05/10 – Bukhara

We were at the train station shortly after 9:00.  

We are taking the train to our next town, Bukhara.  The ride was a couple of hours and the countryside was reasonably green and very agrarian.

We stopped at the hotel to drop off luggage before heading out for lunch.  The hotel is a former madrassah (Islamic School) that has been converted to a hotel.  

The area felt much like the towns in Morocco in that the streets/lanes were narrow and lined with walls with only occasional doors and no windows.  The doors led to the various houses, shops and business.  

The door to our hotel opened into a nice courtyard.  There was a large, lovely room set up for breakfasts.

There were plenty of cats around town…much like in Turkey.

After lunch we headed out of town for about 45 minutes to a ceramics shop and fabrics shop.  We were given a tour and explanation of the ceramics operation.  This is an ovens for firing the ceramics.

This mill grinds the stones into powder for the clay.  It is worked by the resident donkey. 

The resident donkey.

We watched as an artisan painted some of the pieces and wandered around the extensive shop.

The shop also did hand embroidery.  There was another group there taking embroidery lessons. 

We watched one of the artisans demonstrate some embroidery...

and we tried it ourselves. 

Even Leo got in on the action.

They also make hand-woven rugs rugs here. 

****************************************
Video of rug weaving
****************************************

The guide’s children joined us in the area.

We spent quite a bit of time in their display room, shopping.  The work they do is beautiful. 

After some shopping we headed back to town in time for a walk to the nearby square for dinner.  Just before the square we saw that the puppet shop was open so we ducked in for a quick look.

****************************************

Video in puppet shop
****************************************