We slept very well last night after our big day yesterday exploring Istanbul. We had a pretty slow start to the day, eventually surfacing late morning.

Cheesecake for breakfast.
Cheesecake for breakfast.

We had a walk around the ship for a little while, before going up to the Pool Grill for an early lunch. We had a nice, relaxed lunch with a nice view of Istanbul from our table.

Lunch.
Lunch.
Lunch.
Lunch.
Looking out at the Ortaköy Mosque while having lunch on the ship.
Looking out at the Ortaköy Mosque while having lunch on the ship.

The ship pulled out of port just after 2:00 pm. We went upstairs to the top deck to get a final view of the city as we sailed out.

Looking back to the Blue Mosque.
Looking back to the Blue Mosque.
Keith and Andrea, sailing out of Istanbul.
Keith and Andrea, sailing out of Istanbul.

We headed back downstairs to relax for the afternoon, stopping at the ice-cream bar on the way!

Keith and Andrea, enjoying an ice-cream.
Keith and Andrea, enjoying an ice-cream.

Come early evening, we didn’t really feel hungry, so we didn’t end up going to dinner until after 9:00 pm. We enjoyed a very nice dinner. We both ordered the roast turkey, which was very nice.

Dinner.
Dinner.
Dinner.
Dinner.
Dinner.
Dinner.
Dinner.
Dinner.
Dinner.
Dinner.

After dinner, we caught the tail end of the evening show in the theatre. We haven’t made it to a lot of shows in this cruise but, from what we saw of this last show, this was probably one of the shows we should have gone to.

We ended up socialising a bit after the show, so it was again quite late by the time we got back to our suite. We went out onto the veranda to look at a beautiful full moon as we sailed through the Sea of Marmara toward the Dardanelles Strait.

Full moon, viewed from our veranda, as we sailed through the Sea of Marmara.
Full moon, viewed from our veranda, as we sailed through the Sea of Marmara.

Overnight, the ship will continue the 340 nautical mile journey to Kusadasi, where we expect to arrive at 11:30 am tomorrow.