This morning after a quick omelet, Ali met us at our hotel. He is our private guide for 3 days.
Today's was a walking tour which began at Topkapi palace, the sultan's palace. We walked it throughout including the harem. Ali is very knowledgeable and a great guy.
From there we visited the Blue Mosque. Lisa had to cover up, and we had to remove shoes to enter. Inside was amazing. The structure and how it was built, with its large spans supported from the inside on 4 huge, I mean huge, columns known as elephant feet. And the intricate tile work. Tiles everywhere. Photography is allowed in the mosque, I got a few interesting images.
From there we headed towards the Spice Market and stopped along the way for lunch. Local cuisine, very very nice. Doner meat in mine, like the doner meat - lamb.
After a quick walk thru the market (since we saw it yesterday), we visited another mosque called Rustem Pasha. Much smaller but unique in its own way. There we saw a young lad, with his dad, dressed up in like a special baptism uniform/costume. He is looking forward to entering manhood and the party thereafter where he will get toys and money and a big party. Poor lad, he doesn't know what comes before the party. Snip snip.
From there we took a different route back up the hill to our hotel, getting here around 3pm. In all the walking tour today was about 6 hours. We wished Ali a good evening and decided a large beer was in order. It wasn't. We were so bagged, we drank half with one eye open. Luckily we were at our hotel's outside cafe, so up to the room for what turned out to be a 4 hour nap.
Dinner time.
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