Istanbul

We stopped off in Istanbul on the way home.  If you've been there, you'll know what I mean when I say Istanbul is one amazing city.  Very populous.  I dread to think what it's like now - this was how it looked one day in early November in 1993:

Busy Istanbul street, 1993

We had a couple of days exploring Istanbul - not enough to do it justice, but enough to see the main attractions such as the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sofia and the Topkapi Palace, home to the Ottoman sultans for about 400 years.   I've no photographs of the Palace itself (none allowed I suspect) but I do remember an awful lot of gold artefacts inside - not surprising since they do love their gold in this part of the world.