Cruising the Bosphorous

The last thing we had to do while in Istanbul was go for a cruise on the Bosphorous.  Fortunately the public ferry company runs a very affordable ($6 each) two-hour cruise up the Bospohorus and back again each afternoon at 2:30, departing from the quays close to our hotel.  Just what we needed.

Best seats secured, awaiting departure.  Galata Bridge, and Galata Tower beyond.

The Galata Bridge in the photo above is a "bascule" bridge, like Tower Bridge in London.  The centre section between those two grey chunky towers can be opened (raised) and closed, although as far as I can tell they do not use this feature very often.  This bridge is unusual in that in addition to pedestrians and cars it also carries the electric trams which use overhead wires.  Quite tricky when it comes to opening and closing it!

You can also see how little headroom there is for the ferry passing under that bridge.  The tidal range in Istanbul is only about 0.4 metres.

Cruise liners come and go every day.

The Dolmbahce Palace which we visited two weeks ago.

The are many beautiful houses along the shores, on both the european and asian sides, which sell for millions of euros.  The city continues for miles, so there is a lot of shoreline available for waterfront properties.

A fine mansion on the shore.

A home handyman's dream.

The last european pylon (it is huge!).  The wires stretch across to a similar one on the asian side.

Headscarves.

Many Turkish women cover themselves to their feet and wear headscarves, but in the cities we visited (which are probably among the more liberal ones) there are also many women dressed exactly as they might in France, New Zealand or Australia.  I think this covering of all except the face and hands is referred to as "hijab".  A relatively small number wear a face covering with just a slit through which the pupils of their eyes are visible ("niqab"), which is fairly unnerving to look at.  Apparently niqab is more widespread in Saudi Arabia, so perhaps these were Saudi tourists?

We found the niqab very hard to understand.  It seems to say that the world is a terrible place which the woman must be protected from at all times.  A mother would come to breakfast in our hotel with her children and husband, completely concealed apart from her eyeballs.  The rest of the family were normally dressed, in tee-shirts and jeans or whatever.  She had to eat by lifting up her veil for each mouthful.  We found it hard not to chuckle at the sight of some of these women taking "selfies" of the themselves at tourist locations.

When we were leaving Istanbul we watched with interest as a young woman with full face covering approached airport security.  Fortunately she was required to raise it show her face for the checkpoint camera, and again when the people at the metal detector machines wanted to question her.  There are limits to where you can go with your face hidden.

Niqab.