tedgale

This has the potential to be a very long report.

We were in Turkey for only 12 nights -- 5 in Istanbul and 7 along the Aegean coast, between Izmir and Fethiya. But we saw a LOT in that time and have so many observations and recommendations to record!

I'll start with the tombstone information and supplement it with a chronological account.
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FLIGHT ARRANGMENTS:
We booked flights KLM Ottawa-Toronto-Amsterdam-Istanbul and return Istanbul-Amsterdam (2 night layover)-Toronto-Ottawa. We took advantage of one of KLM's frequent 4 day sales in December. It offered 4 or 5 destinations for deeply discounted prices. We could have flown Ottawa-Istanbul return for $790, w/ a free stopover in Amsterdam.

They also offered Business Class seats for an amazing $2000 return, so we decided to take advantage of that rare opportunity.

The week we were to fly, we got notice that the Toronto flight had been cancelled and that we would be put on a later flight -- one that would entail a long layover in Amsterdam and a horribly late arrival in Istanbul. We were able to re-book to fly out of Montreal instead -- one of the few advantages of living in Ottawa is its position between the 2 main departure cities in eastern Canada.

This allowed us to compare Business Class on the two routings. The Toronto inbound flight used a larger and newer plane, with fancier seating than the Montreal flight offered. Clearly an inducement to fly via Toronto next time.

Both flights were trouble-free and bang on time.

KLM, in my experience, offers the most comfortable seating in economy and the nicest service on flights to western Europe -- and often the best prices, especially if you get one of their frequent seat sales. Even if I want to fly to France, I do my search on the KLM website because they seem to offer more flexibility in routings than the website of their parent company, Air France.

Service on all our flights was remarkably good, particularly on the AMS-Toronto leg.
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HOTEL ARRANGEMENTS:

I had a personal recommendation from a friend for a hotel in the Sirkeci district of Istanbul. Apart from that, I used Tripadvisor to identify likely hotels, then did some other brief checking via Fodors and other travel sites. It was not hard to find places to stay. The fact it was off-season meant there were some very good rates and lots of availability -- at one lovely hotel, we were the only guests!

Here is where we stayed:
1. Nights of April 12-16, departing Tuesday April 17:
Faros Hotel Sirkeci (90 Euros/ night including breakfast and city taxes)
http://www.faroshotelsirkeci.com/index.asp

Hudavendigar Caddesi No 5,
Sirkeci / Istanbul / Turkey
Tel : +90 212 514 98 28
Fax : +90 212 514 98 27
E-mail: [email protected]

2. Nights of April 17, 18, departing Thursday April 19:
Hotel Bella (70 Euros/ night including breakfast)
http://www.hotelbella.com/ephesus_bellahotel/index.html

Hotel Bella Ataturk Mah.
St. John Street No: 7
Selcuk, Izmir 35209/ TURKEY
Tel: 0090 232 892 3944
Fax: 0090 232 892 0344
Email: [email protected]

3. Night of April 19:
Baga Boutique Hotel (60 Euros/ night including breakfast -- a fantastic deal)
http://www.baga.com.tr/en

Baga Butik Otel
Gümrük Sokak No: 3
Akyaka Beldesi,
AKYAKA / MUĞLA 48650 TURKEY
Tel: 0252 243 45 50
Fax:0252 243 45 58
Email: [email protected]

4. Nights of April 20, 21, departing Sunday April 22:
Efe Hotel (69 Euros/ night including breakfast)
http://www.efehotelgocek.com

Efe Hotel Göcek
Cumhuriyet Mahallesi Likya Caddesi No:1
Göcek - Fethiye, MUGLA, TURKEY
Tel: + 90 252 645 26 46 Pbx
Fax: + 90 252 645 12 36
Email: [email protected]

5. Night of April 22, departing April 23:
Ayapam Boutique Hotel (70 Euros per night including breakfast and dinner!)
http://www.ayapamboutiquehotel.com

Ayapam Boutique Hotel
Kale Mah. Bahce Sok. No: 2 / 1,
Pamukkale 20280, TURKEY
Tel: 0258 272 22 03/04
Fax: 0258 272 22 05

Night of April 23, departing April 24:
Club Caravanserail (70 Euros including breakfast)
http://www.kusadasihotelcaravanserail.com

Club Caravanserail/ Okuz Mehmet Pasa Kervansayi
Atatürk Bulvarı No : 2
09400 Kusadasi Turkey
Tel : +90 256 614 4115
Fax: +90 256 614 2423
Email: [email protected]

Of these, the simplest was the Hotel Bella, in Selcuk. I found its "Ottoman" decor a bit frumpy. But the owner and staff were very engaging, the location has charm (you are opposite the Basilica ruins, dating to the 6th C AD) and the food they serve is plain but good.

