Our free morning started with a visit to the basilica cistern. Amazing to think that this underground structure built in 532ad to store water for istanbul city was able to store enough water for the palace and surrounding city for ten years. The water came from a reservoir near the black sea via 20km of aqueducts.
Next adventure was the hop on hop off bus which was well worth doing as it covered a large area of istanbul allowing us to decide whether or not we needed to further explore some of these attactions. We saw the huge queues outside the aya sofya mosque and decided to leave that visit until later when we are back in istanbul at end of tour. The Sultanahamet area which has a lot of these mayor attractions is near our hotel. It was while Marie and Sandy where exploring the hippodrome (while malc sat in shade) that Sandy got a marriage proposal but Mama (Marie) told him in a not so friendly tone that she was not available!!!!!!!! B ack to hotel to meet our fellow travelers and to have a team talk. The group consists of 5 kiwis, 2 bazilian girls, and 8 aust and iskander our lovely young turkish guide. We went out for dinner as a group to a restaurant that had no power but somehow they presented us with a beautiful meal..
Good to read about your time in Istanbul. We went to the cistern, the ottoman palace and the Sophia as well. Great. But did you get to the Grand Bazaar this time! its pretty over whelming.
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