Day 51, 24 August 2012, The Topkapi Palace - If I simply say to fans of the Lord of the Rings.... "Precioussssss......" I am sure you will get my drift. The diamond pictured in today's blog is the fourth largest diamond in the world weighing 86 carats (not including the brilliants surrounding it). Viewing this treasure was one of our main reasons for visiting Topkapi - that and I don't think they let you out of Turkey until you have.... Many stories exist about the origins of the stone (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoonmaker's_Diamond) - my personal favourite is the version where it was found in a pile of rubbish and sold for the price of three spoons. There's hope for the treasure hunter in me yet! The palace is not a single building, rather a series of gates, towers, pavilions, gardens and fountains displaying utter Ottoman opulence. The gardens alone were a lovely spot for replenishing selves between exhibits. The diamond (preciousssss......) is displayed in The Treasury which consists of four interconnecting rooms. It is proudly on show in the third room of the Treasury which also displays the Topkapi dagger - the handle is inlaid with green gems the size of hens' eggs - amazingly they are in fact emeralds. The gold and diamond encrusted coffee cup holders were James's favourites - though I suspect they would soon become egg cups! We had, initially, decided to give the Treasury a miss.... The queue was at least 200 people long and the sun was blazing down. We did however become curious as to how the people paying 50 Euros an hour per person for their private tour guide would manage. Whilst munching on peaches and nuts in the shade we watched several large and small groups get a quick briefing from their guide, a few fingers were pointed surreptitiously at a door with a lot of comings and goings and then the guide looked the other way. Being big and brave and having learned over the last two months to follow the local customs of the countries we visited, we sidled up to the In/Out door, thinking it might be an innocent W.C. Turns out it was the "Out" door of the Treasury display. Trundled on in, saw three of the four rooms, sat in front of precioussssss...... for 10 minutes at least and continued on our merry way. See.... local customs aren't all bad. Off to cruise the Bosphorus tomorrow cheapskate style on the public ferry boat. Should be fabulous!