Arrive in Istanbul

We had an early start, arriving at the Zurich airport about 9am, which gave us more then enough time for our 10:45 flight on Turkish Airline to Istanbul. Since Zurich airport was not very big, they suggested arriving 1.5 hrs before the flight time. After checking in (there were no lines) we found our way to the tram which took us to our terminal E. There was cow mooing sound on the tram, showing a little humor of the Swiss people, and images of the Matterhorn flashed outside the windows.

We got a few parting Swiss chocolates to enjoy on the flight, and started while we were waiting.

The flight started boarding rather late, but it was not a full flight. Kevin was happy to get the exit row seat extra leg room. Our flight arrived in Istanbul about 2:40pm and was on time. We proceeded to the visa windows and paid 20USD for the visa sticker, which was good for 90 days. It's good for multiple entries, which is good, since Kevin will be entering Turkey twice, and I would 3 times in the next few weeks. Then we went to the passport control, which had a huge line and not that many booths. It took us 50 minutes in non-airconditioned llines to get to the front, when they opened a few more windows. (Other people had breezed through this in 5 minutes, they later told us!) Our luggages were waiting for us (luckily) and we met people sent by the tour company who took us to our hotel.

The airport was to the west of the city, and we went along the Sea of Marmara coast.

Many ships were anchored in the sea, and the fact that Istanbul was a port city of importance was immediately obvious. We got glimpses of minarets and mosques along the way, and the skyline of Istanbul greeted us. It was exciting to be seeing the red roofs, minarets and domes of mosques, different from any city I had ever seen in person. We went past the old city, where I was sure I saw the dome and 6 minarets of the Blue Mosque. We went over the Golden Horn, a piece of water inlet about 13km long, and over the Ataturk bridge. We arrived at our hotel in about 40 minutes, with some moderate traffic along the way.

We had a room with view of the Bosphorus Strait and distant view of the area across the Golden Horn where the Blue Mosque, Haghia Sophia and Topkapi Palace were located. I would soon be able to name many mosques from the distance due to their distinct outlines and locations.

In the evening, we met the rest of our group and found out it was a rather large group of more than 60 people. We had a get acquainted cocktail reception followed by dinner. We met our tour directors, and of course my parents, who had arrived earlier today. Our reception was on a top floor of the hotel, great view since it was much higher than our room.

we had a few power outages since arriving at the hotel, and a few more at dinner! It was supposed to be a common occurrence in this part of the city.