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We took a taxi early this morning to Topkapi palace. This is the entrance, it's a huge set of buildings behind walls that occupies the whole top of a hill in Istanbul, on the Asian side. |
| This is a shot of the underside of a roof within the palace grounds. It's really beautiful everywhere, way too much to show you but we'll try. |  |
 | We love the way their letters look on signs! This was on the entrance to the Sultan's ceremonial area. |
| Here's another shot of the entrance. The Sultan would come out there and stand under the golden ball to make announcements. |  |
 | Hawk found this hollow tree nearby. It was probably 80 feet tall, full of green leaves, but he could walk inside of it. Amazing. |
| This marble walk goes past the library. It was perfectly smooth and so elegant. |  |
 | A carved sluice was beside it to catch the rain water and direct it away from the path. |
| This golden pavilion looked out over the water and is where the Sultan often had breakfast. The view is gorgeous. |  |
 | This is the circumcision room. Perhaps it was used for other things too. |
| A water stand outside the library. We didn't have a guide for this tour, so we aren't sure why there are so many places to get water around the palace. |  |
 | These are the chimneys of the Sultan's kitchen. We went inside there but it was disappointing -- they had a collection of Japanese china but no evidence of the kitchens. |
| But the Treasury rooms were interesting. This is the Sultan's seal. |  |
 | And here are some rings encrusted with jewels. |
| This is the jewel-encrusted leg of a throne used by the Sultan. |  |
 | Just after we left the palace and found a place to have Turkish coffee (really strong, served in little cups), it poured. We were sitting under a canopy, but we still got a little wet. Then we put up our umbrella and walked toward another mosque and the bazaar. We passed this street vendor, who was selling grilled corn on the cob. We saw a lot of these vendors, more were selling corn than any other kind of street food. One said "vitamins" and "energy" at us. |
| We walked downhill past the bazaar into narrow twisting streets full of vendors and shoppers, cars would try to come through honking their horns. It was amazing. There were "tourist police" everywhere and even though we were among only a few other tourists in this huge crowd, we felt safe. |  |
 | We finally found the spice market and we bought saffron and nuts. Hawk got a baklava, he was hungry for lunch. |
| There were lots of spices at each stand, it was hard to see what each thing was but they were very beautiful and it smelled great in there. You have to walk along looking ahead, there are three or four guys at each stand who talk to you and try to get you to look at their stuff if you give them half a second of attention. Because we weren't with a tour, they would start out in English but ask us if we were Danish or Dutch or something Northern European. They never guess American, not many Americans in this part of the world these days. |  |
 | This is a little boat trying to tie up alongside the Minerva, a British cruise ship moored ahead of us. Our tour director tells us that their cruises are more academic with Oxford and Cambridge faculty giving lectures and no girlie shows in the evenings. I hadn't actually noticed the girlie shows in the evenings on this boat, but maybe that's because we go to sleep by 10. |
| The whole time we have been tied up to this pier, this little red port security boat has been standing off and on next to us. I don't see how he could stop a big boat from ramming us, but I guess he could keep someone from climbing aboard. It's just a reminder of what a big American cruise ship might mean in this part of the world. |  |
 | A mosque next to the Dolmabahce Palace |
| Hawk watched the changing of the guard. After the usual shouting commands and stomping as a new guard fell out to replace the old, another soldier adjusted him for about five minutes. |  |