ISTANBUL DAY 8

Today we choose the Dolmabahce Palace for a visit. I had seen it already from outside when we did our boat tour. We took our tram and went from Europe to Asia, as the Palace is on the other side.

I never had imagined what a beautiful palace it was ! I have seen Versailles near Paris, but it seemed like a garden shed to me when I had visited this one !

It is not that old it was built between the years 1843 and 1856.



The Palace was guarded by special soldiers, one stood like a wax figure there and didn't move a bit. It was like these wax figures you see sometimes on the streets. Everybody posed besides the poor guy he certainly was sweating under his helmet and suddenly a second one arrived to lift the helmet several times so that his head got a little air.



Before we entered the palace we all had to put a plastic around our shoes, a few young man forgot it and had to come out to put them on. We all looked very elegant.



We were not the only once who had the idea of visiting the palace today.

The world's largest Bohemian crystal chandelier is in the center hall. The chandelier, a gift from Queen Victoria, has 750 lamps and weighs 4.5 tonnes.



Unfortunately no camera was allowed inside the palace I could just take this picture by zooming from outside.



When I took this one to show the beautiful ceilings , a guardian made me a sign that even from outside I wasn't allowed to take a picture from inside !




But as usual when something is not allowed it becomes interesting to me so I am very proud that I could take this picture of the famous Crystal Staircase which has the shape of a double horseshoe and is built of Baccarat crystal, brass and mahogany. It was like in a fairy tale, it wouldn't have surprised me if a princess with a crown would have showed up suddenly.



Outside was a parking for strollers ! that looked so funny !



the park too was beautiful and had several lion sculptures.

When we got out of all this beauty and another world, we were hungry and looked for a little café for our Turkish sandwich. But we didn't find anything in Asia so we took the tram back to Europe and stopped at the habour.



There we found this beautiful golden carriage where a man in a phantasy uniform sold fresh grilled fish in a sandwich. Dominique bought two, and we sat down



here on little chairs and tables and ate with pleasure our freshly grilled fish, while looking at the Ferries and excursion boats. Then we took the tram to the hotel.



The afternoon we spent as usual here on the roof. The waiter told us that he lives in the European quarter, but on the Asian side, and there are all cultures and religions living together in harmony. He said that he is woken up by the Mosque's speaker calling for prayers, while his brother is woken up by church bells because he lives besides a catholic church. Only the Jews who live there since centuries don't make any noise, at least not religious once.

BTW I have my new sunglasses on my nose !