Istanbul day 6

Stephen was up for another outing so we started off by heading up to the top of the Galata Tower to admire the view. We couldn’t possibly leave without checking it out as we have been living right next to it for almost a week. You can get almost to the top via an internal lift so it wasn’t too bad, and the view was certainly worthwhile. Back down in the Galata square Turkish coffee was the call of the day but having been there done that once already I decided Apple tea was more for me. Those coffee cups are tiny and only the top half seems to contain liquid coffee, the bottom half is pure coffee grounds. I guess that’s why they provide you with water to wash the grounds out of your teeth

After coffee it was a slow descent of the cobbled hill to risk life and limb jay-walking amongst the locals to access the tram stop – not many people (including us) use the subway to get there, choosing instead to step out into the traffic, regardless of what speed it is doing. We caught the tram to the Topkapi Palace and started off with a walk around the Harem – does that sound small to you? Well it wasn’t, it was positively enormous but then it did use to house as many as 280 concubines, plus assorted wives, princes, deposed Sultans, Eunuchs etc. so I guess a small space wasn't going to be a lot of use. Carol got one of those audio guides and kindly acted as tour guide, but I think she was a little disappointed when she discovered it was already past 2pm as she had hoped to also fit in a 2 hour cruise down the Bosphorus. Ah well she did say she wanted to leave feeling like there was more!


View from the Galata tower

coffee stop	Apple tea for me please
Outside Topkapi Palace	Inside the palace
beautiful windows	decoration of a different kind (perhaps windows to his mind?)