A DAY IN TASHKENT

7 hours and nearly 3000 miles due east (flying straight over Moscow) of LHR is Nur-Sultan airport and a second flight 1 1/2 hours across the border into Tashkent, our most easterly point in Uzbekistan.  

The well-worn tourist trail of the Uzbek part of the S.R. is supported by a train system that runs westward, from Tashkent to Samarkand, to Bukhara, and finally to Khiva, 700 miles away. 

But, for now, a night in Tashkent.  
As well as the capital, it's not only the largest city in Uzbekistan but the most populous city in former Soviet central Asia (even though much of the city was destroyed in an earthquake in 1966 - and rebuilt as a model Soviet city).

We're staying close to the Kosmonavtlar metro station (until recently photos weren't allowed in the metro but luckily it was relaxed in June... Or we wouldn't be able to show you these...)


 

By George, they have a lot of room to play with...  You can walk quarter an of hour from the entrance to the platform



Feeling slightly spaced out from 3 hours of sleep, we're wandering about and sitting down for coffee more than a day for museums (that would have to wait our last Uzbekistan day when we had another night in Tashkent) but we see the main train station, 



and the handsome gold onion domes, pastel blue walls and 50m bell tower of the Assumption Cathedral (built in 1958 but renovated in the 1990s) 


Parts of the city feel rather schizophrenic, with spangly modern smoked-glass-and-chrome in some places and yet Soviet throwbacks in others, with liberal use of concrete and an emphasis on wide, empty expanses for no obvious reason. 

We'll be back in Tashkent towards the end of our trip so hopefully we'll get to the museum

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