4th May - The Bosphorus

We are showered and remarkably refreshed - a taxi into the city - 25 minutes on a quite Sunday morning - the concierge takes our Viator instructions and reads them out to the driver - the driver looks puzzled - they chat - soon there is nodding all round and we are off - initially on suburban streets with decorative flags 

Then we turn to first class freeways that manage to swing  past and around the remnants of old walls from Constantine's times before reaching the old city. The roads before natives and busier as we pass over the Galata Bridge where the concentration of Sunday morning fishers far, far exceeds anything that might be seen on the pier at Urangan.

We are dropped off at the tram station - the start of our yacht cruise on the Bosphorus is apparently nearby - we search - we search some more - we ask and we ask again - eventually we get a vague consensus that we should wait at the cafe - never once did I think to check my texts for any possibility of them containing more up to date information on where to meet. I would be later to discover that indeed they did! 

We join the cruise - our boat is lightly populated - there are mixed nationalities that suit an English speaking guide - now we understand the passenger  grouping that took place at the meeting point -  the sorting taking place to suit the guiding language intended for the three different boats.

 

No sooner are we are onboard when we are served with Turkish coffee and a snack that would be described as barely adequate for someone who had no appetite at all! It's lack of size was no helped by the reality that what there was of it was delicious! 

The boat departs on time - we discover that the starting time of tours appears to be common across all the providers as we are immediately followed by an armada of tour boats all traveling at about the same speed along the same route. 

The route takes us all first along the European shore line first under the 15th July Martyrs Bridge then the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge  before crossing to the Asian side and pausing at the former village of Kanlica before returning along the Asian side to our starting point near Kabatas. We marvel at the bridges, the mosques, the buildings, the huge cargo ships and the modest and quaint yet horrendously expensive timber Yalis.

The shoreline of any major city is premium real estate - the real estate on shoreline of the Bosphorus is no exception! The Yalis that line the Asian shoreline, are not in the main, the brick and glass edifices typical of those that line the shoreline of major cities around the world, including the European shoreline of Istanbul. Rather they are modest two story timber dwellings built as holiday homes for the well to do in the closing days of the Ottoman empire. The cheapest of them will set back the financially well endowed more than 30 million Australian dollars!

We enjoy the trip - we learn a lot.

We learnt why all those cargo ships were lined up in the sea at the entrance to the strait - they are only allowed to travel one way or the other for half of the day.

We learnt that Turkey takes $5 a ton for all cargo passing through the Bosphorus. 

We learnt that Istanbul is the largest city in Europe at 15M and that  it accommodates 20% of the entire population of Turkey.

We are tired - it is 2pm - we flew in from Singapore this morning at 6am - airplane sleep is hardly real sleep! no wonder it is time for a nap.

A Uber - the process works a treat - a car inside a minute - in the hotel and asleep in less than an hour!

We force ourselves to rise from our nap - we wash our clothes and dress for dinner 

The Mediterranean restaurant at the hotel - we start with  spreads and Chardonnay. Bernie finishes with Milanese Beef (a beef schnitzel in fact) - Mike with beef pide (an elliptical shaped pizza base filled with a thick, spicy, minced meat stew) - the service and the faire delightful! 

A great day