When we arose this morning, we went for a final luxurious breakfast at the Grand Dining Room. It was pretty early and definitely too soon to be descending upon our hotel, so we took our time at breakfast and then sat out on the deck watching the boat traffic on the Bosphorus.
We finally bid adieu to the Insignia, our home for the last 12 days, collected our luggage and then went to find a taxi that would take all of our bags. As we came to the taxi stand, we watched many taxis go by with luggage in the front seat and trunks overflowing with bags and bungied closed, so we didn’t feel so bad, especially when the trunk of the Toyota Corolla taxi closed and we got all the rest of the bags in the back seat with Dawn and I sat in the front.
The Swissotel “The Bosphorus”, has amazing grounds and two huge wings of rooms. It also has tight security, as our cab was mirror searched before they lowered the road pylons and let us up to the front door. We were at the hotel by 9:00, but amazingly they had a room ready for us in about ½ hour. Our room overlooked the outdoor pool and had a vista to the Bosphorus – not shabby.
We decided to book a boat cruise on the Bosphorus for the afternoon and then went out for a walk in the neighbourhood to explore. On the way out, we came upon two massive St. Bernards – Calvina & Astor – who are the hotel’s mascots. So far, our apprehensions about our safety in this city of 17 million, have been totally unfounded.
Not more than 200 metres from the hotel grounds, we found an extensive shopping bazaar, this one for locals, not tourists. We decided to stop here for lunch and had a lamb gyros at one the sidewalk cafes. In the wrap, they put shaved lamb and French fries and it was delicious.
The hotel is right across the road from another of the large Sultan’s Palaces called Dolmabahce Palace. It has ornate entry gates, but since signs there said “Forbidden Zone” and they were guarded by guys with machine guns, we assumed it was closed. Of course, we later discovered that the entrance is not here.
So, we headed off to our afternoon excursion that started with a visit to the Spice Market, which wasn’t nearly as crazy as the Grand Bazaar. They sold other merchandise as well, but we did spend some time in one spice shop, comparing the variety of aromas.
Following this, we headed out on to the Bosphorus. I guess we were already missing being on the water. This cruise was recommended by many as a must and I have to say I have never seen a greater variety and abundance of beautiful homes and palaces in one short tour in my life. We also saw more of Istanbul and got a good look at both the European and Asian sides of the Bosphorus. Simply fabulous darling! I’ll let the pictures do the talking. The first pictures are of the European side.
These next pictures are in Asia.
Dinner tonight was at the Turkish restaurant called Naz at our hotel. We were looking for an adventure in dining. We thought we were dining at a fashionable hour – 8:00 – but in fact, the place started to fill up as we finished, shortly after 10:00. We dined on typical Turkish fare, starting with a mix of dips and pita bread, followed by a salad of couscous, tomatoes and walnuts in a balsamic/oil dressing. For main course, Dawn had grilled sea bass and I had 3 kebabs – chicken, beef and lamb. All of the food was delicious and we had a nice conversation with the chef, a 40ish lady who spoke good English and loved Rufus Wainwright – that came up shortly after we told her we were Canadian. Our view of the city and the first bridge connecting Europe and Asia was spectacular. The suspension bridge has a light show, with lights strung between its support wires and they change colour every 5 minutes or so. It was not a cheap evening with a nice bottle of red Turkish wine, but an enjoyable one.
After dinner we checked out the rooftop restaurant above us and discovered that this multi-level affair had spectacular vistas of the city – nice to have that as an option if we don’t find a better place for tomorrow.
We ended the day with a Skype call to Jessie and the girls.
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