Istanbul, ready for the start of The Great Game

We are currently in Istanbul Turkey after a ferry trip from Ancona, Italy, to Igoumenitsa, Greece.

The motorway across Greece was fantastic, it is to be a future

Toll Road

, but the toll stations have not been built apart from in one small stretch.  Stayed on the Greek coast at Asprovalta before driving on to Turkey. A few hassles at the border with the authorities having trouble comprehending the small number of digits in our chassis number & making us pay for a Green Card insurance when we already held comprehensive insurance from the UK. Once we entered Turkey the roads deteriorated along with the standard of driving.--- appalling is the only way to describe both. Very erratic driving and very enthusiastic gestures & sounding of horn when they pass us.

 Greek Lunch stop

Kavala, Greece

We intended spending a couple of additional nights on the Greek and Turkish coasts but had trouble finding anything suitable, undeveloped tracts of land or overdeveloped holiday / residential areas without what we would call a hotel.  We finally settled for a large new glitzy hotel on the highway, with the back facing the Sea of Marmaras and nothing much else around it.  Cost was only $50 . Laurette reckons it was a brothel as there were suspicious activities and “painted” girls leaving by taxi early next morning. I can confirm that it was not as there was no such activity in our room !!!

Arrived Istanbul Sunday 21^st, a day early. Our hotel is the Pera Palace Hotel, which was built in 1895 and was owned by the company which ran the Orient Express.  This was used for their guests at the Istanbul stopover.  Oppulent and has just been totally restored.  Agatha Christie wrote Murder on the Orient Express whilst staying here and various other writers / celebrities have stayed over the years. Attaturk also had a room here which is kept as a museum with some of his things.

We’ve done a lot of strenuous walking as Istanbul is very hilly.

Yesterday we went to the Dolmabahce Palace built for Sultan Abdulmecid between 1843 & 1856…285 rooms, 44 halls, 68 toilets & 6 Turkish bathrooms. Stunning chandeliers, mostly English with one weighing 4.5 tons & a magnificent staircase with crystal balusters. Also toured the harem part of the palace, which was just as grand.

Dolmabahce Palace

We then caught a ferry across to the Maiden Tower which has a panoramic view of the city.

Maidens Tower

Simit seller

Galata Bridge

Today we went to the Spice Market with fabulous aromas & all sorts of interesting mixtures of tea.

Spices at bazaar

10 minutes after we arrived, Jim and his land rover pulled up after completing the route recce for the rally in reverse.  Our Morgan is parked in the very small carpark attached to the hotel and I did a service on it the afternoon we arrived.  A bolt or two fallen out, adjusted rear brakes, greased front end and that was about it apart from a check over.  Now ready to start the rally. Hotel staff very interested in coming by & asking questions.

Servicing the Puce Goose

Speaking of the Rally, with the distance, time and altitudes, there have been numerous withdrawals and the group now consists of :

Morgan Plus 8

Porsche RS

40’s Bentley

2006 Landrover

Organisers Landrover

So we will be a small group, more about the people and cars involved in a later post.

All have now arrived over the last few days and we depart Friday 26th.