Day 4 Tuesday 23rd September

I must really try to get to bed before 3am one night. The combination of the lively night life and writing of this blog make getting more than four and a bit hours kip tricky.
We have David and Anne's company until 4pm today and then they are flying back to Cyprus. Let's see what we can do from the following; Topkapi Palace, Basilica Cistern, Milion Stone, Bosphorus cruise and Suleymaniye Kulliyesi.
We decided on the cruise first. You can pay 25 lira for the bespoke one hour cruise or you can do one beep on your oyster card and get the ferry to Kadikoy in Asia, and for another beep get back. This particular ferry also gives you the best views of old Istanbul. Guess which we did? The ferry is also the one we will be taking tomorrow so we had something of a dry (wet?) run.

This photo shows the Topkapi Palace with the Haghia Sophia next to it. It was taken on the way back from Asia.

A bit about the Turkish railway system. It was built by the Germans originally and apparently they were paid by the mile which is why it is such a bendy layout! This picture shows the original Istanbul terminus for the East, ie the rest of Turkey. It's called Haydarpasa station now hardly used and about to become redundant. It was the gift of the Kaiser Wilhelm.

Next we planned the Topkapi Palace so we walked up the hill to the entrance where we read the notice "closed on Tuesday".  What a shame they didn't put the sign at the bottom of the hill. We have now earned a coffee and cake. We look at the Milion Stone on the way. This was built by the Romans and was a grand arch with a stone from which all distances though out the Empire were measured. We trudge on and up the hill to what I hope will be a real architectural gem.

 The Suleymaniye Kulliyesi. It is the pinnacle of achievement of the architect Sinan and a worthy legacy of the Sultan who founded it. Suleyman the Magnificent. He and his wife (Rolexana) are buried here. I wonder if they named the watch after her?

I was blown away by this building, really impressive. The relationship between the curves and the space was magical. 

The decoration was restrained and subtle, not in your face as is often the case. I have included a few photos of this building so you can get the flavour of it.

We head back to Taksim Square to say au revoir to Anne and David. We plan a nice meal out and pack in preparation for our long journey to Kars.