Day 4 - 8 July Istanbul
To begin with it was pleasant to not get up and rush – we didn’t have to be on the tour until 9am. In the end the tour ran a couple of hours over and we got back to the ship just before 5pm, when boarding was meant to finish. That was largely due to a handful of people who struggled with the fairly moderate walking required. It was in the high 20s, probably less hot than a couple of days ago, and overcast, which helped. Anyway, the bus offloaded us just before the Sultan Ahmed (Blue) Mosque. We shuffled in with the rest of the crowds – through the courtyard and then into the main mosque, sans shoes. Like the other mosques we’ve visited it was a calm and beautiful building. Then we walked past the Hagia Sophia (which was a museum but is a mosque again and less grand, so not a tourist spot) and on to the Topkapi Palace. This involved a series of pleasant, semi-formal gardens. Once you get through the turnstiles and into the second garden there are several surrounding buildings you ...