Day 4: Bosphorus Cruise

Monday, like all of our days in Istanbul, started with the hotel's breakfast. Here's Brian helping himself at the buffet:And our plates full of food. The yogurt was so delicious!
The room where we ate breakfast was on the top floor of the building, allowing for spectacular views:
We particularly enjoyed watching the interaction among the seagulls!

Back in our room, Brian double-checked details of our day:We were going on a Bosphorus cruise, so we headed out towards the Bosphorus Strait, which is the connector between the Sea of Marmara and The Black Sea.

We got there a bit early, so we waited at the harbor, enjoying the views and walking around a bit:

On this bridge, you can see people fishing on top and restaurants underneath:Off to the left in this picture, you can see a giant cruise ship that is docked. Pretty much every day, a different large cruise ship was docked there. I can't even imagine trying to cram all of Istanbul into one day -- a week was even too short!This is the boat that would take us almost to the Black Sea and back (not exactly environmentally friendly!):Some views from the ship:

This large building is the Istanbul Modern Art Museum, which we would visit later in our trip:

Though we didn't get any of them on camera, as we were setting off, we saw dolphins jumping out of the water! We pointed them out to the Australians sitting near us, but they weren't too impressed as it's a frequent occurrence in their homeland. Juxtaposition of new and old, a common theme here:Also, of rich:And poor:A far view of the Black Sea:Hard to believe that so many battles have taken place in an area that was so peaceful the day of our visit.

This castle on top of the hill was our destination: As the ship was docking, competing restaurants tried to attract attention and draw lunchers:A bit hard to see, but jellyfish! One of our guidebooks stated that very few people swim in the Bosphorus due to the prevalence of jellyfish and garbage.So many seagulls!So many cats!As we only had a few hours at this stop, it was unlikely we'd have enough time to eat a sit down lunch and trek to the castle ruins on the hill. We stopped at a bakery and bought a picnic lunch to eat near the castle.The trek up was very steep, but we made it!Lunch with a view: I explored some of the abandoned parts of the castle. However, they were full of garbage and smelled bad, so I didn't spend much time there.More incredible views:A camoflagued butterfly:This map gives an idea of the climb we made to get to the top:We returned to sea level, and had some time until the boat departed. We stopped at a nearby restaurant for a beer and relaxation:The boat returned us to Istanbul, and we headed to the Galata Tower. View from the top:This ladder store's method of advertising its wares seemed possibly dangerous and certainly unlucky as the ladders blanketed the sidewalk: Crossing the bridge, back to our side of town:In the setting sun, we saw the aquaduct in the background, reminding us once again of Istanbul's Roman past:We stopped in a British pub for a quick drink (are we in Istanbul or London?):A carpet salesman stopped us on our way to dinner and offered to take us back to his factory to show us how to buy a carpet. We declined! But, as we were talking to him, we saw one of the many stray cats jump into a nearby tree:The birds aren't safe anywhere!

We ate dinner at Doy Doy, a restaurant near our hotel with a rooftop terrace and an amazing view of the Blue Mosque:Light on vegetarian options, we had cheese pide, Turkish pizza:After dinner, we returned to our hotel.

Day 4: London Pass

Before leaving for London, we purchased the London Pass. The combination we purchased allowed for unlimited Tube rides for 7 days, and 3 consecutive days of unlimited sightseeing at specified attractions.

Of course we wanted to get the best value for our money, so we tried to visit as many of these attractions as we could.

We started our first London Pass day by going to the Tower of London, just across the street from our apartment.

We arrived a few minutes before the Tower opened, hoping to find an open coffee shop. We were disappointed in that regard, but took the time to walk around the perimeter of the tower and read the signs that had been posted.

The Tower is actually a complex of buildings, with the oldest having been started by William the Conqueror in 1078. Over 900 years ago! Among other experiences, we got to visit the place where the Princes in the Tower were last known to be alive, and see the graffiti, "Jane," carved into the wall where her husband was imprisoned.There was an impressive display of armour, much of it thought to be worn by specific kings and their horses. In this picture, Brian is replicating a picture my dad took when they visited the Tower on their trip last year:That's Henry VIII's armour in the case behind him.

