Day 2 - Dolmabahce Palace

24 Nov 2009, our day started with complimentary breakfast provided by the respective hotels. My 2 older kids slept in with their uncle Izatt, so they had breakfast at Anatolia Suites. My hubby, Firas & I had breakfast at Tashkonak Hotel. A simple meal of omelette, sausages, bread and assorted jams, cheese, Turkish apple tea (I like this one). We then took some photos at the roof top.

At about 9 am, our transport arrived. We were overwhelmed that it was a mini van for 12 pax, very comfy indeed, again provided by my husband's Turkish friend. The driver (who couldn't speak English) brought us around town and then stopped at Dolmabahce Palace for our first tour of the day.

Upon arrival, we were lucky to witness the palace guard shift crew change, which occurs every 30 minutes. A line of guards marched and performed a short handover ceremony to appoint the new person in charge to guard the palace. The new guard on duty then stood as still as a statue, and we took photos with him :)

Then we joined the guided tour inside Dolmabahce Palace. It costed 20 Turkish Lira per pax (equiv to RM 48). It was indeed a wonderful opportunity to enter a grand palace, once the home of the Ottoman Sultanates and finally Mustafa Kamal Ataturk. This palace was also where Ataturk died and we managed to visit the very room and bed where he died with all his medications still intact! We saw the glorious interiors and decors in the palace with its numerous grand halls, beatifully furnished rooms (this palace has 200+ rooms), marble bathrooms, Turkish carpets, curtains, paintings and the magnificient chandeliers made of Bohemian crystals weighing between 1.0-4.5 tonnes! It was awesome!! No photos were allowed to be taken in the palace, so here are some images from the Internet. For more info on the Dolmabahce Palace, do visit this site: http://www.dolmabahcepalace.com/

Some general info: The Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul is located at the European side of the Bosporus, served as the main administrative center of the Ottoman Empire from 1856 to 1922, apart from a twenty-year interval (1889-1909) in which the Yıldız Palace was used. This Palace is one of the most glamorous and fascinating palaces in the world built in 19th century, Ottoman architecture and it was located in an area of 110 thousand squaremeters. The Dolmabahçe Palace was built between the years 1843 and 1856, ordered by the Empire's 31st Sultan, Abdülmecid I, at a cost of five million Ottoman gold pounds, the equivalent of 35 tonnes of gold.

The Dolmabahçe Palace was home to six sultans from 1856, when it was first inhabited, up until the abolition of the Caliphate in 1924: The last royal to live here was Caliph Abdülmecid Efendi. A law that went into effect on March 3, 1924 transferred the ownership of the palace to the national heritage of the new Republic. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder and first President of the Republic of Turkey, used the palace as a presidential residence during the summers. Atatürk spent his last days here, where he died on 10 November 1938.

And here are our fond memories here...