Monday 22nd March

At breakfast, we got chatting to some of the hotel staff including the owner. I'm not certain but it looks like a family business. Judging by their excellent service, it does seem that way. They seem to take a great deal of pride in their establishment and there is every reason why they should be proud. As usual, Suzy found them on Trip Advisor. They had very good reviews and we would be very happy to give them a good review too.

The owner said that the building used to be his home before they decided to turn it into a hotel about three and a half years ago. It took about twelve months to do the refurbishment and the fit-out before the hotel opened.

Suzy had decided to go back to the Grand Bazaar this morning to buy a leather jacket for Steph just like the one she'd bought for herself on Friday. We had to get the timing right because we had to leave the hotel at 10:30am to get to the airport for our flight back to London. Furthermore, breakfast didn't start until 8am and the bazaar didn't open until 9am.

We got to breakfast at 8am and got to the bazaar at about 9:10am - only to find that the shop where she bought her coat wasn't open yet. Someone told us that the owner lives a long way away and doesn't usually get in until between 9:30 and 10. We were worried that we would have to leave the bazaar before he opened and so we went to several other leather shops but we couldn't find anything quite as nice as the one she bought on Friday.

Fortunately, I spotted our man opening up at about 9:40am. He had just what we wanted and he agreed to sell it to us at the same low price.

We made it back to the hotel just in time to meet the mini-van taking us to the airport. Our flight was booked with EasyJet that leaves from a different airport from the one at which we had arrived using British Air. It is a most impressive new terminal building. After going through security and check-in, we had a leisurely lunch at a spacious Gloria Jeans cafe near the departure gates.

EasyJet doesn't allocate seating and so it was a shambles getting on board and finding a seat. After that was sorted out, it turned out to be a good flight with great service.

They land at Luton which doesn't compare well with many airports - especially the one near Istanbul that we left from. The hire car driver was there waiting for us in the arrivals area and we reached our B and B in only about 30 minutes. We had expected the journey to take well over an hour.

Unfortunately there was nobody home and we had to wait outside the front door for about 40 minutes before they got home to let us in. They were very apologetic.

Unlike sunny Istanbul, London was colder and wet.

On the way to Nicky and John's place, we bought some Chinese takeaway. By the time we reached their place at about 7pm, I was starving because it would have been 9pm in Istanbul - a long time since lunch.

We had almost finished dinner by the time John got home. He said that he'd had a hard day. Previously he had told us that he has a high-pressure job and this was proven today because his boss had a nervous breakdown today and was taken to hospital.

Nicky told us that Amelia had been quite contented all day. She thinks that Amelia is settling into a routine.