But there’s no time for siesta in the Grand Bazaar where over 4,000 shops jostle cheek by jowl in a grid of 60 streets or so. Rebuilt and extended several times since the 15th century, this is one of the world’s largest covered markets, a dizzying kaleidoscope of colours, sounds and smells shared by over 200,000 visitors a day. It defies imagination but within a few moments, you are caught under the spell, wandering from lane to lane, marvelling at hand-painted ceramics, silver and gold, carpets, textiles, leather and multi-coloured lanterns brushing your hair as you go past. The air smells of spice and apple tea, water pipes bubble and locals and visitors bargain for amber beads, gilded icons, copperware, embroidered slippers, leather, antiques, carpets or mother of pearl. This is a city within a city with its own marble fountains, cafés, hammam and mosques. The Bazaar is open every day except Sunday and Bank Holidays, from 9 am to 7.00pm.
Shopping over, it’s good to stroll through the streets where more wonders, large and small, await on every corner. Here’s Süleymaniye, another magnificent mosque, ‘as light as a feather’, there a statue of Atatürk, founder of the Republic, the shrine of a holy man, the remains of a Roman aqueduct and more museums than you could see in a week. There are tea gardens and secluded squares and parks where roses and tulips bloom along meandering paths. A cool promenade lines the eastern shore of the peninsula, offering glimpses of the Blue Mosque, the Topkapi Palace and on a clear day, the idyllic Princes’ Islands on the horizon.
But the ultimate treat in Istanbul is sailing on the Bosphorus, gazing at myriad historical buildings on both sides of the strait. Cool sea breezes and verdant hills, this beautiful place was a magnet for sultans and pashas and when the channel was fully secured, palaces and pavilions popped up all around.
Favourites include Aynali Kavak, adorned in Venetian mirrors, Beylerbeyi on the Asian side where sultans hosted their guests and perhaps the most glorious of all, Dolmabahçe, an intriguing blend of Ottoman and Western decor and principal residence of the sultans from 1856 onwards. But beyond the glamour, the Bosphorus is full of simple delights, gardens festooned in magnolia and oleander, humble mosques, waterside villas in pastel colours, now a Venetian scene, now an Arabian dream or a 21st century call as an ocean liner approaches the suspension bridge stretching for 1.5 km across the strait.
