Istanbul in the Rain ...and Wind

Honestly, we did not explore Istanbul in the rain.  Having learned our lesson in Prague last summer (e.g. do not stand under a gargoyle spouting water...), we used two criteria for visiting a "sight": is what we want to see indoors, and how much walking would we have to do to get there.  And the Thursday finalists were Istanbul Archaelogical Museum and the Grand Bazaar.

Far from being an archaelogy buff, I still got excited about a few things in the Archaelogical Museum:

• Alexander Sarcophagus--The sarcophagus did have Alexander the Great portrayed on the sides, but it was carved for another king

  

  

  The Tetrarchs: the statues are now in Venice, but the heel is in Istanbul

  
• Tetrarchs' Heel--Remember those double porphyry statues of the Tetrarchs in the Piazza of San Marco in Venice.  We saw them last summer.  They were actually from Constantinople (as were the four hourses on top of the Saint Mark's Basilica), and one of them is missing a foot.  Now we saw the missing foot here in Istanbul.
• The Tiled Kiosk--a small 15th century building exhibiting cool tiles
• A piece of chain that was strung across from Constantinople to Galata Tower (from sometime before 10th century till at least the 15th century) to prevent unwanted ships from entering the Golden Horn

In the Grand Bazaar we were thankfully not harassed nearly as much as we expected.  The bazaar was very festive as it was the eve of the Turkey Republic Day. 

We went to sleep on Thursday to the sounds of the winds wailing.  The next morning--today--it was still really windy, but the rain subsided a little bit, so we decided to brave the weather and tour the Topkapi Palace. 

Apparently many many other people decided to tour the Topkapi Palace today as well. (Because today is a holiday in Turkey, both the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Market were closed, which probably did not help.)

Nick in front of some tiles in the Harem of Topkapi Palace

In short, the pros:

• the Harem was relatively uncrowded and full of tiles
• Helen is addicted to looking at tiles, and hence loved the Harem

and the cons:

• we froze to death while fighting the crowds
• the European porcelain exhibit was closed

Helen in front of tiles, of course, in the Harem of Topkapi Palace

After touring the palace, we headed towards the Galata Bridge.  And this is when finally the sun came out.

Fishermen on the Galata Bridge, with the view of Galata Tower in the background. 
And the sun is out!!!

We were going to tour the Spice Market, but this was when we found out that it was closed.  So we just wondered through the back streets. 

Local boys sliding down a street

We finished the evening with a nice dinner at Pasazade (where amazingly the prices were the same as at a place we had lunch yesterday, but service and food were several levels above that) and a nice stroll by Hagia Sophia.

Hagia Sophia at night