A Forest of Bunny Ears

Istanbul, then on to Marmaris, Turkey

Kaiser Wilhelm's Fountain 1901 only recently restored

Back to cosmopolitan Istanbul with just enough time to visit the remnants of this once Byzantine city, eastern capital of the Roman Empire and capital of the Christian world for over a thousand years.  We started with Hagia Sophia (again, GS is besotted), strolled around the Hippodrome taking in the recently restored Kaiser Wilhelm’s fountain (1901), noted that the Palace of Ibrahim Pasa (housing the Turkish & Islamic Arts Museum) was still under renovation and then took a Big Bus Tour round town to see what we’d missed. 

Afternoon crowds gather to see Hagia Sophia

After our short Istanbul stop-over we jetted back to Marmaris to the lovely Windjammer.  Of course, she’d been moved in our absence and the key was missing; not the best thing late at night!  But it all worked out in the end, and here we are at Yat Marine even closer to the field of BIG hot water boats sprouting a growing collection of bunny ears (those SAT & TV domes that look like Mickey Mouse caps). 

Inside Hagia Sophia at the balcony where the Empress
would observe formalities

We’re working at setting WJ3 up slowly, partly due to a dose of the flu (yes, both of us!) and having a little bit of work done professionally to tart her up for the coming season.  Our splash is scheduled for the 2^nd June and only yesterday it was blowing 37km per hour over Paros (in the Cyclades, mid Aegean Sea).  Yep, another bumpy ride coming up; we wondered if sitting on the hard all season in Marmaris wouldn't be so bad after all…

The Cap'n pretends he's not being watched...
Breakfast at the Ambassador Hotel in Istanbul

(For anyone interested, the WJ3 Map & Tracker is updated now and will be more current than the blog for our whereabouts.  And photos to come - we're back to internet access basics again!)