Topkapi palace

 It was a crowded day to visit the Topkapi palace. It was an all round crowded day. The lines were long everywhere in the palace. We didn't get to see he chambers or he Harem. Harems are not our idea of a fun visit. It is just a romantised whorehouse.

 The site of the palace is beautiful, up on one of the seven hills and overlooks the Golden Horn.

This was the gilded age of the Ottoman Empire and I guess considered very grand. Our problem is we're very jaded, we've seen so many beautiful palaces in the world and unless you're exceptional, we're not impressed. So upon seeing the huge lines for the chambers, we decided to give it a miss. We did see the crown jewels, no photographs allowed, now that was impressive. It's always impressive to see huge gems especially the huge diamonds and emeralds. The Haghia Eirene, a Byzantine church is on the palace grounds but is not opened to the public. They only use it for concerts because of the excellent acoustics in the church. It was built at the same time as the Haghia Sophia, it's a smaller version. Our next stop was the archaeological museum which was also on the palace grounds.