On Sunday, after breakfast at our hotel, our first stop was the Dolmabahce Palace.
This palace was built in the 19th Century by the Ottoman Sultan of the time. It faces the sea and is a majestic building. The difference between this palace and the earlier Topkapi Palace is that the design and architecture is predominantly European in this one. It's a modern palace in many ways but in some ways it still conforms to the traditional culture of excess and vanity of the Ottoman Sultans. For instance, although the paintings are by the European artists, there is still a Harem. The funny thing is that in the main/administrative section, the paintings depict wars and soldiers and kings whereas the paintings in the Harem are mostly of inanimate objects and no portraits at all. We found that very sexist. There is a humongous ceremonial hall that has a chandelier of crystal that weighs 4.5 tonnes. The hall itself is more like a stadium with ceiling/dome as high as some 100 meters!
After Dolmabahce Palace, we had lunch in the adjacent cafe that had a view of the Marmara sea. Then we went on a cruise of the Bosphorus River. This river passes through the city of Istanbul and separates Europe and Asia. There are castles, palaces, mosques and a fortress on the European side whereas the Asian side mostly has summer homes of rich people with a couple of palaces and one fortress. The cruise itself was very relaxing.
After the cruise, we stopped at our hotel for a little while before going for dinner at a restaurant in Sultanahmet that also had a whirling dervish show after dinner. After the show, we came back and went to sleep. Overall, Sunday was a much more relaxing day than most days we've had on this trip.
This palace was built in the 19th Century by the Ottoman Sultan of the time. It faces the sea and is a majestic building. The difference between this palace and the earlier Topkapi Palace is that the design and architecture is predominantly European in this one. It's a modern palace in many ways but in some ways it still conforms to the traditional culture of excess and vanity of the Ottoman Sultans. For instance, although the paintings are by the European artists, there is still a Harem. The funny thing is that in the main/administrative section, the paintings depict wars and soldiers and kings whereas the paintings in the Harem are mostly of inanimate objects and no portraits at all. We found that very sexist. There is a humongous ceremonial hall that has a chandelier of crystal that weighs 4.5 tonnes. The hall itself is more like a stadium with ceiling/dome as high as some 100 meters!
After Dolmabahce Palace, we had lunch in the adjacent cafe that had a view of the Marmara sea. Then we went on a cruise of the Bosphorus River. This river passes through the city of Istanbul and separates Europe and Asia. There are castles, palaces, mosques and a fortress on the European side whereas the Asian side mostly has summer homes of rich people with a couple of palaces and one fortress. The cruise itself was very relaxing.
After the cruise, we stopped at our hotel for a little while before going for dinner at a restaurant in Sultanahmet that also had a whirling dervish show after dinner. After the show, we came back and went to sleep. Overall, Sunday was a much more relaxing day than most days we've had on this trip.
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