One thing we noticed is that many of the London museums had interactive exhibits, and the Tower was no exception. Here, Brian is playing a game with a fake sword. It seemed to be a version of wack-a-mole.We also visited the crown jewels, but we weren't allowed to take pictures. This was one of the many times we were happy to not be here in high season. If I remember correctly, there were three separate room with corrals for people to wait, like before reaching security at the airport or while waiting for a ride at an amusement park. With no crowds, we were able to walk right through these.

Most of the jewels were in a glass case with a moving walkway on either side, so as to keep the line moving. Once again, with no crowds, we were able to continuously take steps to the left in order to stay in front of the piece we wanted to look at. We also went through a second time so that we could see the front and back of the jewels.

Outside, we saw some of the famous ravens. There were signs asking visitors not to approach them, so we respected that. This guy rather blends into the stairs, but he's about in the middle of the photo.Here is their cage. There were two ravens inside that we watched for a few minutes. They appeared to want to get out!

I believe that we were in the area of the Tower showcasing some of the torture and execution methods used. I further believe that Brian is standing in front of a display that has what is believed to be the execution block and/or axe for Anne Boleyn's execution. I guess I should take better notes with my pictures! In any case, this shows the wonderful ambiance inside of the Tower's exhibits.

Here, Rose is standing by the place thought to be the site of Anne Boleyn's execution. The picture came out a little fuzzy, unfortunately.We weren't able to go into the chapel, pictured in the background above. This was allowed only for people who went on a tour with a Yeoman Warder. And while we would have loved to have done so, we were a bit pressed for time and couldn't wait the 45 minutes until the next one.

After exiting the Tower, we went to the small cafe attached, for a coffee/light lunch. I really liked the paintings on the walls of this cafe!The next stop on our London Pass tour extravaganza was the Tower Bridge Exhibition. The pictures on the linked website are more beautiful than ours as we had the bad luck to be there on a very gray and gloomy day. Here is a view of the Bridge from near the Tower:And a couple of views of London taken from the upper bridge:As we exited the bridge, we were on the south side of the Thames River for the first time.

We continued on to the Britain at War exhibit. This was one of the many times I was happy we'd gotten the London Pass. I don't think I would have gone to this museum otherwise, and I would have missed out!

We entered the museum and were directed onto an elevator (lift), which brought us down to the exhibition:

There were many videos, posters, and other things to give us an idea of what the average British citizen went through during WWII.I can't even imagine going through what these people did! Brian, looking at the cots:There was a replica bomb shelter that went dark and had bombing noises coming through the speakers:At the end was a shocking representation of the devastation caused by the bombing.

The next attraction we went to is another one I don't think we would have visited had it not been for the London Pass, and another one that was very interesting and fun. It was the HMS Belfast; a naval vessel in service during, among other times, WWII.

We took lots of pictures, so I had to choose some of the better ones. There was quite a bit of climbing up and down to different levels:And lots of pretending to work the various pieces of equipment:Here's a picture of Rose taking a picture of the dental bay:And of me, pretending to be a prisoner (don't worry if you can't read my name on the chalkboard; I just left it the way it was):Leaving the south side of the Thames, we took the Tube to Kensington Gardens. We walked through the Gardens to Kensington Palace, where photos are not allowed.

The exhibitions inside were mainly about clothes, which are not that interesting to any of us, so we didn't stay very long. As we walked back to the Tube, we saw a gentleman who must come frequently to feed the birds and squirrels. The squirrels would climb up his legs for nuts. They were also very fat!Realizing it had been many hours since we had eaten (and when we had, it was a light lunch), we headed to a pub in the neighborhood. Then, we got on the Tube back to our home station. We ate dinner at Wagamama, which is apparently a chain, but we had never heard of them before. It looks like the only US locations are in Boston.

The meal was delicious, and we had a very nice waiter!

After dinner, we walked to the nearest grocery store, a Tesco. Here is Brian, trying to figure out the self-checkout. We had a few problems, and I think they mostly resulted from the fact that we had brought our own bag (from Envirosax, if anyone's interested -- they're fantastic!).

We walked home, put away the groceries, and settled in for another night's sleep after a busy day.

Goodnight!