CRUISE ON THE BOSPHORUS

I did 3 times the cruise through the Bosphorus which is a strait that forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia.

illustrated here.

I found it so interesting to take a tram and go from Europe to Asia in not even 20 min. The cruises on the Bosphorus are so nice that my friend and I after having done one cruise of nearly two hours with our travel agency, we decided to do two others of our own.

So we went by tram to the Asian part of Istanbul and took a sightseeing boat.

We met interesting people of all nationalities. I was sitting besides a couple he Belgian she Japonese. My friend Dominique had two Indians from Dehli as neighbors.

Then we went back to the European side and took another boat

This was very luxurious and had a huge airconditionned cabine with bar on the first floor. I sat there because it was quiet windy on the top of the boat.

These are the kind of boats. There was even one named after my cat Arthur ! On some boats you have explanations in English. The price for 1.45 h was only 5 € (7 $) on the European side and 12 € (17 $) on the Asian side. When I think that we payed 3 times more for the from our travel agency organized tour !

There are two suspension bridges on the Bosphorus connecting Europe to Asia (or vice versa). The first one is known as "Bosphorus Bridge" and was opened on 29th October 1973. It's 1074 meters (1175 yards) long between two pillars, has 6 lanes, 165 meters (540 feet) height of piers.

The second one is known as "Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge" (or FSM Bridge shortly) and was opened in 3rd July 1988 This one is 1090 meters (1192 yards) long, has 8 lanes, and is 65 meters high from the water surface. Both bridges are tolled which is paid during passage to Asian direction only. The first one accepts only vehicles with electronic pass system (called OGS) and the second one both OGS and cash. No bicycles nor pedestrian traffic is allowed on them.

Bosphorus is one of the most popular parts of Istanbul amongst its inhabitants, especially during summer for its climate. Its shores are lined with fine neighborhoods, Ottoman palaces, fortresses, old wooden villas, hotels, parks and gardens, restaurants, cafeterias, and so on.

I can't give a lot of explanations, I just show you what I saw.

The bridges and going underneath

Beautiful architectural master pieces all along the riverside

the old Roman city wall

wooden houses

huge ships

a light house

and the sight seeing boats.

It was a wonderful experience and I can only recommend it to everybody who wants to go to Istanbul.

More participantshere