Friday 13 September
Free morning and late checkout before our flight back to Tashkent.
View from our shower.
Last wander round the area.
Some of the photos taken by the group.
One lone plane on the runway as we waited to board our flight back to Tashkent.
Saturday 14 September
Lochin ordered a taxi for us and we left at 10am. A four and a half hour return journey for 1,100,000 som - about £80!
Arrived at our lovely digs.
Then back for a wander round Registan Square until the colour show began at 8pm. Nice to see but not really needed as the place is just beautiful in its normal colours!
Lovely breakfast.
Did a bit of shopping then wandered down to the bazaar - it was huge.
The view over one side was towards the Amir Temur complex and graveyard - we had stayed in a hotel near here on our group trip.
Ice cream then a walk through the park looking at all the brides having their photos taken.
Still not allowed through the square so we walked round the back of the buildings.
Room for another ice cream.
The market was closed for the night.
Short walk as it became dark.
Little Bird craft area - community of artisans all grouped in a lovely building.
Both tired so an early night ready for our transfer back to Tashkent.
Monday 16 September
Another hearty Uzbeki/Korean breakfast. Boiled eggs and little sausage. Then some porridge. Then little cheese samosas. Plus everything else that was on the table. Then she brought little jam filled buns.
Indeed a hearty breakfast which we felt obliged to eat so as not to offend 😁
We had a 20 minute wait in the stopped traffic while four long loads - which looked like wind turbines - went past the other way.
Apart from that it was an uneventful ride until we got to Tashkent and we realized that he'd taken us back to our previous hotel instead of the new one.
After several phone calls and a lot of back roads we found the address but no mention of a hotel. With help from a couple of locals we established that the hotel was on the 11th floor.
It seems that they'd had to take down road side signs as the president was coming!!
Little walk to find food - found the Catholic Church instead.
Walked back to find the Very Very Turkish restaurant near our accommodation - we'd driven past it several times when we'd been in our tour bus.
Up early for our flights.
There were a few spots of rain as we left - the taxi driver was very happy.
Got to the airport no problem. Waited for our flight.. and waited..
Boarding gate was given so we went to the assigned area and waited..
Got sent back out of the area.. and waited..
Queued again in a scrum in the assigned corridor.. and waited..
Boarded the plane over one hour late.. which would have been fine but we only had an hour to transfer between flights.
So no chance really - we disembarked a few minutes after our Manchester flight left so off we went to find out when the next flight was.. which turned out to be the day after.
Shuttle bus out to a hotel and that was us back somewhere in Istanbul - with no luggage for both of us this time as it was still in transit somewhere!!
Collected from the hotel at 4am for the 7.30 flight to Manchester.
It was raining in Istanbul as we left.
This flight was over subscribed - probably due to all the people they'd had to add from the previous day - so the airline offered €400 and a ticket on the next flight for those who were happy to be bumped. Several young men jumped at the opportunity but not us we were ready to finally go home.
Miguel met us at the airport and took us home.
A lovely holiday but nice to sit down with a coffee and a biscuit!