DAY 3 & 4
Saturday 9th May – We took the tram to Eminönü tram station and crossed the street to the pier where we caught the ferry to Üsküdar on the Asian side of Istanbul.
Üsküdar is one of the city's oldest districts, situated on the shore of the Bosphorus, opposite the European side.
When we alighted from the ferry, we asked around which bus we should take, and after a few failed attempts we got onto bus 15 across the pier, stopping 4 or 5 stops later just opposite Beylerbeyi Palace, which sits in the shadow of the Bosphorus Bridge.
A 19th century palace, once the residence of the Ottoman sultans, where foreign dignitaries were hosted.
We entered through ornate gates next to the Bosphorus onto the garden in front of the palace. The gardens were well taken care, and there you can see two separate bathing pavilions: one for the harem (women’s quarters) and one for the selamlık (men’s quarters).
The three-story building, including the basement, contains 24 rooms and 6 halls. The floors were covered with Egyptian straw mats, the rooms and halls decorated with Turkish carpets, French Baccarat crystal chandeliers, clocks made in England, France, and Turkey, porcelain vases from China, Japan, France, Germany, and Turkey add to the palace’s ornate decoration.
When we finished the visit we caught the now very full bus back to Üsküdar pier to get a ferry to Beşiktaş, the pier nearest to the Dolmabahçe Palace, a 19th-century imperial palace located on the European side of the Bosphorus, which served as the main administrative centre of the Ottoman Empire from 1853 to 1887 and from 1909 to 1922.
I would have loved to stop at Maiden's tower, on a small islet 200mt from the coast of Üsküdar, but again we had no time.
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| On the ferry to Beşiktaş ferry station and the Dolmabahçe Palace |
Built between 1843 and 1853 Dolmabahçe Palace was inhabited by 6 Sultans until the abolition of the Caliphate in 1924, when ownership was transferred to the national heritage of the new Turkish Republic. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder and first President of the Republic of Turkey, used the palace as a presidential residence during the summers and enacted some of his most important works here. He spent the last days of his medical treatment in this palace, where he died on the 10th November 1938.
At the entrance, outside the Imperial Gate is the Clock Tower built between 1890 and 1895 and its clock was manufactured by the French clockmaker house of Jean-Paul Garnier.
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| Clock tower |
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| Imperial gate |
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| The palace and gardens |
Dolmabahçe Palace is the largest palace in Turkey with an area of 45,000 m2 (480,000 sq ft), containing 285 rooms, 46 halls, six hammans (Turkish baths) and 68 toilets set in grounds covering an area of 110,000 m2, bordered by the Bosphorus on one side.
A southern wing houses the men's quarters used for public representation and diplomacy, and a northern wing, the Harem, or private quarters containing eight interconnected apartments for the Sultan's family - wives, concubines and his Mother.
The two areas are separated by the massive Ceremonial Hall with a floor area of 2,000 m2 (22,000 ft 2 ) and a 36 mt (118 ft) high dome.
It has the most extensive collection of Bohemian and Baccarat crystal chandeliers, with the world's largest crystal chandelier hanging in the Ceremonial Hall with 750 lamps and weighing 4.5 tonnes.
The photos of the ceremonial hall just don't do it justice, we thought the hall was breathtaking! The whole palace was just stunning!!
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| Ceremonial Hall |
Dolmabahçe is opulently decorated with gold and crystal - fourteen tonnes of gold were used to gild the ceilings, with over 100 kg of gold for general decoration, at an estimated current value of US$6 million.
The famous Crystal Staircase is built in a double horseshoe shape, using Baccarat crystal, brass and mahogany.
Outside we took a few more photos of this amazing building and gardens and one by the gate to the Bosphorus. You if had a fancy yacht you could always make a grand entrance there!
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| Side of the palace facing the Bosphorus photo by gate |
We had lunch at a small restaurant "The Common" in a side street near the palace with a view to the river. The food was delicious, beautifully presented and the service was great too.
Then back to the main road to get a tram to the historic district of Sultanahmet where our hotel was.
Across from the Eminönü ferry station and T1 tram line was the Eminönü Mosque, also known as New Mosque, because it was built to replace an older commercial area. Building started in 1597 and was completed in 1663, due to political intrigue, funding shortages and a fire in the district.
