Samarqand

The guesthouse was just the spot for some rest. My stomach responded to this nicely & I was able to eat the generous breakfast in the communal courtyard.

I didn't feel like being too much of a tourist so I spent the morning hanging out at the guesthouse. I began to feel a bit guilty about not seeing anything so went for a walk to the bazaar & at a couple of mausoleums in the early afternoon. It didn't take long for the hot Sun to convince me that further rest in my air-conditioned room was what I really needed.

Samarqand is a reasonably large city. I think I read somewhere that it was a big place for conferences & the like during Soviet times. It is dotted with monuments from the time when it was Timur's capital, mosques, medressas & mausoleums decorated with tilework. Timur ravaged & ruined as far afield as Western Anatolia & Northern India but left behind a rich architectural inheritance in Central Asia. His heirs built on this in places like Mashhad in Iran & Herat in Afghanistan. Its hallmarks were azure blue tiles in a particular geometric pattern. I visited the Timurid mosque in Mashhad which housed the shrine of Imam Reza. I didn't feel like risking a ride to Heart though I heard that going by bus was safe enough these days.

In the evening I did a bit of bike maintenance & generally enjoyed hanging out with a crowd of backpackers & long distance cyclists at the guesthouse. I recognised that this is probably the last nice relaxing spot for a couple of weeks.

I cycled 0 km