Bosphorus Cruise

Friday we took the train from nearby Cankurturan to Eminonu and then boarded the ferry that runs the length of the Bosphorus, up to Anadolu Kavagi, on the Asian side, and back. It is indeed a ferry service, stopping at a dozen or so places along the way, but, so far as I could tell, it carried only tourists, Turkish, European, and us.

The ferry left from a pier adjacent to the

Galata Bridge, wherefrom we could look at

the bridge's under-side restaurants; and also

the fisher-persons, whose lines must cross

over the diners' tables...?



The Cunard Lines' Queen Victoria was in port

Dolmabahce Palace, the 19th century abode of the sultans;

very European; we'll skip it

Statue of Barbarossa, famous pirate/admiral

The Bosphorus Bridge, one of two spanning the straits;

they're working on a tunnel now; oh, did I mention the

Bosphorus is the strait linking the Sea of Marmara (and

the Mediterranean) with the Black Sea?

Looking into the financial part of the new district

On the European side, Rumeli Fortress, built by Sultan

Mehmet II (the Conqueror) just before the final siege of

Constantinople; it was the last nail in the coffin, so to speak

On the Asian side, Anatolian Fortress, built by Mehmet's

grand-dad, 50 years earlier

The Black Sea; again

Enlarge: the column rising in the middle marks the shoals

that figure in Jason and the Argonauts...

Finally, rising above Anadolu Kavagi, the ruins of the

Byzantine Yoros Castle