I have got behind hand with blogging and have missed a day which was in Istanbul. What we did was Topkapi Museum and then in the afternoon had a trip on the Bosphorus for a couple of hours. In the evening we went out to eat. I have to say that I like Turkish food but then a mixture of aubergines, lamb and tomatoes cannot go wrong.
Topkapi was packed with queues for everything. So I skipped the jewellery section and did the clothes instead. Interesting but no photos allowed. Clearly it was the sultan's clothes which were on display. No female clothes at all. Mostly of silk and figured at that. There was some velvet and a fantastic coat where the complex pattern was of pieces of red velvet sewn on by hand plus hand embroidery on the rest
The most interesting bit to me was that the ambience was lovely. Mature trees, flower beds of tulips, peonies and roses, green grass. All very carefully looked after. There were a lot of people around but not too many to appreciate these gardens.
Tulips amongst the kiosks.
A kiosk with a golden roof -a stunning view over the Bosphorus
This is a Byzantine water cistern - 527 AD. Enormous and quite beautiful.
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Aha! the cistern is indeed wonderful. When we were there, it was a heat wave - temps in the above-90(f) range. I asked DH if we could just move from the hotel into the cistern. Nice and cool there, and not crowded. One could find a nice quiet corner...
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