Accommodation - Hotel Amethyst
Weather - Rainy and chilly
We met Funda at 9.00am at our hotel and worked out our tour plan for the day. We were keen to go to the Chora Church which is located just outside the historic old city walls. It took thirty minutes by local bus to get to the Edirnekapi district. Once again the traffic was chaotic. It was good to be away from the tourist precincts and see the local Istanbul districts. We passed many shops with bridal dresses and the more popular western white gowns were on display rather than the traditional red dresses and veils.
The Chora Church became a museum in 1948 after originally being a Byzantine church and an Ottoman mosque. The museum is undergoing major restorations but thankfully the majority of the beautiful mosaics and frescos were still available for viewing. It was only after it was declared a museum that the original mosaics and frescos were unearthed. It was well worth the visit.
From the Chora Church we walked up a steep street between old wooden houses to the city's old walls known as The Walls of Constantinople. These very tall, wide defensive walls were initially built by Constantine the Great and circle the entire old city on land and around the sea edge.
I climbed the wall on very narrow steps and had fantastic 360 degree views over the city and the Golden Horn Bridge.
We returned by bus to the Sultanahmet district and walked to The Pudding Shop which is the nickname for the Lale Restaurant. Carol was wanting to try this eating place after reading reviews and finding that it was popular with beatniks and hippies travelling between Europe and Asia in the 1960's. The restaurant is still popular as it offers quality Turkish food at good prices.
The restuarant was heaving with tourists but we managed to buy our food from the large selection and find one spare table on the first floor. I had a tasty eggplant stuffed with onions and capsicums. It was delicious and I think I'm becoming addicted to eggplant!
Our afternoon was spent at the nearby Istanbul Archeology Museums. The site has three museums being the main Archeological Museum, the Museum of the Ancient Orient and the Museum of Islamic Art. There was so much to see that it was, once again, hard to take it all in. There were hundreds and hundreds of artefacts from Greek, Roman and many other eras. We enjoyed seeing the Iznik tiles and ceramics in the building known as the Tiled Kiosk built in 1472. It is one of the oldest standing buildings in Istanbul and is in very good condition with blue coloured tiles on its exterior.
After leaving the museum grounds we returned to the damp streets of Istanbul to catch a tram back to our hotel. The street food vendors who were selling chestnuts and corn weren't deterred by the rain.
We said a final goodbye to Funda at the tram stop. We were very pleased to have Funda as our knowledgable guide for the day.
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