Weekend around Geneva : Paris and Nîmes : Barcelona and Cádiz : Seville : Granada : Córdoba : Mérida and Cáceres : Salamanca, Avila & Segovia : Madrid & Valencia : Art in Paris : Art in Spain

As with most overseas travel, weeks of planning went into this trip. Setting out in late April 2025, I spent a day in Istanbul en route to Geneva where I spent the weekend with family. My son-in-law very kindly treated me to a first class 10 trip Eurail pass, so Monday saw me heading to Paris for 3 days, where I met friends. Then we all took the train down to Nîmes, where I spent a day before heading down to Barcelona to meet family again for the weekend. Monday saw me set out on a two week whizz around southern Spain, before flying home via Geneva.

Istanbul

This was the second time I had visited Istanbul. On my first visit in 2023, the Chora church /Kariye Mosque was closed for conversion to a mosque. It had reopened and I particularly wanted to see the Byzantine mosaics the church is famous for. I also hoped to visit some other mosques in the Asian shore which I had tried, unsuccessfully, to visit on a Friday in 2023. The Hagia Sophia /Ayasofya had also reopened the balcony giving access to previously inaccessible mosaics.

Getting from the airport

I planned to take the new metro link from the airport into Istanbul. The route to my hotel in Sultanahmet was fairly complicated. The flight from Cape Town gets in at around 4am and I sat on the concrete stairs waiting for the metro to open at 6am. The first train was packed and one had to stand for the whole journey into Istanbul. I eventually arrived at my hotel around 8am and was welcomed and allowed to my room. I was also invited to have breakfast. This was the Hotel Anadolu within sight of the Hagia Sophia. It is a very reasonably priced, family run establishment.

Chora Church/ Kariye Mosque

My first impressions of Istanbul was that there are even more cats on the streets- the first I encountered were in the metro. They all seem cared for with bowls of food and water set out on pavements. There were several at the hotel. This compares favourably with the starving feral cats I saw in Spain.
After breakfast, I made my way down to the bus station and tried to find the correct bus to the Chora church. It was a rainy, fairly cold morning and I was not well. I soon came to realise that not having access to Google maps (I had not bought a SIM for a single day) or speaking Turkish, made it very difficult. Google maps has replaced so many of the traditional aids for tourists. The tourist office I had used before for advice had disappeared, and I had no map. Eventually I was directed to a bus heading that way and recognised where I had to get off. I then set off to find the church, but there was minimal signage. Eventually I arrived and it was all worth it. It is not large, but the frescoes and mosaics are fabulous. Although a church had existed on the site for hundreds of years, the mosaics date from 1310-1317 when Theodore Metochites funded them. The artists are unknown.

Lost in Istanbul

I was then hoping to find a bus back to Sultanahmet to visit the Hagia Sophia or to Eminonu to catch the train under the Bosphorus to see the mosques on the other side, but here my day fell apart and I found myself on busses taking me wildly out of my way. I saw lots of Istanbul, just not the parts I wanted. Eventually I gave up and was very pleased to find my way back to the hotel. I was cold and hungry and had not slept on the plane, so I had an early supper and went to bed.

The next day

The next morning I slowly made my way back to the airport, stopping to admire carpets in nearby shops and a man creating an amazing mosaic wall. Further along was a black hen staking claim to an elegant water fountain where she had been provided with a drinking bowl. Such are the quirks of Istanbul.

My impressions from my one day there are that the city seemed a bit tenser than 2 years ago. There seemed to be fewer women on the streets. At one stage I found myself in a large underground shopping mall and I was amazed by all the clothes shops for men, and none for women. I also found the charges to visit the Chora church and Hagia Sophia rather excessive, more than for any of the European museums or churches I visited. However, Istanbul remains a lovely city and I hope to revisit one day.

Read about the weekend around Geneva or click on an image below to open the gallery.