Day 3 Monday 22nd September

David and Anne are due to fly at about 2-30 today, so this morning we had better plan a schedule for them. Also I want to organise onward transport for Wednesday as getting to Kars will involve two days of travel and a fairly early start.

This is the railway station where the Orient Express used to terminate. It's now being refurbished as you can see. It is also where I bought the tickets from. This proved to be easier than I expected so if I got it right we should have no problems. If however I got it wrong. .......

This is the engine that will be pulling us to Kars as you can imagine this high speed line has recently been refurbished. Having sorted that out, It's time to go and meet David and Anne at Taksim Square. Success! we meet. Now we need to sort out their transport. We feel like the locals showing visitors around. Off to the Blue Mosque by tram. 

I have anticipated this visit for some time. I was hoping the Blue Mosque might be up there with the Taj Mahal and the Alhambra Palace. Frankly I was a little under-welmed. It was certainly impressive, as you can see from the pictures but it didn't quite do it for me. Judge for yourself. 

Here is the central dome. It's 23.5m in diameter and 43m high. It was commissioned by Sultan Ahmet and finished in 1616 after 7 years work. Number one tourist hot spot in Istanbul. Apparently it was reviled by the pious at the time of construction for consciously imitating the Great Mosque in Mecca. 

Can you guess which way we are facing here. The guys on their knees are giving us a clue. 

This is the other Mosque that dominates the skyline of the Sultanahmet along with the Topkapi Palace. It is called the Haghia Sophia. Two churches preceeded this one, the second was razed in AD 532 so it was Byzantine Christian church. Justinian ordered the rebuild and it was a bit special. The architects were Greek mathematician Anthenius and geometer Isidore and they came up with the innovative and much copied design. Basically they covered a square building with a huge dome. It was turned into a mosque in 1453 when the Otterman Turkish conquered the city, so they added a few bits to it. 

As we had a booking for Jamie Oliver's newly opened Italian restaurant we had to think about time for changing and getting there so. This really only left time for the Grand Bazaar coupled with a coffees and cakes. We went back to the hotels via the nostalgic tram. 

So you will be wondering what we made ofJamie's place. Lovely location very nicely done out, feature toilets and very obliging staff. Much to our surprise, the food was a little disappointing. Helen had to change her dish and the rest, whilst okay, was not as special as we would have hoped. Those of you who know me, will also know I have a bit of a thing for toilets. Jamie had some rather splendid ones. Thomas Crapper patented a design he called the Jamie and now you too can see it in the flesh, as it were.