The previous post in this series is here..
Day 2 started with a nice breakfast at our hotel and we walked to the tour guide for an all day walking tour of Old Istanbul. Our Viator guide came on time and told us that we will have an hour and a half break. The other two folks in our tour (from Kerala, India) had opted for lunch while we didn’t. So he was going to give us a break. That meant everyone in our group was making their own plan for the rest of the day already! The kids are no longer kids, you see..
We walked through the Hippodrome area, got a lot of history of the place, how Christianity came to be what it is today, how Islam came to be what it is today, etc. One thing was certain.. no matter how big the empires and how great the buildings, time has a way of changing empires, religion and we are moving forward.
The grandeur of the two mosques we visited.. got my backbends for the day done, taking these pano shots.
First the few photos of us.. I just went nuts taking photos of the blue mosque and Hagia Sophia. These buildings are architectural marvels that are places of worship. The idea is to inspire awe, and that they do effortlessly as soon as you walk in. They humble you!
The portrait picture gallery..
And the gallery of landscape photos..
After the tour was done, we were taken to a multistory leather goods shop (apparently has a tie up with the tour for our rates). We got treated to a catwalk show of leather clothes. Given none of us in the family wear leather, we just enjoyed the experience, walked around the store, then went to the rooftop to take in views of the city. There was no obligation to buy and I could get Ramarajan shirts from 0 to 255 on the RGB color scale for the price of one of these jackets.
Then we walked to a nice restaurant called Sultana Cafe, which had vegetarian options. Our guide did good by taking us to this place. They had rice, aaloo parathas Turkish cousin, made right in front of us! and other veggie dishes that delighted the family. (also we saw Turkish crows that look like desi crows but have brown, black and gray feathers.. they are also called Kaa Kaa!!)
The photo I cherish the most from this days trip…
After this it was back to the hotel. It was hot out and we all wanted to clean up, rest our feet before meeting our tourguide for the afternoon session.
A video highlight reel of the mornings tour..
It was getting really hot and we made a dash for our hotel.. we had 90 minutes before catching our guide at the post lunch stop..
will pick it up there tomorrow.
