Before leaving, Jackie gave us each a weathergram to hang in trees around Turkey. Today, we visited Topkapi Palace - a huge place, with many courtyards and buildings, and trees. The place is being extra special spruced up for Oct 29 which is their National Day, akin to our July 4. Added to the decorations is this weathergram, hung in a tree next to on of the rooms the family used.

The inside of these rooms are covered in tiles which is very beautiful. The tiles were made in Iznik, a location with special minerals in the soil that make the blues stand out. The 22,000 tiles in the Blue Mosque came from Iznik too.

We also visited the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Market today. The Bazaar is overwhelming in the number of shops and options for buying anything from trinkets to gold and silver jewelry. Very noisy. Hustle, bustle. The Spice Market was quite crowded too, but less hurried pace. Just outside the Spice Market is the market where the real people are buying the foods. My big purchase for the day was walnts from these guys.