Worldwide Wanderers

Istanbul, part 2 - June 7, 2022 We continued the day by walking around some more. Our oldest had a doner kebab. It sprinkled just a little.  Sultan II. Mahmut Tomb and cemetery next to it. It was an interesting cemetery.  We strolled through the Grand Bazaar.  Hippodrome Suleymaniye Mosque A quick peek at the Spice Bazaar/Egypt Bazaar.  Interesting capture from the ship. We added money to our transportation card and caught the tram back to the cruise port area.  Next up Volos... Table of Contents

Istanbul - June 7, 2022 We finally made it to Istanbul; it has been on Travis's list for a while. This was another early port -- 7:00 am to 6:00 pm. We wanted to see as much as possible but knew the kids would not be able to go all day. This was true -- youngest got an headache, could not get the ibuprofen down (not good at swallowing pills), and is a grumpy traveler at the best of times. This boat kept photo bombing our pictures. Hagia Sophia from the ship. The Blue Mosque  Ashore, we docked at Galataport Istanbul ; this is one of the fanciest ports that I have seen and big. We had to scan our cruise key card to get out of the port and scan to leave. Normally, we just scan on and off the ship, so that they know who has left and if they have come back. I guess Istanbul wanted to know who came in and that they left at the end of the day. They also gave us a survey on exit asking what we spent at the port and spent on the whole trip.   After walking from the port, we p...

Kusadasi and Ephesus, Turkey 🇹🇷 - June 6, 2022 Our time at Kusadasi was published as 6:30 am to 12:30 pm, so we knew that would be 12:00 pm all board, so not much time. This was the only port that we booked a tour, so with all the covid issues, I paranoidly asked the tour guide if we would make it back on board on time. They reassured me. We booked Ephesus Shuttle for the tour. We debated whether to book Terrace Houses too; extra $10 each. I was not sure if we had enough time (we would have) and if others on the tour would want to go or not. $10 for 4 people does add up, and we were not sure how interesting to the kids it would be. This is a section of Ephesus that is covered and being excavated now. It looked cool from the pictures and videos.  Upon approach to Kusadasi with the sun rising.  We met our tour guide at the arranged time of 7:30 am. It was just our group; crazy, we had not booked a private tour. The vehicle was a very tricked out SUV, and the closest that I hav...