We chose Selcuk, as many have, for its proximity to Ephesus, a major destination on this trip. If I were to visit Ephesus again, I might stay in or near Kusadasi -- far more touristy but only 30 minutes from Ephesus and far livelier than Selcuk.

The site of the Akyaka hotel, the Baga Boutique hotel, is superb -- a hidden cove with excellent facilities for enjoynig the outdoors. Some reviewers have complained of the proximity of a small commercial harbour. We saw no boat traffic the day we were there.

The Efe Hotel is not on the waterfront but it has a spacious garden and a terrific pool. The garden is a little dull and a bit weedy, unlike the immaculately groomed grounds of the Baga. But this is a tiny quibble.

The Ayapam Hotel is a good deal, since it includes half-board. Reviewers have commented that the construction is a bit flimsy and it will not wear well. That's a very fair point -- it's already starting to look a bit barked-up. But it is very central to Pamukkale and you can walk to the cliffs, if you wish.

The Club Caravanserail is an historic caravansary (1618) built by order of a Pasha who wanted to develop the town that today is large, bustling Kusadasi. The stone building is most impressive -- crenellated stone walls, huge interior courtyard, grand arched balcony running around the entire upper floor. Rooms are spartan and furnished in "Ottoman" style. The heavy wooden furniture has seen long service. But bathrooms are good, meals are very good and the service is charming.

I was delighted to find the manager studied at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and his daughter is currently enrolled at St Mary's University in Halifax.

Since a picture is worth 1000 words, I am attaching a link to an album of photos. Though primarily about food (I'll describe our meals and the restaurants we patronized, later in this report) it records all the hotels named above:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=6fdcdde19b

I'll pause now and return with a summary of our high-points -- in Istabul and along the Aegean coast

tedgale

I already posted a separate review of the Faros Sirkeci hotel. ToO make this Trip Report fully comprehensive, I'll include the text here as well:

A moderate-priced hotel equidistant between the top sites in Sultanahmet and the Galata Bridge hub (Ferries at Eminonu, Sirkeci Station, Spice Bazaar,etc etc)

When we wanted a small, reasonably priced, immaculately clean and very friendly hotel near the top sites, the Faros Hotel Sirkeci was recommended by a friend.

We booked online direct with the hotel and stayed 5 nights, so we got a free, private airport pick-up and drop-off – a smart Mercedes van and one of Istanbul’s few careful drivers.

Arrival and check in were smooth; this was our introduction to the very committed and helpful hotel staff, who booked restaurants (and cancelled them, when it poured rain), arranged airport transfers, etc.

We paid 90 euros per night, which included breakfast, the transfers and, I believe, all taxes. Many hotels in the vicinity charge 50% more.

Our 5th floor room was quite small, yet we found space to store everything. We appreciated the spare modern décor – white walls, bed linen and curtains, blond wood floors and furniture.

Great view of Gulhane Park from the double French doors. There was everything from a sewing kit to a mini-safe for valuables. I would have liked an extra chair, though.

The bathroom had a lot of pale marble and a super glass-walled shower: both hand-held shower and rainforest shower.

Breakfasts in the main floor restaurant were ample and the youthful staff were very cheerful. We ate dinner there one night, too. The menu was far more inventive than I expected from a small hotel restaurant.

We walked almost everywhere from this location: Topkapi, the Blue Mosque, Basilica Cistern and Aya Sofia are 10-15 minutes away.

There is a tram stop 2 minutes from the hotel; the tram passed under our windows but with the French doors closed, we heard nothing at all.

