Good morning Istanbul.
Today was another free day for me and Nita, the gang were going about to the Grand Bazaar and then heading over the Gelata Tower and Istiklal Cadesi.
Me and Nita had decided to do our own and get to Gelata Tower early to have breakfast there and walk about the area.

First off , the mandatory coffee from our cruise cafe and then out and about. Weather was much better, clear sky with some overcast times but no chance of rain 🙂

** highly recommend getting to Gelata tower area earlier in the morning if you want to get pics with less crowd. We got there around 9.30am and the streets were still emptish. However by 10:30, the street was crowded.

Coffee and Croissant fix done, now to head to Istiklal Cadesi, it was a 30 min walk, taking us through some back streets, Nita was keen on walking and exploring the streets and nooks.

Lots of walking, and getting to explore some interesting nooks and stores. Met Doc & Tina in Istiklal Cadesi area, and more pics. Around 1pm, we headed back to Gelata Tower Area for a late lunch and the mandatory famous Chocolate drizzled cheesecake. Also got the traditional Turkish tea.
Lunch was a sandwich which was amazing and the cheesecake was to die for!

More more walking to burn off that cheesecake, and then headed back to the Cruise terminal, our ship was departing at 7pm today. Browsing through the local stores in the cruise terminal area, this was like another shopping mall.
We had a lot of time, got something to eat around 5:30pm – a change to the ship food, and then it was onboard.

Around 8pm we were well on our way out of the Istanbul port, this had been a great second visit here. All were back to the Martini bar for our cocktail fix and waving Istanbul good bye into the night.