Well I started the week determined, in a relaxed kind of way, to photograph some of the tulips that Istanbul is famous for this time of year. Then Anton got ill yet again, and when I actually got out of the apartment for half an hour the rich colours of the tulips in the bright sunshine just didn't appeal as much as this little patch of white flowers under a tree. Tuesday was a public holiday here and as Anton seemed a little better we dosed him up with calpol, put him in the pushchair wearing his pyjamas under a blanket, and took the boat to Üsküdar. We walked along the shore with hundreds of other people enjoying that time off had coincided with glorious sunshine, and then carried Anton up to a roof terrace cafe to bask. Happily the sun seemed to revive him and as we walked back he asked to get up and play. He rushed off and came back with the gift of a tulip. Job done.

Being in the sunshine was such a boost that I decided to spend Wednesday walking along the Bosphorus from Emirgan to Bebek, after a visit to the Sakıp Sabancı Museum. The area lining the Bosphorus is paradise in the sunshine. The beauty of the water, abundant flowers and wooden villas is perfection. One of my life-changing helpers, Florence, was with me making two kids very light work and lots of pleasure.

After a great morning at Atölye 5 on Thursday we wandered down Bağdat Caddesi and then took a dolmuş to to the Beşiktaş ferry terminal in Kadiköy. I have decided to stop apologising for the amount of pictures I take on boats and just say that this week's vapur pictures show how, now that it is warm enough for people to be sat outside on the benches on the sides, Neve has a new opportunity for making vapur friends.

Today, Anton bouncy as a bean, we took some of the kiddos' favourite toys to enjoy a picnic and it seemed like a really good moment to indulge in one of the ladybird cakes Anton has been admiring for a long time. I am also glad that Neve understands that one of the things she should do in life is to go and crawl into beautiful patches of light!

My (nearly) father-in-law is here at the moment and, because he likes dawdling round Istanbul as much as I do, we set off to have a two museum kind of day. He met us from our vapur and we crossed the Bosphorus from Kabataş to Üsküdar. First we made our toddler paced, in and out of interesting looking mosques, way to the Tomb of Aziz (Saint) Mahmud Hüdayı. This is a place of pilgrimage and was full of women murmuring prayers. As I had some thanks that needed whispering it felt like a good place to be. From there we walked at snail's pace past crumbly wooden houses which meant that we noticed the sign to a Kite Museum. Never one to turn down the chance to go to a new museum (I am trying to clock up 50 in a year) we turned right and went in. Mehmet Naci Aköz has been collecting kites from all over the world since 1986 and there is plenty to see. Our next stop (take the 11ü from Üsküdar) was the Istanbul Museum of Graphic Arts. We got there to find the doors locked but when we rang the bell a caretaker, looking like he had been napping for several months since the last visitor, appeared to usher us in and turn on the lights. We all really enjoyed the collection of prints and especially the beautiful display of bookplates (ex libris) on the lowest floor. It was a perfect, slow walking, exploring, three museum kind of day.

Hagia Sophia is the most important thing to see in Istanbul for anyone of any age. I am still shocked that this incredible building, that I saw so many times on history programmes, and read about in texts during my studies, is currently walking distance from where we are living. I was delighted that on Friday, when we asked Matti what he would like to do, Hagia Sophia was his answer. It is really hard to capture the significance of this building in a few lines, or it's immensity with my camera, but I will be content to try many times while I live in its shadow. The first church on this site (there have been three, lasting through three empires) was dedicated in 360 CE and it was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years. Hagia Sophia feels like a vast cave in the clouds. It is dark and still but light plays across the marble, dances across mosaics revealing their glimmer, lights the faces of our children, time going by, day and night, caught inside this Byzantine wonder as it has for nearly 1,500 years. It is fascinating to search with the children for the clues to the building's function of church and then mosque: crosses scraped off rock, seraphim faces, some hidden, some exposed, mosaics painted over or revealed. According to some sources, the walkway to the upper floor was once used by horses, and it does feel like a mountain path. Every time I walk around the upper floor and peer down into the depths of the building I wish my Dad was not in the UK, with his history programmes, but next to me. Though there are a thousand reasons to want his company, sharing these sights is not an insignificant one. I also wish that I could take any of you that have not been to the inner doors where you catch the first breath-taking view of the interior. I do not yet have the skills or the equipment to do the drama of the building justice so I have begun by trying to capture some of its whispers. Of course now that Matti and Anton have discovered chocolate-filled açma, we had to begin with that....

Some practical information: The cost is 25 TL. It is closed on Mondays. Toilets are good. The cafe is very expensive. If you have children with you just walk to the start of the queue, the policy is to let you straight in. The queue can be very long. It is worth the wait.