Sirkeci district, especially Hudavendigar Caddesi where the hotel is located, is not an atmospheric location. But its convenience outweighed any negatives. Anyway, the warmth of the people were the essential ingredient in making this hotel one of our fonder Istanbul memories.

tedgale

And here is my Tripadvisor review of the Baga Boutique Hotel in Akyaka:

We needed a stop off between Ephesus and our weekend destination, Gocek near Fethiye. Akyaka is a convenient stop -- just off a major highway and near other centres, yet completely sheltered in a lovely and dramatic setting.

Hotel is just outside town & easy to find. Off-season, the place was nearly empty. Recent renovations have created elegant accommodation within a small but beautifully manicured garden. The balcony of our sea-facing room looked down on a natural pond, smallish pool, flower beds and a large dock area with bar and handsome iron tables for relaxing. There's a large swimming raft connected to the dock by a gangway. In season, it must be gorgeous. The seaviews from this cove are breathtaking.

Entry, corridors (with sitting area) stairs and the room itself were spotless -- looked brand new, in fact. Our standard room was small (pretty standard in Turkey) and lacked seating. Beautiful big bathroom, though.

The hotel manager could not have been nicer or more accommodating. I was fearful that the village restaurants would be sub-standard but he reserved a table for us at nearby Orfoz, a rustic and very Turkish riverside restaurant. It was one of our most memorable meals.

Breakfast next day was served in an open pavilion overlooking the water. It was exquisitely presented on white china: Boiled eggs. Sliced cucumber & tomato, wedges of cheese. Four square dishes, lined up before us: apricots/walnuts/ raisins; black & brown olives in oil; crumbled feta cheese drizzled w/ olive oil; ropes of cheese curd. A basket of breads & sesame pretzels + butter & honey.

We left feeling utterly pampered and wishing we'd changed our plans so we could stay longer.

By the way, we spent our time next day along the Datca peninsula. the Akyaka-Marmaris drive is stunning in itself but the next hour west of Marmaris -- on superb mountain roads, with few cars -- was heart-stoppingly beautiful.

At points, we could look back across the fjord to where we knew Akyaka lay hidden in the haze -- and we reminisced longingly about the Baga Boutique Hotel!

jmct714

Your pictures are fabulous. I love me some food porn. Can't wait to read more. Thanks for sharing!

tedgale

OK I WILL do my Top 10 next.

But first I need to get to the gym and work off some of the kilos I amassed on this trip -- if you check out my album, you'll see how we splurged on the calories in Turkey.

tedgale

Thanks jmct. As I mentioned just above (before I saw your post) I can't believe how much we ate.

Fortunately, it's a VERY healthy cuisine -- as long as you stay away from the baklava and the lokum, AKA Turkish delight.

jelopez33

Ted: great report,great pictures!!!! waiting for more as DW and I are great fans of Turkey.

jmct714

First thing I noticed was the variety of bright fruits and veg in the dishes. My favorite kind of cooking (and eating). Looking forward to the details.

lowcountrycarol

Just love to read your trip reports as you do them so well. Those photos are great.

I will always be grateful for your sharing Osteria del Pegno....my favorite when visiting that fabulous city.

mohan

Thanks tedgale again for the report and wonderful pix.
Now what you said about hotel Bella got me thinking.......
I have only one day to see Ephesus, the following day I have a flight to catch at Izmir airport at noon, I don't think I should be too far from that airport. We will have the rental car. Should I spend that night at Kusadasi?
Did you like your car rental company? May I ask which one? Any problems?

tedgale

Thanks Carol.

Mohan: We drove from Kusadasi to Izmir airport. It took 55 minutes.

We did NOT follow the route through Selcuk. Instead of turning off for Selcuk about 10 km outside of Kusadasi, we continued toward Ahmetbeyli and Menderes. That road brought us right to the airport. It is more picturesque, IMO. Also 17 km shorter.

We booked through AutoEurope and got a rental with Europcar. They were entirely satisfactory. We had one small issue: They speak English in the office but the man in the parking lot who handed over the car could speak only Turkish and German.

We got our instructions on operating the car entirely in German.

There is a gas station right at the entrance to the airport, so you can fill up when returning the car.

