Fun at Topkapi Palace

The Topkapi Palace entrance.... we weren't alone!!

There was a Palace kitty who wanted love - he reminded Danni of Meowzowski!

Beautiful!  (The Palace, and the model!)

Running around the Palace grounds... burning off the crazies like royalty!

Palace leaf fight!

Outside of one of the Palace's interior buildings!  The ceiling was decorated with gold!

We liked the golden jail.  Mommy and Daddy wanted us on the other side of the bars!

BEAUTIFUL flower gardens!

The Palace had an ocean view!  SO pretty!

More pretty flowers in the Palace Rose Garden!

An ancient fountain that still has water dripping out of it!

Danni took a wild ride!

Mine was faster! 

Lion racers!

We shared this lion...

A pretty balcony that extended over a pool.  

More ornate golden bars... and tiles... they were so pretty!

All of these tiles were hand painted... this is the circumcision room.  :)

Don't fall in, Danni!!

More gold work....

I wish that I had a house like this!!!

They had armed guards at the Palace gates...  glad we behaved ourselves!

Taking a rest from looking at boring buildings!!

The Palace was a cool place to explore!!!

The next 'boring' place that we visited was Topkapi Palace.  This was where the sultan and his family (and a bunch of other people... as many as 4000!) lived.  It had four main courtyards and tons of little buildings that were ornately decorated.  It had its own mosque, hospital, and mint!!  We saw a lot of cool architecture and also some super cool artifacts - my favorite was the ancient sword and weapon collection (we weren't allowed to take pictures in there!)  Danni and I enjoyed running around on all of the grounds of the Palace.  I bet the sultan's kids ran right where we were playing hundreds of years ago!!  Sometimes history is cool... but it is mostly boring. ;)