The Biggest Mall in Europe

On third day here we decided to brave the Metro system and travel to the largest mall in Europe. It was definitely enormous, but nothing compared to the malls in Dubai! We walked around and enjoyed the shops, Starbucks and toy store, ate some lunch at Pizza Hut, and walked some more. In typical Benjamin fashion, he fell asleep towards the end. While we were there, we also took the opportunity to buy some birthday things for Benjamin! We were surprised that there was hardly anything in English, so imagine our surprise when we bought what we though was wrapping paper only to find out it was shelf liner. That's ok, when we post pics from Benjamin's birthday you will see we made it work! Enjoy the largest mall in Europe:

Topkapi Palace

We also were able to visit Topkapi Palace which was really neat, but not stroller/toddler friendly. Even so, we had a great time learning about the palace and the history and seeing some beautiful views of the Bospherous. Benjamin really enjoyed pushing around his own stroller and we were excited to let him just play and be a toddler. Enjoy a few more pics:

Gulhane Park

Our first day here in Istanbul we decided to just go for a walk and see the area around our hotel. Ten minutes later, we found ourselves at the entrance to a beautiful park! My history may be (ok, very likely) off but I believe that this was once a courtyard to Topkapi Palace which borders the park. We walked and waited here until they opened the gates to the Palace so of course we took pictures. Here are a few:

Our First Hotel In Istanbul

While we are here in Istanbul, we are staying at two different hotels. Our first is in an area called the Sultanhamet, which is part of the older historical area of the city. The streets are small, the history is everywhere and we are loving it! Here are some pictures of our room and the view out our window. Both Keith and I agree that the shower/bath in our bathroom is the best feature. It has hot water and water pressure! We are soaking it in....

More pictures and info about our first few days in Istanbul to come!

New Tastes

For the first time, Keith tried both Balaclava and Turkish Delight! There is a great sweet shop a block from our hotel, so we took the opportunity to sample the many delicious options they had available. We thought we would tempt you with a picture of our samples:



I had no idea so many varieties of Balaclava existed! Neither of us our a huge fan of Turkish Delight, but we are thoroughly enjoying the Balaclava.

Heartbeat

We were so excited to finally here our little girls heartbeat! We had been able to see it a few times on ultrasound, but what a wonderful sound to hear. We hope you think so too!

Waiting at the Doctor's Office

We spent a good day doing doctor's visits and we have to say that Benjamin did a great job! We thought we would capture some pictures of him being bored, but as soon as the camera came out so did the 'cheese!' Enjoy our little man as we waited for the doctor...

Bored....

Is that the camera?

Hi!

Cheese!