Kicking the topic off...

We are approaching Nessebaur - expected arrival around 9 AM. We were a bit delayed in leaving last night - midnight sailing - due to a Lufthansa strike which delayed arrivals and baggage for some.

We arrived last Saturday and had a terrific pre-tour (Regent) in Istanbul and Cappadocia - we had a small group - only 6 people - plus a terrific guide. Our first day tour in Istanbul was on Sunday and since there was barely any traffic we were treated to a driving overview of the city neighborhoods, including a drive over the bridge to the Asian continent, before touring Topkapi Palace, the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia. We met up with Fred, Pat, Mary Ellen & Jim that night for a dinner on a balcony of a restaurant just off Istiklal Street and the Çiçek Pasajı.

Monday morning we left early for Cappadocia for 2 days - we had gorgeous weather there in the 80's, much better than the usual 100 plus degree temperature typical in June. We crawled through underground cities, walked through valleys among the fairy chimneys, visited rock churches, met a woman still living in one of the carved cave homes that our guide has been helping over the years, visited Goreme and its amazing rock churches, had champagne at sunset overlooking the Rose Valley, ate way too mcuh fabulous Turkish food and much more. Brad & I took an optional sunrise balloon flight which was out of this world!

Our first hotel wasn't satisfactory so our guide arranged for us to change hotels to the Museum Hotel, a boutique hotel partially carved out of rock which was stylish and very well done - we just missed Andi and Doug who left the day we arrived. Haven't looked at any of Brad's photos yet but may try to upload some assuming Ken lets us use his laptop since we didn't bring ours.

Yesterday we flew back to Istanbul and spent time at the Grand Bazaar and Spice Market and had yet another yummy lunch. We boarded around 4 PM yesterday, just in time to unpack, snag a washing machine, have the lifeboat drill, block party, LCT get together for cocktails & dinner.
Ngaire and Ken are ensconced in their fabulous master suite - wow! Would love to have all that space!