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Here are a few photos from Istanbul. We were there from Monday, September 23, 2024 through Thursday, September 26, 2024. The Viking Ancient Mediterranean Treasures cruise began in Istanbul on September 25. We chose to do a 2-day extension in Istanbul before the cruise began. The main feature of the extension was a tour of several of the most significant sights in Istanbul on September 24. It was a long day but our tour guide was delightful and the sights are amazing. We went to the Blue Mosque, to a rug exhibition at a store where a rug coud be purchased, on a lunch cruise on the Bosphorus strait which divides Europe from Asia, to a Byzantine era cistern, to The Grand Bazaar, and to Hagia Sophia, the spectacular large domed building built in the sixth century CE as a church and then converted into a mosque in the fifteenth century.

We had some time to do some more exploration in Istanbul on September 26 since the ship did not depart until 5pm. We planned to take a tram into the old city from the station near the port. But it was hot and the queue for tickets was long. So we walked toward the bridge which goes over the Golden Horn. It was only a half-mile. We figured out how to get a ticket and got on a very crowded tram which took us over the Golden Horn and into the old city where most of the iconic sites of Istanbul are located. It's a very small part of a huge modern city of 20 million people.

We planned to visit the Topkapi palace where the Ottomans ruled their empire but it was hot and the queue was long so we just began walking around looking for a restaurant for lunch. The restaurant we happened to find turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip. We had no idea that it would be one of the Rick Steves recommended restaurants. I opened his Istanbul tour book once we sat down and there it was. The owner remembers meeting Rick.

We enjoyed the sights we could see from the ship that afternoon before we departed from Istanbul. A few photos show the new port complex of Istanbul which is very popular with many shops and restaurants. Once we departed the scenery got idyllic.