Izmir airport is very new and was not very busy the 2 times we were there.

tedgale

TRIP DETAILS:

This was a first trip for us and we knew we wanted to see the standard things. In Istanbul: the Blue Mosque, the Aya Sofia and the Topkapi Palace, In our one week on and around the Aegean Coast: Ephesus and Pamukkale.

All of the above fully met our expectations. Accordingly, I'm not going to spend much time extolling or describing them. Other posters and the writers of guide books have done it more effectively than I could hope to.

So here is a Top Ten from which those standard items are excluded -- not because they weren't great but because I couldn't keep my list down to 10 if they were included!

In Istanbul:
1. Basilica Cistern: I was sceptical and I was wrong. It is magical: eerie, romantic, impressive. Far larger than I had expected.

There is a crowd and the entrance but the further you proceed, the more the crowd is dispersed. At this point, the powerful atmosphere of the place reasserts itself. It is cool, dark, echoing and, above all, wet (be prepared to be dripped on -- it is unavoidable. It feels as though you are exploring a newly opened Pharaonic tomb.

As feats of engineering, the cistern and the aqueducts that once fed it (we saw the remains of them near the Suleimaniye mosque) are truly impressive.

Water is, of course, an emblem of Istanbul. The city owes its importance to its control of the passage between the Black Sea and the Aegean. You are seldom out of sight of water anywhere in Istanbul.

Water is also a key commodity for making life bearable in this hot and dusty climate: garden pools; public baths and hammams; "fountains" at every mosque for ritual washing before prayers.

(If you want a public toilet, go to a mosque; they alerady had the plumbing so the restrooms were an obvious add-on)

The main difference between Byzantine and Ottoman approaches to water was that the Ottomans insisted the water be flowing. Hence their abandonment of the Byzantine cistern. It might not have been preserved in its present excellent state, had they kept it and used it.

tedgale

TOP TEN CONTINUED:

2. Princes' Island cruise: Our friends Jane and Burak live on Büyükada, the largest of the nine islands in the Sea of Marmara reached by ferry from the mainland. Burak was off sailing and Jane invited us for drinks and food on a Sunday afernoon.

(The islands are reached by ferry, from a station just across from the Kabitas stop on the main tram line. Kabitas is the last stop on the line, so you can't miss your stop.

There is a fast catamaran operated by the main ferry service. There is also a less glamorous boat (it takes about the same time -- perhaps 90 minutes to Büyükada, the 2nd and last stop on the route) operated by a rival firm. It tends to be less crowded than the catamaran, which is hugely popular and tends to be packed on Sundays. Tickets are about 5 TL each way.

The islands are a respite from the heat and the bustle of downtown Istanbul. Cars are prohibited, apart from a handful of emergency vehicles, and all traffic moves on foot or in a "Phaeton" -- the Turks use this Greek word -- pulled by two small, high-stepping horses.

This is what Bermuda must have felt like, before the lifting of the car ban in 1946.

Büyükada is the most cosmopolitan of the islands, with a considerable ex-pat and artistic community. Jane and Burak first lived on one of the smaller islands but she, as a western woman, found it too homogeneous -- and to some degree hostile to her North American ways. It has a famous old resort hotel and is a popular destination for Middle Eastern tourists, who come to stay in the summer. It is full of 19th C wooden cottages covered with riotous gingerbread decoration.

The main street by the harbour is touristy, full of bars and restaurants. However, you can quickly find peace just a few blocks from the centre.

For me, however, the main appeal of the outing was the boat ride itself. We were two of just a handful of westerners on the quite-full boat. This was our first opportunity to observe -- at close quarters and over a sustained time -- average Istanbullus. The atmosphere was festive, with many families and groups of young people.

A couple of images remain with me: 1. The father who (over my protests) ordered his young son to his feet, so I could sit down. For the remainder of the trip, he perched his son on his knee. Imagine that in Canada! 2. A group of ragamuffin teens or pre-teens -- skinny, bad teeth, pallid skin. One boy stretched out on the bench seat with his head in his friend's lap, while the friend cradled the boy's head with his forearm. Imagine THAT in Canada!

As the boat steamed away from the dock at Kabitas, I had a moment of revelation. The further we moved out into the open water, the broader the panorama of the city became. It is endless and it makes Manhattan look rather pastoral.