It is a masterpiece of the Ottoman style with 66 domes and semi-domes creating a cascading effect, ornate stained glass, and the tomb of Hatice Turhan Sultan in the courtyard.
It is free to visit and open to the public from 9am to 6pm except during Muslim prayer sessions.
Right next to the mosque is the Spice Bazaar, built in the 1600's, it's smaller and more manageable than the Grand Bazaar with 85 shops compared to 4000!!
After walking through the Spice Bazaar we bought more teas to take to family in Portugal. The variety of spices, fruit, olives of all sizes and colours (dyes I presume), local sweets... is just amazing! Once outside, we sat down enjoying a fresh fruit juice and observing the crowd.
We decided we just couldn't handle the large crowds walking through the Grand Bazaar with its 61 streets, one of the world's oldest and largest covered shopping areas in the world, so we gave it a miss.
Outside the market vendors were selling corn and Simit (sesame crusted bread), but we saw vendors all over the city selling simit, corn, roasted chestnuts and even stuffed mussels! We tried the corn and the chestnuts.
It was then time to pop into our hotel room to refresh ourselves, put on warmer clothes, and head to a kiosk across Hagia Sophia to meet our guide for our 2 hour Sunset Bosphorus Cruise. (cost about 12 euros, included in our e-ticket).
Once we were all assembled at the appointed time, the guide led the group to the pier where the cruise boat was docked. Sadly, no sunset to be seen as the day had been quite grey and cool.
Still, we enjoyed cruising around both sides of the Bosphorus enjoying the sight of the mosques, opulent palaces, affluent suburbs, fortresses, the Bosphorus bridges…
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| Topkapi Palace |
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| The New Mosque |
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| Two huge cruise ships |
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| The Dolmabahce Palace from the sea |
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| A residential suburb with small apartment buildings |
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| The Ortakoi District with a huge Turkish flag |
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The Asian side of Istanbul with Camlica Tower on the left
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| The Fountain of Ahmed III, in front of Topkapi Palace |
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| The Blue Mosque (Muhammad is the messenger of Allah) |
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| Night illuminations of the Hurrem Sultan fountain |
Sunday 10th – We checked out of the hotel at 9am after breakfast, walked 10 minutes to the Havaist Airport shuttle bus, at Kennedy Cad. The bus was already there, we paid our tickets TL380 (7 Euro/Aud 11,60 each) handed our luggage and took our seats. About 1h later we arrived at the Istanbul International airport, for our 12,45pm flight to Lisbon.
When checking in Jose was allocated a seat, but nothing for me and we were told to go to the Supervisor so she could get me a seat! I was allocated a seat in row 6 while Jose sat in row 29! Just before boarding it was announced that the flight was overbooked and they needed about 6 people to volunteer to fly on the 8,15PM flight in lieu of 400 euros cash and airport meal vouchers, or otherwise return flights Lisbon-Istanbul or Istanbul-Lisbon.
After much deliberation and the poor clerk going up and down the rows of people waiting to board with the offer, eventually they got about 7 people who accepted the offer! I know in America this practice is quite common, but I had never heard of an European airline selling more tickets than seats!
Of course, with all this rigmarole we departed 1 hour later and by the time we landed in Lisbon, we sat on the tarmac for 30 minutes, waiting to be allocated a parking gate.
My sister and brother-in-law were there to welcome us, and because we had no checked luggage we managed to get out quickly.
I could not finish our Istanbul report without mentioning the cats of Istanbul – they are everywhere: markets, bridges, inside shops, outside shops, in parks and park benches, inside mosques, in cafes…
They appear to be well loved by the Turks and there must be hundreds of thousands of them!
In the gardens of the Beylerbeyi Palace, I saw 2 tiny babies who could not have been more than 3 or 4 weeks old, they could hardly walk; at the market near our hotel I saw a mother cat playing with 4 slightly bigger kittens inside a plant pot. Of all the cats I saw only one was limping and another who appeared to have an eye infection, otherwise, they all looked healthy and plump. I doubt they get sterilized…
I also saw some vagrant dogs - 3 or 4 large breed dogs who looked very old and arthritic, but well fed. I read somewhere the local authorities planned on removing stray dogs from the cities.
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