Made it to Turkey!

Wednesday, November 6, 2024

 

Hello!

 

Well, we made it to Istanbul!  Because of the 3-hour time change between London and Istanbul, we left at 10:40 am and arrived around 5 pm!  Just feels like a very shortened day, but as we were so exhausted from our trip over, I thought I’d summarize both days, as last night’s post was so short.

 

First, we had a l-o-n-g wait in Phoenix.  We would have left Tucson later (as we had been notified that the plane was so late) except for the fact that we had a rental car that had to be returned by a certain time … and as it was, I didn’t really want to pay for an additional day.  So, we sat at the airport.  Fortunately, we were able to find a fairly quiet spot, with a television set turned to the Chiefs football game, and were able to watch the entire thing, which was great!  8-0!  

 

By the time the game was over, the delayed aircraft had arrived, and eventually – several hours later, we were able to board.  As I may have mentioned yesterday, the plane itself was lovely, with an excellent crew.  The seats were actually wide enough for a normal human bottom, and there were lots of bathrooms that were actually cleaned in-flight!  I can only say that United and American Airlines could learn something from our British counterparts!  Food wasn’t great, but then we don’t travel for the airline food, and neither of us ever eat anything at all prior to landing.

 

Off the plane and on to buses, which, as it turns out, got us to U.K. customs and immigration in record time, without having to trudge all through the airport, which is what normally happens!  That was great!  With the automatic scanning system (just take off your glasses!!) we were through in minutes.  The Brits have a new system, wherein the U.S., Canada and various other countries go right through where the Brits themselves go through, and it was terrific!  So!  Then to baggage to get suitcase number 2 – which we knew (thank you, Apple Air Tags!) was coming, the question was just … when!  Probably took 20 minutes, but it eventually popped out, and out we headed to find Alamo Rental car.

 

As we were SO late, I wondered if Alamo might have cancelled our reservation, but the man at the desk assured me that would not be the case and directed us as to where to find the Alamo shuttle.  We were picked up a few minutes later, and driven to the Alamo office, where we picked up our car.  Lovely new red Renault, and a few minutes later, we were on the road to Stansted.  Arriving over 3 hours late, and with the time now getting on for 6, and it being November, it was truly NIGHT time and London rush hour traffic.  I honestly thought we would NEVER get there, as Stanstead is a good 66 miles from Heathrow, and those 66 miles took almost 2 hours – oh, and did I mention road construction on the M25?  Whew!

 

At last, we got to the Hilton Hampton Inn Stansted Airport, parked the car and headed into the warmth.  Of course, the first room they gave us actually didn’t have working heat!  And – again, I know we’re rather picky – we wanted some – like right away!  So, we were switched to the room next door – which somehow, magically, HAD heat!  At that point, we were so tired and hungry, we dropped everything and headed downstairs to the hotel’s restaurant for a belated dinner.

 

There, we both had glasses of white wine – a Chilean Sauvignon Blanc for R and a South African Chenin Blanc for me!  Both excellent!  We also had duplicate menus – side salads to start, with French dressing (note:  which isn’t what we American’s think of as French dressing – the orange stuff - but rather the French dressing the way the French make it, as a mustardy-vinaigrette, which was delicious!)  That was followed by absolutely fabulous fish and chips!  Incredible!  So stuffed, that we were just able to waddle back upstairs and to bed for the night.

 

Up this morning about 5, although we both had restless nights.  Showered and down for breakfast about 6 – very good start to the day.  Out of the hotel about 6:30 and then to gas up the car and return it to Alamo.  From there, we took the shuttle to the airport (must have been 5 minutes, but not a walk to make with luggage) and right up to the Pegasus desk.  Checked both cases in this time, and we were on our way to the gates.  Inspection didn’t take long at all – they were very efficient!  And soon we were walking through the Stansted “maze” – so named by us, as 1) it was a”mazing” – the gauntlet you needed to walk through to get to the Stansted waiting room was incredible!  Probably at least 15 minutes worth of shops, services and restaurants just to get to seating area (where you stay until your gate is announced), and 2) it reminded us of an Ikea store – you can’t deviate – you MUST walk this way!  Oh!  Also, they have signage posted everywhere that while airlines say you must control the amount of luggage you carry-on, EVERYONE was entitled to one extra Stansted shopping bag per person!  Wonder how they managed that??

 

We had to wait about an hour and a half before our gate was posted -- #1, and then we had to grab the train to the gate, but it wasn’t really a problem.  And once there, we only had to wait about 10 minutes or less until we were able get our boarding passes scanned and walk down the steps, across the tarmac and up into the plane!  R and I had seats 1C and 1D – first row, aisles, which was nice.  Lots of leg room.  The plane wasn’t full, although there was a large gaggle of Tottenham Hot Spur fans on board, coming to see the Spurs play Galatasaray tomorrow night; should be an interesting game!  

 

Plane left on time and it was a very pleasant flight; a little over 3½ hours, and we were landing in Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen, the smaller Istanbul airport on the Asian side.  Down the steps and into buses to get to immigration, but once there, it was just a few minutes to reach processing.  Again, just like London, everything is really quick and easy these days – and U.S. citizens no longer need Turkish visas, which was a refreshing change!  And, our baggage was some of the first off, and we were out the door!

 

We took a cab from the airport into town – Sultanamet, the oldest part of a very old city, and the Doubletree Hotel Old Town.  Again, arriving during rush hour didn’t help, but we made it – going through the new tunnel under the Bosphorus in about an hour and a half.  Total cost was about $60.  We had a very nice driver, who was very interested in our reaction to the election results, and wanted to share his political opinions about Turkey with us.  As I say, a very interesting drive!  Someone once told me to tell people we were Canadian, as “everyone likes Canadians” and I’m seriously thinking about it for this trip.  Everyone wants to talk about our election, and from what I’m over hearing, people in both the U.K. and Turkey are very much concerned themselves.  As I have a strict policy of never discussing religion or politics, I’m thinking of finding a maple leaf somewhere to see if that helps!

 

Our lovely room at the DoubleTree

Always start with a glass of wine!

R's Cesar salad!

Excellent veggie samosas!

Loved my chicken soup with veggies!

My Old Town Kebab

R's penne!

At any rate, we eventually reached our lovely DoubleTree, and were shown into our upgraded Deluxe King room.  Lovely fruit plate was waiting for us, and it is very comfortable; plenty of space and a large bathroom.  We headed upstairs for dinner on the 5^th floor, and had a quick dinner.  Glasses of local Turkish dry red wine.  We shared an order of vegetable samosas, and then R had a lovely Cesar salad for his starter, followed by penne arribada.  I had their fabulous chicken soup with vegetables for starters and then their Old Town kebap – mixture of marinated beef and ground meat, with veggies.  By this time, I was caving in at the knees, but we got through it, and now I’m trying to find the keys and finish this up to post and get to bed…so … more tomorrow!

m

xxx