Thursday & Friday, April 20 & 21, 2023 - Istanbul

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Thursday & Friday, April 20 & 21 – Istanbul, Turkey 

We arrived in Istanbul on Thursday evening around 6:00 p.m. to a light shower. It was an interesting day as we sailed through the Dardanelles. 

Skyline of a portion of Istanbul. Now 20 million inhabitants

On sail-in. We will dock off to the left.

There are some excursions tonight, but we will wait until tomorrow and take the Included Tour. We are docked at the new Cruise Terminal across the Golden Horn from the Old City of Istanbul. We have been told that this Cruise Terminal is more like an airport terminal and that everything is a long long walk. All of the facilities related to the cruise boat are below ground. Above ground are a couple of stories of restaurants and shops and a very nice promenade. The promenade and the shops and restaurants are completely blocked off from the ship. There is a 12’ wall between the ship and the promenade. This wall becomes part of the promenade when there is no ship at the dock. When a ship comes in, the wall is lifted, becoming a barricade, and opening up ramps that take ship’s passengers into the underground terminal. When the wall is down, those ramps are covered. 

Something impacting our visit to Istanbul is that Ramadan ended on Thursday. And Friday is a National Holiday. This means that very little will be open. Even the major mosques will be closed until Friday afternoon. The Grand Bazaar and the Spice Market are both closed. 

Friday

We’ve got an early tour this morning and it is a bit cool, but sunny and no rain is forecast. We had been provided a piece of paper with a barcode on it to clear customs. We’ll have to use to get out and in to the Terminal. Passports are not required. It worked quite well, laying it on a scanner at the turnstile, getting a green light to go through and away we went. 

The tour is a drive around the city, a tour of a small of impressive mosque and a 2-hour boat ride up the Bosporus Strait. When we were here in 2007, we took a very similar boat ride, but other than that, we spent our time in the Old City. So the drive around the outside of the walls of the old city was interesting. This was not something we had seen before. We didn’t get a lot of pictures during the drive around as shooting through bus windows is rarely satisfactory. We have learned to just enjoy the ride and not worry about photos. 

The old town from our side of the Golden Horn

The view from our veranda. Nice to look at a reflection pool rather than normal roof top equipment

The view directly across from our stateroom.

Just an interesting building.

The mosque we went to was quite small, but the tilework on the inside was remarkable. The tiles used are of the blend of clay and quartz like we learned about when we visited Ephesus. The quartz makes the tile much stronger. It also means that the colors have to come from metals or natural stones as the firing is done at a much higher temperature. The vegetable dyes used in standard ceramics, burn up in the firing process. This also limits the number of colors available, therefore the commonality of blues and greens in these tiles. 

Ceiling of the Mosque

Wood ceiling of an alcove

Tile detail

After the visit to the mosque, we walked towards the spice market to take advantage of the public restrooms. To our surprise, there was one spice shop open and it was doing a land office business with all the Viking passengers that were around. We purchased some Iranian saffron, some Turkish Delight, and honey roasted pistachios. The saffron will go home with us, the rest will not. 

From the spice shop, we walked across the street to the harbor and boarded our local tour boat. The breeze on the water is quite cool, but there was enough shelter to get out of the wind when you needed to. There are 4 groups from Viking on this boat and the guides from each group took turns giving the commentary of what we were seeing along the shore. We went east along the northern shore of the Bosporus for about an hour, then crossed to the south side and headed back; finishing at the Cruise dock where our Viking ship was docked. In order to get on the ship, we still had to navigate the lengthy corridors of the underground cruise terminal. 

A new aircraft carrier for the Turkish Navy. The helicopters were purchased from the US

As we left the dock to start our cruise on the Bosporus. The white wall behind the ship is the wall that moves up and down.

Proof positive

We wanted coffee and tried the Turkish Coffee.

The last swallow was a bit thick, but still enjoyed it.

Just an interesting house.

An old hunting lodge when this was outside of the city.

A late departure tonight and a sea day tomorrow on our way to Athens, Greece. This is also the start of our last segment of the “World Cruise”. Although all passengers started the trip in either Fort Lauderdale or Los Angeles, the itinerary was divided into “segments” of approximately 2 weeks for the ship’s convenience in handling excursions and other things. This last segment is Istanbul to London where most passengers will be getting off. We’ve got another 2 weeks after that on this ship as we make our way around the British Isles and finish in Bergen, Norway.