Madrid to Istanbul with a nap in Dubai

We reluctantly left Madrid yesterday flying down the Mediterranean Sea at times skimming the North African coast, to arrive in Dubai very early in the morning.

Emerites have a very clever way of taking care of their travellers with connections in Dubai. You can check baggage all the way through to your final destination, arrive in Dubai, be met by a hotel representative, whisked through security and straight to your room. No passport control, no customs and no waiting for luggage. Your room is available for 24 hours from check in and this is the view from our bedroom window the next morning,

Looking right down on the first class lounge. Empress Zoe, our hotel in Istanbul is right near the old city wall and most of the sights in the old city are nearby. Our room is in the ochre coloured  building in the middle, we have the top two windows and have just missed out on seeing the wisteria flowering all over the outside of the hotel.

There is a wonderful leafy courtyard which I hope will be warm enough to have breakfast in tomorrow morning.

When we left Madrid yesterday it was 33C, when we arrived in Dubai at 1am this morning it was 31C and when we left at 11.20 this morning it was 40C. So we are enjoying the milder climate in Turkey where it is expected to be 22C with showers. Not far from here are the old city walls and a crop of new houses built in traditional Ottoman style.

We had a stroll through the surrounding streets before dinner and have seen some wonderful examples of calligraphy on some of the older buildings.

And just before entering for the night we nipped up to the rooftop terrace to see what the view was like and this is part of what we found.