If you come to Uzbekistan from the west, you will see this foreboding stretch of desert for hundreds of miles before you get to this oasis area of Tashkent.

We are staying right across the road from the National Library. Probably can’t read much in there. Lots of Russian and Uzbek – most of which we can’t even pronounce. Tashkent is 2.5 million people. The largest city in central Asia.

The sidewalks in the center of the city are outstanding. Wide, flat and not crowded – at least real early in the morning. It is June and the days are really long and getting really hot. We get out walking as early as 5am to beat the heat. At that time of day the temps are just in the high 60’s. Right now it’s about 6:30pm and still 95 out.

Charlotte has made a friend with the beautiful lady who cleans up the area where we live.
We are about a block away from the life giving river that flows down from the mountains and makes this green oasis. The Chirchik River.
They have planted beautiful flowers all over the place between the sidewalks and the roads. The roads in the center of the city are very wide.
We may have discovered where all these drink bottles come from. This one looks like it’s just about ready to be harvested. Sure enough, we went by there the next day and someone had picked it.
The first day here, we visited the famous Chorsu Bazaar. Right in the center of old town directly on the ancient Silk Road. Over 2,000 years old. The second floor that forms a ring above the ground floor is all nut vendors. There must be over a thousand vendor stalls surrounding this building. Even a separate building for jewelry and perfume vendors. We later discovered a somewhat smaller bazaar within walking distance and got some wonderful vegetables and cherries there.
Charlotte feeds cats everywhere we go. This is right outside the back of our building. We’re on the third floor of a four story building. The soviets, who built these things, had a rule that elevators only went in buildings that were at least seven stories tall.
The tree was here first!
They really light up our street in the evening. Is it Christmas in June?
Some unusual, but comfortable looking, park benches.
These are the local cherries of which I spoke. Yes, they taste good too.
Not sure about this. Advantages: Keeps the wind down. Keeps the birds away. Keeps the traffic noise down. Keeps conversations more private. Keeps the rain off. Keeps you warmer in cold weather. Disadvantages: Still sunny and probably pretty hot all summer.
I’ve been leery of bitcoins. But I might try this.

Here we are off to celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary. The National Library in the background. We’ll eat on the rooftop of the nearby Hyatt Hotel.
No, not the Hyatt. This restaurant is called Toku Garden. We heard it is owned by a Russian billionaire. They gave us a 10% discount for using our Visa card. ??
Let’s get all the food pics out of the way. This is our haul of veggies and fruit from the local Bazaar (market) The melons here are outstanding. Those flatter peaches are quite an improvement over the standard peach.
In the grocery store, this product stands out. One of the few in English. And the only product to claim it is American. They say the first person to sell popcorn like this was a street vendor in Chicago in the 1880’s. Although popcorn has been grown and popped for at least 6,700 years in the area we now call Peru. Don’t get freaked out by the sticker price. It translates to just under $1.00 US.
This is the standard broom here. Used on hundreds of streets every morning.
This is the Hotel Uzbekistan from the park across the street from it.
We loved this area. We walked way up the Chirchiq River and found these beautiful spots.
We accidentally pulled a power fixture out of the wall and called our Airbnb host to help us fix it. He came right away and fixed it. Really nice guy.
This is called the Minor Mosque. (Minor in this case does not mean small)
Charlotte almost always gives money to people who ask for it on the street. She thinks of this picture as Madonna and Child.
This is an older building in an area that is mostly government buildings. Ah! Mystery solved. It is the palace of Grand Duke Nicholas Constantinovich. (This is what Wikipedia says about the Duke) Born in St Petersburg in the middle of the nineteenth century into the House of Romanov, he had a very privileged childhood. Most royal children were brought up by nannies and servants so by the time Nikolai had grown up he lived a very independent life having become a gifted military officer and an incorrigible womanizer. He had an affair with a notorious American woman Fanny Lear. In a scandal related to this affair, he stole three valuable diamonds from the revetment of one of the most valuable family icons. He was declared insane and he was banished to Tashkent.
The entrance to an Islamic educational facility.

TASHKENT METRO

First subways in Central Asia. Each station designed around a theme. Just recently they started allowing pictures. 4 different lines. You can ride to all the 50+ stations. The cost? 12 cents.