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Published: November 3rd 2013
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Saturday May 18, 2013 and Sunday May 19, 1013. Istanbul Day 4 and Return Home.
We awoke in our "new" hotel and were directed across to the Kral Mert Hotel for breakfast. We had to check out of the hotel again and leave our stuff in the lobby of the Kral Mert as we did yesterday, although the guy seemed pretty confident that we would be staying at the hotel we had originally booked for our final night in Istanbul.
We walked along to the tram station and caught a tram as far along the dock area on the Bosphorus as was possible and the walked to Dolmabahce Palace. We walked past the clock tower and joined a fairly long queue to get through security. We then joined an even longer queue to enter the palace itself. Groups seemed to be allowed through much faster than individuals. We got chatting to a group of Japanese visitors and managed to wangle our way in with them. Dolmabahce Palace was built in the 19th century and is one of the most glamerous palaces in the world. It sits on the banks of the Bosphorus. It was the administrative centre of the
late Ottoman Empire with the last of the Ottoman Sultans residing here. After the foundation of the Turkish Republic in Ankara, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk transferred all government functions to the youthful capital. However, on his visits to Istanbul Ataturk had a small room at Dolmabahce Palace where he stayed, welcomed his foreign guests and held international conferences. Atatürk died at 9.05 in the morning on November 10, 1938, in this bedroom which is now part of the museum. All the clocks in the palace were stopped and set to 9:05 after his death. Although this has changed recently and clocks are set to different times around the palace, the clock in the room where he died is still pointing to 9:05 a.m.
We left the palace and passed a pleasant half hour or so strolling around the palace gardens. Then we walked back to the Ferry Dock and purchased a Hoho Boat Trip cruise on the Bosphorus. The Bosphorus is the 32 km (20-mile)-long strait which joins the Sea of Marmara with the Black Sea in Istanbul, and separates the continents of Europe and Asia. We cruised up the Bosphorus with the Dolmabahce Palace on our left. From the
water it was possible to see the extent of the palace and its grounds. We continued to cruise along passing under the Bosphoros Bridge - one of the bridges that joins the two continents. The next stop was the Rumeli Fortress, situated at the narrowest point of the strait - with just 660 meters of water separating the two continents. We decided not to alight here and settled for taking a few snaps. We crossed over to the Asian side where the next stop was Anadolu Kavağı, a medieval castle with seven massive towers in its walls. First built by the Byzantines, it was restored and reinforced by the Genoese in 1350,and later by the Ottomans. We did not get off here either as we were short of time.
We continued to cruise the strait until we reached the next stop, Beylerbeyi Palace, where we "hopped off" the boat. An Imperial Ottoman summer residence built in the 1860s, it is now situated immediately north of the 1973 Bosphorus Bridge. Beylerleyi Palace was commissioned by Sultan Abdülaziz (1830–1876) and built between 1861 and 1865 as a summer residence and a place to entertain visiting heads of state. Empress Eugénie of
France visited Beylerbeyi on her way to the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. We entered the palace grounds via a long tunnel. The tunnel was built by the order of Sultan Mahmud II between 1829 and 1832. It was used as a highway between Uskudar and Beylerbeyi until 1973. Today this historical tunnel is used for cultural and artistic events.
We emerged from the tunnel into some beautiful gardens.The palace gardens are connected to each other by a series of ramps and stairs. The total area of the gardens is 70 thousand square metres. In the grounds stands the Marble Kiosk. This was also built on the orders of Sultan Mahmud II between 1829 and 1831 as a hunting pavilion. It gets its name from the outer walls which are made of marble. Inside there is a fountain and a pool. We made our way up to the palace entrance and waited for the next tour in English. We put the mandatory plastic covers over our shoes and were allowed in, accompanied by a guide. The interior design of the palace is in both Western and Eastern styles. There are 3 storeys including a basement, 24 rooms
and 6 halls. The floors are covered with Egyptian straw matting. The carpets are mostly from Hereke, Turkey. The chandeliers are French Baccarat Crystals, the clocks were made in England, France and Istanbul. The vases were made in China, Japan, France, Germany and Yildiz, Turkey. In addition to these treasures there are also other unique works of art adorning the walls of the rooms and halls.
We decided to take a walk along the promenade on the Asian side of the Bosphorus towards the Maiden's Tower. Although this little island was occupied by a fortress in Byzantine times, the tower dates from the last century. In Turkish it’s known as Kız Kulesi, or Maiden’s Tower – supposedly after a princess who was confined here after a prophet predicted she would die from a snakebite. The fatal bite was duly delivered by a serpent that arrived in a basket of fruit. In English it’s even more randomly known as Leander’s Tower, after the Greek hero who swam the Hellespont. The tower has been variously used as a quarantine centre, a lighthouse, a customs control point and a hideout for the villainous Elektra (Sophie Marceau) in the 1999 James Bond movie
'The World is Not Enough'. These days, the tower is a café-restaurant decked out like an Ottoman banquet hall, which is very popular with wedding parties.
We "hopped" back on the boat and cruised back across to the European side. We returned to our hotel where, to our relief, we found we were actually staying in the Kral Mert Hotel (if only for a few hours!). The hotel guy redeemed himself by arranging for a mate to pick us up and take us to the bus stop (at 3 am) at Taksim Square where we needed to catch the bus to the airport. The airport was clean and modern and the flight on Pegasus Airlines to Barcelona went without a hitch. We caught the train to Flaca where or friend Philip was waiting for us. All in all a very good holiday. Luckily we left Istanbul just a matter of hours before all the riots kicked of in Taksim Square!
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