Visiting Sirkeci Station

 After a fantastic breakfast with Turkish coffee and menemen, we met up with Uncle Mike and Uncle Chris at Sirkeci station. Why should I know this station you may ask, well it is the last station on the Orient Express and Europe. As a result there is a small train museum and a nice little restaurant at the station. On the other side of the Bosphorus is Haydarpasa Station which was the start of long distance trains to Asia, but unfortunately that station is currently being redeveloped for high speed rail projects. These two stations were pivotal in the movement of people between the two continents. So it was great for Uncle Mike to explain some of the history over some cold beverages before we crossed over to Asia on the modern metro.

Cruising back to some Turkish ice cream

 We cruised within sight of the Black Sea before heading back down the Bosphorus. We made a few more stops along the way before docking back on the heart of Istanbul. On our way back to our accommodation we stopped for some traditional Turkish ice cream. The vendor had a bit of fun with the girls as he kept tricking them out of their ice cream before finally giving them some. We really liked the ice cream once we had it, it had a unique flavour profile that was quite nice.

Cruising on the Bosphorus

 We caught a ferry to let us cruise up the Bosphorus River and back down. We had impeccable timing as we strode on to the boat and it sailed off within a minute. It was a perfect day to be out on the water and the boat had a good snack bar. So it was a really pleasant way to observe all of the historical and everyday buildings along the waterway. 

Walking to a rooftop lunch

 We were quite hungry and decided to walk through Gülhane Park near the cistern. It was a pleasant and uncrowded way to get down to the water and it turned out to be a lovely place. We then walked through the neighbourhood patting cats before we stumbled on to a rooftop restaurant. The food was great and the view across to the harbour was spectacular as was the view of the Hagia Sophia over the treetops.

A bit more from the Basilica Cistern

 We really enjoyed looking at the various columns which were each different. They were basically put together from existing pieces that were found around when the cistern was built. So it was quite a mix of pieces including some sculptures like the carved medusa head. It was quite cool to see and we were really glad that Chris took us and explained some of the history to us.