Galata tower and further into Istanbul

After the meeting finished we set off to walk to the Old Town. We meandered our way through the main shopping street, and found ourselves at the Galata Tower, just in time to go up it before it got dark. The one downside to Europe at this time of year is that it gets dark so early!
To the left is the Tower. This was originally built in 1348, although the plaque says 1453. It is the high point of the Genoese fortifications of Galata and provides great views over the city.
The photo on the right shows the view down over the Golden Horn, over the Galata Bridge. You can see that the bridge is deserted - there were police blocks on either end as this was the Pope's route through to Taksim Square. To the right on the opposite bank is Sulimaniye Mosque, just over the bridge on the left is Yeni Mosque and the spice bazaar.

The second photo here shows the Sulimaniye Mosque just as night is falling. This is the mosque of Suliman the Magnificent, the greatest, richest and most powerful of the Ottoman sultans.

We walked down from the tower to Galata bridge, down a narrow cobbled street lined with shops selling musical instruments of all descriptions. Crossing the bridge was easy thanks to the police blockades, and we were able to walk along the middle of the road. Usually it's congested with cars and buses. Just as we got to the Yeni camii or mosque, pictured right, the pope's entourage went through. The Yeni mosque is classed as a new mosque, as it's only about 400 years old!
We wandered on to the Spice market again, where we were hailed with now familiar greetings such as "how may I hassle you today?"... "How can I help you spend your money".. and of course "hey lady, where are you from?". The 'Turkish Viagra" sellers seem to ave upped their ante today - we saw one shop advertising that this conconction would enable "5 times a night", only to be outpipped by the one across the way who proudly and loudly proclaim that theirs would enable my husband to perform "7 times a night"!! When I said that I didn't have a husband, the shopkeeper volunteered to prove it would work! hah! I wanted to ask if it had a money back guarantee! Anyway, by the time we made it to the grand bazaar things were closing up for the night, so we found a cafe that had segafredo coffee instead of the usual nescafe, had dinner in a restaurant under the Galata bridge and then went back to Taksim for the night.