Day 5: Walking from Taksim to the Dolmabahce Palace

After 3 nights at the Armagrandi Spina Hotel in SultanAhmet, pakdokter checked out and moved on to the next hotel - Hotel Cartoon - located smacked in the centre of Taksim, the financial, shopping and entertainment district of the modern part of Istanbul. The Cartoon Hotel is a modern 4-star hotel, selected because of its location. Many of the sights pakdokter intended to visit from here were within walking distance. Unfortunately, the area was rather noisy due to the heavy traffic on the streets.

Directly in front of the hotel is the Taksim Square - a major landmark of modern Istanbul. The bus terminus is to one side of the square and the metro and tram stations were also located near the square.

After asking the hotel concierge about how best to go to the Dolmabahce Palace - we were advised to just walk down the street which we were told to not be more than 15 minutes.

the Taksim Square

the monument in the centre of the square

of Ataturk leading his garrison @ Gallipolli?

the business district of Istanbul has more churches than mosques

quite understandably so as these districts were the main

Greek and Jewish districts of the olden days

the street downhill from Taksim was steep

heading towards the coast

the Bhosphorus could be sneaked at in between buildings

the Army Hospital

the Institute of Textile Technology

as we approached the coast we passed by the Besiktas Stadium

Besiktas is one of Istanbul's top football team playing in the European League

the other 2 big teams here are the Galatasaray and the Fenerbahce