Photo of the Week - Gloucester Cathedral

Hello, I am back from a week in the Cotswolds, and this is from Gloucester Cathedral. It is quite an amazing cathedral and it contains the tomb of Edward II and Robert Duke of Normandy. I did not know what to expect and it was quite truly amazing.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher`s Stone and The Chamber of Secrets were filmed here under very tight security. I will have to watch them again to see if I recognize any parts of the Cathedral.

More Turkish Goodies!

One of the places to visit is the Grand Baazar, which was extremely near to our hotel. I was a bit nervous about going there for some reason. I guess I was thinking that the stall holders would really try to pressure us into buying their goods. Luckily we just wondered about the place which is huge, full of lots of things to buy and politely said no thanks to there offers. Not all the photos are from the Grand Bazaar, more or less everywhere you go there are shops with lots of yummy desserts. I tend to find the  Turkish desserts just too sweet for me, but I did taste some.

The second time we went into the Grand Bazaar we got totally lost and it took us ages to find the place from where we entered. This was to help us get back to our hotel, but in the end we got there. Istanbul was in the Bond movie Skyfall, there were scenes in the Grand Bazaar. I have not seen this film for ages so may check it out again to see what other parts of Istanbul are in it.

So the school holidays have started and next week Alessio and I are in England for one week. We are looking forward seeing Oxford, Bath and Bristol to name a few!

Afternoon tea in Istanbul!

My afternoon tea odyssey continues and this time we graced the luxury 5 star hotel Pera Palace Jumeirah in the Beyoglu district. The afternoon tea takes place in the Kubbeli Saloon Tea Lounge which is very plush and glamorous. As you can see from the last photo the delights on offer were amazing and delicious to look at, let alone taste! The staff were very nice and helpful, refilling your tea or bringing a new pot.

The hotel is steeped in history, it opened back in 1895 and has had some very prominent guest such as Ernest Hemingway, Alfred Hitchcock, Josephine Baker, Mata Hari, Greta Garbo and Agatha Christie to name but a few. It is said that Agatha Christie wrote the novel Murder on the Orient Express in room 411.

In 1981 the hotel got the status museum-hotel, the room 101 was converted into Atatürk museum in a tribute to the leader of modern Turkey Atatürk. To be honest it would have been great to stay there but I am sure the price would have quite expensive.