Istanbul February 11-12

Monday morning February 11 I traveled to Istanbul. I was on my way to Germany to attend a conference but found that I could stop over in Istanbul for a couple of days without adding to the cost of my airline ticket. I took a Pegasus Airlines flight, which arrived at the Sabiha Gökçen Airport to the east of the city at 7:30 am. I took a bus to the Taksim central bus station and then walked around for a few hours before checking into my hotel in the Sultanahmet area; I walked around further later that afternoon.

The next day Tuesday February 12 I did further site-seeing of places I had not been to last March when I was in Istanbul for a short time. In the morning I took a ferry from Eminönü across the Bosphorus to Kadikoy. I then walked around and took the M4 metro line to the Kartal end station and back to Kadikoy, which was not interesting because it was all underground. I took another ferry back across the Bosphorus to Besiktas, arriving at noon. I went to the mid-19th century Dolmabahçe Palace and took the tour of the Selamlik part of the palace. I had taken the tour of the Haramlik part of the palace last March.

The Dolmabahçe Palace from the ferry

I then returned to the Sultanahmet area and went to the Mosaics Museum, which had been closed for renovations last March. I saw the exquisite mosaics of the Byzantine Great Palace in place there.

The mosaics of the Great Palace

In the morning of Wednesday February 13 I took the ferry to Kadikoy and from there a bus to the Sabiha Gökçen Airport, which took an hour and a half of travel time. I arrived in plenty of time for my flight to Munich that left at 11:15.