Seven or eight miles out of the city's core, you still have a solid wall of 20-30 storey apartments, one behind the other. Interspersed with them are smaller buildings -- nothing under six storeys, it seems. If they have green space, it is not visible from the water.

The official population of Istanbul is just under 14 million. The trip to the Princes' Islands -- far more than overflight in a plane -- makes this amazing fact fully and strikingly apparent.

tedgale

3. The "other" mosques: Inviting as the Blue Mosque is, your chances of ever having it to yourself -- or of sharing it with only a handful of the devout -- must be zero. But there are plenty of places that are not over-run by fellow travelers.

Here are four easily visited mosques, each one different and each one special in its own way:

Rustem Pasha Mosque/Rüstempaşa Camii: It's small, hidden away inside the Spice Market precinct. A maelstrom of commercial activity surges around it but it is a haven of calm.

Wikipedia reports that the mosque was built between 1561 and 1563 "on a high terrace over a complex of vaulted shops, whose rents were intended to financially support the mosque complex. Narrow, twisting interior flights of steps in the corners give access to a spacious courtyard. The mosque has a double porch with five domed bays, from which projects a deep and low roof supported by a row of columns."

The Iznik tile-work inside the mosque and on its facade is justly famous.

Most intriguing to me was a patch of random tiles on one side of the facade. Had a doorway or window been blocked up? Had the wall itself been damaged, then repaired? What could have caused anyone to mar this otherwise pristine and perfectly symmetrical decoration with this patchwork of different sizes, pattens and hues?

Süleymaniye Mosque/Süleymaniye Camii: The second largest mosque in the city, completed in 1561. We walked from our Sirkeci hotel, along a hilly route that took us past innumerable fabric shops, into a gritty hillside district.

The entire mosque complex has recently been the object of a painstaking restoration. The main buildings and the grounds and gardens are pristine. From the terrace beside the mosque there is a breath-taking view over the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus.

My favourite part -- in this as in so many other large mosques -- was the forecourt, with its loggias, elaborately decorated minarets and it central fountain building. The mosque's interior was too vast, too perfect and too plain for my liking.)

The main buildings and their grounds (including the cemetery of fantastical gravestones, which you can glimpse but not visit) are vast in themselves. But as you wander the manicured lawns surrounding them, you realize the actual complex is much, much larger.

A smart restaurant with garden courtyard occupies one part. But there are outbuildings and dependencies -- unused or at least unrestored -- spreading out in all directions.

In most mosques we visited, males predominated. In and around this mosque, there were throngs of women, many of them very conservatively dressed, including full niqabs. This might have been a special occasion. We had no way to determine whether they were local (parts of surrounding Fatih are ultra-conservative) or perhaps were visitors from the conservative states of the Middle East (there are many each year, I'm told).

Little Aya Sofia Mosque/ Küçuk Ayasofya Camii, formerly the Church of SS Sergius and Bacchus: Down below the Hippodrome and next to the main railroad track is one of Sultanahmet's neglected treasures.

As perfect as the grand mosques of the early Ottoman period are, I prefer the higgledy-piggledy imperfection of Byzantine churches that have been knocked about and overhauled over the centuries, to achieve a new use today.

Built by Justinian in the 6th C AD, the church contained Byzantine carving fully the equal of the Aya Sofia, for which it may have been the model. Some of the carvings appear to have been defaced in later centuries (Muslim tradition prohibits the use of images in mosques -- the carvings may have been faces or figures).

Around the mosque is a grass-choked graveyard of fanciful gravestones (a series of rescued turban fragments is displayed on one of the surrounding brick walls. There were few tourists on the day we visited and the overall effect, in this quietest corner of town, was of a precious little object forgotten on some grassy bank.

Kalender Hane Mosque/ Kalenderhane Camii: A chance discovery, when we went looking for the (disappointing) remnants of the old aqueduct, near the Suleymaniye Mosque. Built on the site of Roman baths, whose vaults stand today as column-strewn ruins, it has been both a church and a mosque.

