Better late than never, we’re in Istanbul.
Our flight from Amsterdam was delayed, due to one of the airline staff opening the door of the gangway down to the plane. Evidently, only airport security staff are allowed to do that these days. This effectively tainted the entire G2 gate area, causing the plane to have to be evacuated, after which everyone had to pass through the security check a second time. As you can imagine, this took quite some time.
The flight itself was uneventful. Once on the ground in Turkey, we purchased visas, cleared passport control, retrieved our bags and met up with the man sent by our hotel to collect us.
The traffic was manic and it must have taken us a good hour and forty-five minutes to get from the airport into the heart of Istanbul. I was very glad I hadn’t had to drive it myself.
Our hotel is quite lovely and situated in the Sultanahmet area of the city, close to many of the sights of historic interest.
We spent only a couple of minutes in the room after checking in, before venturing out for dinner. The hour was late and it must have been close to 22:00 EEST.
The walk through the cobbled streets to a local restaurant was a lovely one, as was the meal that ensued. I’m in my element with Turkish cuisine and I have no doubt that the next few days are going to hold a lot of tasty treats for all of us.
Anyway, the exploring starts tomorrow and I need a good night’s sleep. Eloïse and Lucas didn’t hit the sack until around 23:30, but they were little troopers at dinner, so hopefully they’ll awake in good humour tomorrow.