Tashkent - Start of our Silk Road Journey

After a five hour flight from Riga we landed early morning in Tashkent - the capital of Uzbekistan. It took about two hours for all the procedures deboarding, transfer to terminal, pass control, luggage claim and customs check to meet our driver outside the hotel. He took us to Hotel Usbekistan where we went directly to sleep.

We met at 9 am for breakfast and then I returned to sleep before we met our guide in the lobby at 1 pm.

At first, we visited the Old Town with mosques, mausoleums and medressas (islam schools). One museum housed qu'rans from different times with one dating back to the 8th century.

Then we passed through Chorzu Bazaar where you can buy groceries, clothes and much more.

In the Museum of Applied Arts, we learned about Uzbek clothing, decoration, wood carving, ceramic and painting. In the clothing section, we found the first signs of the ancient Silk Road and learnt the difference between Atlas (100% silk) and Adrass (50% silk/ 50% cotton).

In the late afternoon, we explored the metro which has some nice stations on the national topics of cotton, space and a national poet. Unfortunately, photographing was forbidden like in St. Petersburg as the Metro is also used as atomic shelter.

To find a decent place for dinner proved to be quite an odyssey as in close surrounding of the hotel there are no restaurants and we had to walk quite a bit and had to settle for an Italian place for our first Uzbek evening. But the food was good and we did not spend all our money on it.