Taking the Turkish Maritime Lines Ferry is an inexpensive way to cruise the Bosphorus.  As well as the busy river traffic there are many mosques to see, castles, these wonderful 19th century villas known as Yalis and for good measure the Dolmabahçe.  We had lunch in Andolu Kavaga, caught the bus to Uskudar, formerly Scutari of Florence Nightingale fame and another ferry back across to Besiktas

The Gate of the Sultan with the ubiquitous unflinching military guard standing to attention

The Great Turk's wealth was all but gone, his army was in disarray, his people considering revolution.   He watched  Europe's star ascending and decided to Westernize his empire, modernizing the military and civil service.  To that end he built a French style palace with a traditional Ottoman interior layout on the banks of the Bosphorus.  Using printed and borrowed money, loans which were later defaulted on.  Talk about fiddling while Rome burned  

Construction took thirteen years with the  Ottomans abandoning the Topkapi in 1856 to presided over the fall of their vast empire from Dolmabahçe

The construction costs were five million Ottoman gold Lira, or 35 tonnes of gold, in excess of $1 billion in 2001.  It has 285 rooms, 46 reception  halls and galleries, 68 bathrooms and 6 Turkish Hamams.  The w.c.'s and gas lighting were imported from Britain, as the rest of Europe was still without these modern amenities

Magnificent is the only way to describe the main double horseshoe staircase.  The balustrades are of French Baccarat crystal.  The banisters of mahogany and brass, the flooring is parquet using 3 different woods.  The carpets throughout were made especially for the palace in Hereke not far from Istanbul  

In it's day the worlds largest bohemian glass chandelier, having 750 lamps and weighing 4.5 tons,  hangs in the 2000 sq m Ceremonial Hall, so large it took three days to  heat for a function.  It was made in England and thought for decades to have been a gift from Queen Victoria.  A receipt was found in 2006 showing the Sultan paid for it himself

The President lived in the new capital, Ankara but kept a suite of rooms in the Harem for visits to the city.  Mustafa Kemal  'Ataturk' died of cirrhosis of the liver in this bedroom on November 10th 1938 at 9.05am.  Palace clocks were stopped at that time for decades but now only the one in his bedroom is frozen in time

It was obvious this group of 'ancient mariners' would be playing a major role.  They half told half mimed the information that they were going to haul the boat from the riverside across a major road and up to the football stadium. What no amount of mime could get across was the reason why.  We had a lovely time trying to fathom it out though

After much waiting around a cavalcade of cars carrying armed security men swooped in and out hopped someone who could only have been a politician.  He was warmly received by the locals but his speech dragged on so long we finally had to give up on seeing our 'sailor' friends haul their boat