Apparently, this building represents one of the few examples still extant of a Byzantine church with domed Greek cross plan. Recent restoration has uncovered some Byzantine wall paintings that the Ottomans had later plastered over. We were alone in the mosque and there was little sign of recent use. The quiet and the relative neglect of this 1500 year old structure contributed strongly to its appealing atmosphere.

Honourable mention, BTW, to the New Mosque/ Yeni Camii (1597) -- a bustling centre of devotion in the midst of equally bustling Eminönü.

tedgale

I should mention that I regret missing a couple of key pieces of religious architecture on this trip.

One, the Chora Church, was definitely on my radar. But it was far and the weather at that time was not great (rainy and windy -- the next week a tornado struck the city!). We had planned to see it before an early dinner at Asitane, a highly regarded Ottoman restaurant nearby.

We decided to save it and Asitane for another time and to stick closer to home. The hotel oblilgingly called to cancel our dinner booking.

(As you may by now have concluded, we did not even visit the New Town, apart from our tram ride to Kabatas. Thus, some interesting Karaköy restaurants have also gone unsampled. We tried for but could not get a table at hip Lokanta Maya. It remains, like its neighbour Karaköy Lokantasi, on my "Next time" list.)

The other is the Zeyrek Mosque, a treasure in a poor part of Fatih, currently endangered by neglect. I learned of its existence only after we left Istanbul.

During the 12th century, the Byzantine Empress Irene and Emperor John II Kommenos commissioned the Pantocrator, a three-church monastic complex, to serve as the dynastic mausoleum for themselves and later Byzantine emperors. After the conquest, it was converted to a Medresse (Koranic school) and then a mosque.

kja

I am thoroughly enjoying your report and the richness of the descriptions you provide of your observations and experiences. Thanks so much!

Special thanks for your mention of your visit to Princes' Island (I've been going back and forth about whether to try to make that part of my trip) and the descriptions of the "other" mosques, all of which had been on my list excerpt Kalenderhane Camii, which is there now.

Keep the details coming! And again, thanks!

cigalechanta

Wonderful report about where most of us never travel to.
MY cheese man is from Turkey and goes home once a year.

tedgale

Thanks cigale. Kja, I was recalling one other little episode from our return trip on the ferry.

The water had become quite choppy -- it can get rough out there -- and most of the people who had been sitting on the open upper deck had now crowded into the enclosed main cabin.

Vendors were picking their way down the aisles with the familiar tulip-glasses of tea for sale -- how they balance trays in a rolling boat mystifies me.

A squat, bald, older fellow suddenly started declaiming to the crowd in a loud voice. I thought it was some woeful pitch for money, such as you get on the subway in NYC. But no, he was selling collapsible canes or walking-sticks. He demonstrated all their features with broad comic gestures and appealed regularly for our applause, which he got in spades.

Everyone was laughing along with the peformance and it seemed momentarily to unite us. After a final demonstration of the cane's utility -- he showed how the handle could be used as a back-scratcher -- he circulated through the cabin.

Sales were surprisingly brisk. He sold canes to a number to people who did not look as though they'd have any need of his product.

My final view of him was on the quay. All business now, he had shouldered a heavy tote bag and was bustling away, head down like a bull, toward home or some fresh commercial opportunity.

tedgale

4. Getting away from it all: I never found Istanbul overwhelming. We never visited Taksim Square or the crowded pavements of the Istiklal Caddesi shopping precinct. The Spice Market was a bit mad but still enjoyable.

Nonetheless, one hears horror stories, especially about road traffic. A friend said it took an hour by taxi to reach their restaurant one evening -- a journey of only 2-3 miles.

Other friends have reported spending hours within the city on a stalled freeway. In such conditions, tempers flare and tragedy ensues: These friends assured me that shootings and stabbings are a regular consequence of road-rage.

Though our pave was sedate and we restricted ourselves to a limited area, I certainly relished finding some quiet corners now and then:

Sultanahmet beyond the Blue Mosque and below Sultanahmet Square: Our path on Sunday to the Little Aya Sofia took us down, down, down a long curving roadway into a jumble of sleepy, working-class streets. On our descent we had recurrent glimpses of the Sea of Marmara, a sparkling sapphire expanse that stretched as far as the eye could see. Across the train tracks and on the far side of the boulevard to the airport, men were washing their vans and taxis in the waterfront park.

