Topaki Palace

Our next stop was the Topaki Palace, by this time it was quite hot and Lyndi was ready for lunch. I was a little more hesitant about nursing in a Muslim Country, I eventually found a womens bathroom.

Above was our view of Asia, as we ate lunch. Luckily, we found some shady tables to sit at.

This palace was different then other palaces I have been to. Much of the palace was outdoors and you could walk to the different rooms. Outside the rooms were terraces with fountains. Above is a picture that shows a room within the palace.

Justin, Lyndi and I taking a picture with the Bosphorus River behind us. If you continue up this River you will end up in the Black Sea. This isn't the best picture of Justin, but we only got one picture. I was avoiding the sun and taking cover in the shade whenever possible, this picture required stepping out of my comfort zone a little.

It was about 90 degree's this day, we are NOT accustomed to that living here in rainy Germany. Lyndi was struggling a little, so I took advantage of any opportunity to get her wet. Here you can see me taking water from the fountain and putting it on her hot neck.

Above is the circumsion room. This shows how ornate each of these rooms were decorated with the blue tiles.

Before I walked into the cirucmsion room there was a group of young boys, whowere probably of Turkish decent. One of the boys asked me "Where are you from?" I was a little hesitant, but responded "The USA"

All of the boys responded with astonishment and started talking loudly amongst themselves and started pointing towards me. I felt a little akward.

Our next stop was the Grand Bazzar (sorry no pictures) which is one of the largest and oldest(1461) covered Bazaar's in the world. After our experience in Izmir, we went prepared. We were pleasantly suprised with the mild mannered salesmen. If we had more time (and more money) it would be a fun to get some friends together and go shopping here.

This was our last picture of Istanbul as we were leaving. You can see on the left the Blue Mosque and on the right the Hagia Sophia.