Istanbul

Second day in Istanbul. We decided to use the Big Red Bus tour to take us around the city. We hopped off at Dolmabahche palace which was built by the Sultan in the nineteenth century in a French style as his new residence.

We toured the two main parts, the harem and the selamlik. Photography is not allowed inside but I didn’t know this at first so I got a couple of pictures in the harem wing.

The many rooms were all quite similar: large drawing rooms with sofas and chairs carved ornately. They differed mostly in colour scheme.

After leaving the palace we followed the bus route over to the Asian side and back to the center of the old city. Here I went to the mosaic museum behind the Blue Mosque to see the mosaic floors of the 5th century imperial palace.

Then back to the hotel to join up with our Turkish tour group. There are 40 of us and 32 are from Australia.