Day 212, Istanbul, Turkey
On our final day, we continued to ignore the cold, windy, and rainy weather. After all, we could always warm up with some Turkish tea if necessary along the way. Here, like in Paris, it’s assumed you’ll bring your dog in with you to get coffee. Perhaps they’ve learned that’s less trouble than making them wait outside with all the stray cats, although there seem to be cats in many of the stores as well. The Starbucks and our favorite breakfast restaurant each have their own cat.
We walked down Istiklal road, the biggest pedestrian shopping street in Istanbul, ending at Taksim Square. From there we went to Dolmabahce Palace. We’ve been to many European palaces, but never one built for a sultan. This is the largest palace in Turkey, built specifically for an Ottoman Sultan in the 1850’s. The actual palace covers more than 11 acres, with nearly 300 rooms, 46 halls, 6 baths (hamam) and 68 toilets. There is a harem section, which we didn’t tour, in which the women were not allowed to have contact with the outside world, after they entered. The palace has a ceremonial room
that is the size of a cathedral with an enormous chandelier in the center, the heaviest in Europe. The opulence was over the top, no wonder the funding of it put an enormous strain on the state’s funds and contributed to the bankruptcy of the Ottoman Empire. There were no photos allowed in the building, which was a bummer.
We watched the sunset from the gates overlooking the bay on the Bosphorus. Feet were tired, so we figured out how to take a trolley home.
