, but the Ayasofya was really pretty too and the mosaics were lovely. After we went there, we got back on the bus and went to the spice market. We were all disappointed that we did not get to go to the Grand Bazaar but the spice market is much the same thing but on a smaller scale and the Grand Bazaar is not open on Sunday. I have to say I am perfectly satisfied with the hour we spent today as we found a couple of gifts and got the idea and got us some turkish delights so take on the ship to snack on for a few days. We found all that sort of thing to be very expensive as well so that helped curb our temptations.

After the shopping time, the buses took us all-all 318 of us GCT travellers-to our included meal at a really nice restaurant that overlooked the Bosphorus. The food was good and the service was amazing considering the huge size of the group! GCT has done really well by this trip in handling this many people all at once.

Tomorrow we are going on an optional trip to another mosque and lunch and cruise on a small boat on the Bosphorus. It should be really pretty and from there they take us directly to the cruise ship. We will have a GCT person onboard the ship with us so it will be nice to have someone to ask questions of for the ports where we just want to wander on our own. We have met some great people and will for sure see familiar faces on the ship.

We were delighted to hear that Auburn won yesterday-we turned on the computer first thing this morning (it is free here in the room at the hotel) and got the good news.

We have finished packing up our suitcases for the transfer tomorrow. I am not sure how often I will update on the ship-hopefully pretty often as we hope to find internet cafes along the way that will not cost so much. But we will see. Meanwhile, here are a few photos of today's journey.