Author archive
31 October 2022
Onwards to Penang We landed in Singapore on-time around 0430 with a long taxi to the gate, getting us there at the scheduled time. My connecting flight to Penang was about 3h later from Terminal 2. Getting there by train, the gate had just been changed to Terminal 3. Fortunately, the inter-terminal trains here are […]
30 October 2022
Leaving Istanbul Ming didn’t make it on to the 0145 flight to Singapore. If she had returned to the hotel to sleep, she would probably have arrived back around 0230 and been able to get only 4h sleep before having to wake and go back to the airport. I reckon she made the right choice […]
29 October 2022
Aqueduct of Valens I took Ming to Topkapi Palace around 0900 and left her to it. I had only visited last year, my third visit in thirty years. There was a sight that I hadn’t seen since my first visit thirty years ago though and it was the Aqueduct of Valens. I wandered there from […]
28 October 2022
Basilica Cistern Yerebatan Sarnici or Basilica Cistern is a short walk from our hotel.We had seen the queues before and noted that there is an online queue which is often without anyone.So we booked last night and made our way there after 0900. We breezed straight through and down the steps into the cistern straight […]
27 October 2022
I love taking the public ferries to Istanbul’s islands. Like Hong Kong’s Star Ferry, it’s a cheap way of getting a seaborne view of the city. The schedules seem to have changed and I couldn’t find a suitable departure from Eminonu to Princes’ Islands. So, I decided that we would leave around 0900 to Kadikoy […]
26 October 2022
Ayasofya Today I start showing Ming around in earnest, starting with the Ayasofya. We headed out straight after breakfast around 0900 and found a long queue for the Ayasofya. As it is now a mosque rather than a museum, entry is free but suspended during prayer hours. A security man suggested that the queue would […]
25 October 2022
Flying to Istanbul I woke at 0530 and walked to Trg Slavija at 0610 for the 0630 bus to the airport. I had hoped to catch the bus at a nearer stop to my hotel, which was supposedly the retired railway station, but wasn’t able to locate the stop. Finally, today, I found the bus […]
24 October 2022
Solo exploration It was a little cool as I ventured out for some sightseeing. The forecast was for extreme weather of up to 27 degC, which is unseasonally hot for late October. I called past Trg Slavija to find the airport bus, this time successfully, before continuing to the St Sava church. Ground-breaking for the […]
23 October 2022
Above: St Sava in Belgrade. Bus ride to Belgrade I walked to the station for my 0900 departure from Prizren to Belgrade. At the station I was directed to a small office just outside the station boundaries. I checked that my online booking was OK and the lady asked me to go buy her a […]
22 October 2022
Lazy day Having done today’s share of sightseeing yesterday, I had no pressure to get going this morning. When Ieft the room around 1000, the weather was cold, dull but dry. It made me glad that I did so much yesterday. My cereal breakfast in the room didn’t quite satisfy me so I had a […]