Meeting our Tour Group

We had a little time in the morning before meeting our tour group – but contrary to yesterday, it was dismall, cold and rainy in the morning. I went out and found a grocery store for some supplies for the room and we found a nice little cafe for some famous Turkish Coffee.

This was our first “Rick Steves” tour. In fact, it was our first tour ever. But we had an orientation meeting, where we all introduced ourselves (about 20 people averaging around 60 years old). Most people had been on multiple Rick Steves tours over the years and were big fans of their format.

Our guide was named “TouGuy” (spelling?) and he had lived in Turkey all of his life. Very friendly and knowledgeable. Overall, the company had their act together and it was a good group to travel with!

Topaki Palace

So we trudged off – in the heavy rain and cold (about 8 degrees) for our first day tour. Luckily, we had brought raincoats and umbrellas, or it would have been much worse.

The palace was beautiful, but it was SO COLD!

Everyone had a good attitude and it was our first day – but it was tough to really enjoy the place because of the weather. The great thing is that it was basically empty, and what was probably a place that was mobbed in the summer, was lovely and quiet.

Hagia Sophia

Cold, chilly, wet, and miserable. Windchill of -4 and wet feet, but we all trudged on. I had come halfway around the world to see this cathedral. When I was growing up, my dad had a series of time life books of all the most beautiful architecture in the world and one was the Hagia Sophia. I loved that book and It was actually one of the primary reasons why I wanted to come to Istanbul.

Unfortunately, a couple of years ago, their politicians decided to turn the building from the museum back into a mosque again (highly controversial) so we were unable to be on the first floor, and could only see it from the second floor atrium. Nevertheless, it was still an absolutely beautiful building from the inside.

Going with a tour guide had it’s positives and negatives. Out guide did a great job showing us around and explaining things – but we only stayed for about an hour or so, and I could have spent the whole day just looking around.

Also – because of the crappy weather – we had the whole place practically to ourselves! Sometimes I think travelling in the worst weather and just wearing a raincoat and sweater is best!