Hagia Sophia in Thessaloniki is the church the city's people call simply Agia Sofia, and it sits on a paved square in the middle of the old town, with cafes and plane trees all around. It is much older than it looks, because parts of it date to the seventh or eighth century, and the central dome is modelled loosely on the great church of the same name in Constantinople. The big mosaic in the dome is the star: Christ ascending in a ring of light, with the Virgin and the apostles below, set against a gold ground. Experts date it to the ninth century, a rare survival from the period after the Iconoclast controversy, when images were banned and destroyed.
Look at the apse mosaic too. The Virgin is enthroned in the half dome, with a stern, graceful look, and the lettering round it is early. The church was a mosque for five hundred years after the Ottoman conquest, and the gaps in the interior show where the Muslim prayer niche stood. Fires and earthquakes damaged it, and the large 1978 earthquake shook the city. Today it is a UNESCO site and a working church, with services on feast days.
The riding is not the point of this one, because the square sits in a zone of dense traffic and one-way streets. Aim for the pedestrian edge and walk the last couple of hundred metres, locking your helmet to the bike if you can. At rush hour the central avenues clog, and the best way to approach is from the seafront road, which is often quicker. Kasandrou Street and its parallels climb up to the hill, and from a bike they can look a little forbidding. In winter the stone in the square is slippery.
Practical matters are easy. Thessaloniki is a major city, with stations on every ring road and supermarkets in every district. The square around Hagia Sophia has lots of seating, and a pastry shop sells bougatsa, the local cream pie, while nearby tavernas serve food at lunchtime. In the evening the area fills with students and musicians. For a more peaceful moment, come at 8 a.m. before the sun gets high, when the dome mosaic gets its first light through the windows and the bells begin.