Jerusalem
We arrived at the airport at noon and went to the city center (by bus and tram). At once we were "assaulted" by somebody who wanted to show us his hotel. We waved him off and checked in at the Özlem pension. We had a nice room with view over the Hagia Sophia and the Sultan Ahmed Mosque.
That day we didn't do much. There was not enough time to visit Topkapi palace and the Hagia Sophia museum was closed, so we walked to the bazaar. Of course we didn't buy anything (it's a tourist's place, so the prices are much too high), but it was nice to look at all the kitsch. In the evening we went to "Enjoyer's cafe" where we had some tea, a water pipe and a chat with several people.
This day Hagia Sophia was open, so we went in. Inside there were construction works going on, so the impression was disturbed by a huge scaffolding in the middle. Then we went to the Sultan-Ahmed-mosque and further to the Süleimaniye. Both are worth to pay a visit! Backwards we went through the spice bazaar which is more interesting than the Grand bazaar since they sell not only stuff for tourists. In the evening it was raining heavily - for the first time within three weeks.
We went to Topkapi palace and spent almost the whole day there. There is quite a lot to see - a huge pottery collection, weapons, lots of gold and silver treasuries and so on. And the palace itself is very nice.
Afterwards we spent the rest of our money for souvenirs. Ralph had wanted to buy a tea glass for a set he had bought some years before in Turkey. In the city he couldn't find it so we went to the bazaar. In a shop we found a similar one. A man with a familiar face said it would be TL 600.000. Then I recognized him - we had met him in the "Enjoyer's cafe" two days before. I said hello and immediately the price for the glass dropped down to TL 250.000 :-). We had then some tea in his carpet shop where despite all the efforts of his brother we didn't buy anything.
In the evening we sat in the park between Hagia Sophia and Sultan-Ahmet-mosque, and suddenly a sound-and-light-show started. It was in German language, but the text was rather silly so the sound was not that great. But the lights played fine with the impressive mosque.
The hotel manager had reserved a shared taxi which brought us to the airport. We took off and arrived in clouded, rainy and cold Germany.
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