Travels with Kathryn

I shall start with the day’s health report. Both of my travel ccompanions claim to be feeling better (although they both sound pretty dreadful), and my throat hurts. We have drugs and are taking them whilst hoping for a speedy recovery!

Now, on to more interesting things, today we (cheated) and took a taxi to the Dolmabahce Palace, which is the largest place in Turkey. Luckily we chose the taxi option as today the Istanbul marathon is taking place, and many of the roads are closed and public transport is being diverted so we would have found it somewhat challenging to make the 30 minute jouney over the Golden Horn to Bestiktas.

This palace replaced the Topkapi Palace as the main administrative centre (and home of the Sultan) from 1856 until 1922 (when the Ottoman Empire collapsed). Sultan Abdulmecid I decided he needed a more contemporary palace than Topkapi and wanted something more like a European palace with more luxury and comfort (oh the hard life of a sultan). The palace was constructed between 1843 and 1856 by Armenian architects at a cost (in today’s money) of $1.9 billion. This was funded through the debasement of the currency and contributed hugely to the already deteriorating financial situation of the Ottoman Empire. After the Empire fell in 1922, and the borders of the much reduced modern day Turkey were settled, it was used by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (the first, and much loved, president of Turkey) as his presidential palace until his death in 1938. After which it became a museum.

We had booked a skip-the-line tour, so we did manage to walk straight in and had a short introduction to the main palace and hareem. No photos are allowed inside any of these two buildings, but they appear very European in style although all rooms could have done with more furniture if you ask me – lots of chairs, but not enough side tables, cabinets etc and some of the art appears to be used as filler rather than any great works or even (imho) semi ok pictures! The only rooms which give a hint that this is not your standard European palace are the bathrooms, as these are obviously hamans and the sultan’s in particular is perhaps the faniciest gilt and marble haman I have ever seen! See:

Ataturk lived in the palace, and the room in which he died (as well as the room next door, which served as a medical wing) has been preserved. It is a beautiful room with a lovely view across the Bosphorus, so there are far worse places to be…

The most impressive room in the palace is the Grand Ceremonial Hall, which contains the world’s largest bohemian crystal chandelier, which has 750 lamps and weighs 4.5 tonnes I managed to find photos of it below (thank you, Hurriyet Daily News). This room was used for cultural events and meetings and was obviously designed to be intimidatingly impressive to any visiting dignitary:

I had tentatively planned to take the ferry back to Eminonu, but that did not seem an option on a Sunday afternoon, so we squeezed onto a metro and made our way back to our hotel. Tomorrow is Mum and Keith’s last day in Istanbul, and as the health of the group has improved somewhat, I am hoping to manage to visit both the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia, the Grand Baazar and to get a hamman in for us. Fingers crossed!