Here were wooden houses, many cats, few cars; there was no noise apart from the main roads. Other than the trickle of visitors to the mosque, there must be few tourists down here. Yet we were only a few minutes' climb from the hordes in Sultanahmet Square.

Bosphorus cruise: From nearby Eminönü, we took the shorter cruise -- about 2 hours -- offered by the main ferry service IDO (İstanbul Deniz Otobüsleri). We'd been advised to avoid private operators; anyway, it was fine. Inexpensive, too.

Where the Princes' Island trip gives you a sense of Istanbul's immensity, this one -- up past the 2nd Bosphorus bridge and then back, without stopping -- show you a green and affluent world.

Showy office towers sprout above the handsome old buildings along the shore -- Dolmabahce Palace, a number of grand mosques, the opposed 15th C stone strongholds on the European and Asian sides, some beautiful waterside villas.

On the quays, older men angle for fish. There are large cafes or restaurants and a marina with impressive yachts. Work, stress and striving seem far away, though you are never out of sight of traffic and the bustle of the city.

Our companions on this cruise were all visitors to the city, from what I could judge. Certainly a better-fed, older and more placid group than the people on the Islands ferry. We soaked up the sun when it intermittently showed itself. We snapped innumerable photos, which we later deleted, of scenes that should have composed into impressive pictures but somehow did not.

Relaxing -- and an effortless way to see large swaths of the city that I could have seen from land only with a punishing level of effort.

Gulhane Park/Gülhane Parkı: My guide book, dated 2006, spoke of the decrepit state of these former gardens of the Topkapi.

This proved to be just one more indicator of how much Istanbul has changed -- how much cleaner and more inviting to visitors it has become in recent years. The park has had a major overhaul to restore it to an earlier state. The funfair and the zoo have been removed, the concrete buildings demolished. Plans are afoot to convert the former royal stables into a cultural centre.

Tulips are everywhere in Turkish design and mid-April is tulip season in Istanbul. Everywhere along the shady curving avenues of this glorious wooded hillside, there were beds of tulips. Every shape and colour and all newly flowering. We had got our moment just right.

We were biding our time before the inevitable 30 minute line-up for entrance to the Topkapi. The noonday crowds were light even on the main paths. Higher up, under the crenellated walls of the Palace, there were only a few dawdlers. Even the terraces of the open air cafe overlooking the water were sparsely peopled. A perfect place to regenerate before the long, long climb past the Archaeological Museum to the Palace and its throngs.

tedgale

By the way, if anyone is looking for a super-quiet corner of Sultanahmet to sleep, dine or relax in, here is a Wiki entry for a pretty cobblestoned street that we were delighted to visit:

'Soğukçeşme Sokağı (literally: Street of the Cold Fountain) is a small street with historic houses in the Sultanahmet neighborhood of Istanbul, Turkey, sandwiched in between the Hagia Sophia and Topkapı Palace. The car-free zone street is named after the fountain situated at its end towards Gülhane Park.

'The wooden, two or three-storey Ottoman houses consisting of four to ten rooms date to the 19th to 20th century, and have been restored with the initiative of Çelik Gülersoy in 1985-1986.

'Called "Ayasofya Konakları" (Hagia Sophia Mansions), nine of the houses are run as a hotel chain by the Touring and Automobile Club of Turkey (TTOK). The houses are named after the flower shrubs next to them as "Yaseminli Ev" (Jasmine House), "Mor Salkımlı Ev" (Wisteria sinensis House)"Hanımeli Ev" (Honeysuckle House) etc. The buildings are decorated in the 19th century style with furniture including such items as beds and consoles, silk curtains, velvet armchairs and gilded mirrors. Most notable guest of the hostel was Queen Sofía of Spain, who stayed in the spring of 2000 for four nights.

'On one end of the street towards Gülhane Park is a Byzantine cistern, which houses the "Sarnıç Restaurant" today.'

Our friend Jane praised this restaurant, though its very western menu discouraged me.

I also noted two very pretty, high-end cafes with shaded garden terraces. One offered omelettes, salads and other light fare. It could be a lovely place for lunch.