July 15th – our first day in Istanbul. There was much confusion because it was decided that Diana’s ankle, which been restricting her activities, should be looked at by a doctor. So Gill and Diana went off to find a doctor and Mako and I went off to the Blue Mosque. The intent was that we would meet up later, co-ordinating by cell-phone. Unfortunately, we had a spectacular thunder storm and Mako and I, who had seen the mosque and had gone off for an ice cream, sheltered from the storm. Consequently, we couldn’t get to the Blue Mosque in time before Diana and Gill, who had texted us from the Blue Mosque, having failed to find a suitable doctor and having seen the mosque for themselves, decided to park themselves in a restaurant nearby. All would have been well had it not been for the fact that text messages to Diana were taking hours to get through. Their being routed via the UK was assumed to be responsible for this, but that doesn’t explain why messages from Diana were received promptly. Of course, Mako and I did not know this at the time, and couldn’t understand why she wasn’t responding to our messages. She got one message the next day!

Mako and the Blue Mosque.

Anyway, we eventually met up outside the Hagia Sophia. We took a guide whose English was so poor that none of us could understand him.

Inside the Hagia Sophia.

Later, in a restaurant, a cat befriended Mako, who loves dogs but is somewhat leery of cats.

Diana eventually relieved Mako of her new friend.

In the evening, we went to see some “whirling Dervishes” who performed in the waiting room of the Istanbul railway station (!?)

The station was one of the terminals of the Orient Express.