The main street of Beyoglu, Istiklal Caddesi, is a bit like Oxford Street in London - a place of up-market stores. All the same we decided to head there, partly because of the interesting journey and other interesting things to see. It's also across the Golden Horn, but still on the European side of the Bosphorus. To get there we caught one of Istanbul's very modern and ultra cheap trams like the one shown here. The line passes across the Golden Horn via the Galata Bridge shown in the second slide (more about this in a later post.
Then we took the funicular train up to Taksim Square - Max is shown here waiting for the ultra modern train behind the closed platform doors like one sees in Singapore.
At the top, in Taksim Square is the monument to Kemal Attaturk, founder of the modern nation.
From there, Istiklal Caddesi runs down to the Galata Tower (see next post). There's also a quaint old tram ferrying shoppers and tourists alike the length of the street.
There are also many quaint old side streets ...
... some impressive gates (I wonder who lives behind this one!) ...
... shops selling nice things like Turkish Delight (we bought some) ...
... some religious buildings like this Catholic Church ...
... and the odd sleeping cat - Istanbul has heaps of stray cats.
AS
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