The Fancy Fish Market In Abu Dhabi

Fresh fish in a fresh building. Abu Dhabi recently rebuilt its main local fish market building and the new digs are lovely. Light, airy, clean, spacious. Not, uhm, fishy.

Entrance. Looking like an American mall.

A nice mixed media art installation, a tip to the old fishing tradition, greets shoppers as they enter the market. Fish bling.

The basic layout, aisles and stalls. And snazzy blue uniforms with blue aprons.

You got your fish? Next stop, cleaning. That's right, the market won't just sell you a fish, they'll prep, de-bone, gut, clean your new purchase. Like buying a ticket at a movie theater.

A clever design, prep areas are behind floor to ceiling glass. Place your catch, watch the show.

Shopping The Local Market In Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi is the capital of the UAE and the city features plenty of world class amenities. Fancy hotels, office towers, museums, the usual magazine spread worthy baubles. What about before the oil money remade the place? Where did the housewife in the 1960's shop?

Here!

You can't find what you wanted? In these over-crowded shops, it must not exist.

Ready to help. Maybe.

One important feature of the various shops, a set of royal portraits. Photograph, rug, just any representation will do.

Another merchant portrait. Rack it.

Looking At The Louvre In Abu Dhabi

Leonardo in the desert. The museum is a massive, impressive destination, definitely an architectural signature piece for the UAE. It opened in 2017 and there's an agreement with the home office back in France that allows the place to use the Louvre name until 2037. Book now.

Architect Jean Nouvel designed the space as a series of white box buildings tucked under an enormous silver metal, mesh dome. Gotta protect the good stuff.

Inside, a romp through highlights of art history, western or otherwise. You got your big Roman head, and a fanciful Leonardo da Vinci original, popping in for a visit and some posing.

Sarah, soaking in the cutting edge design of the place. No swimming.

Back inside, more galleries, more art variety.

Another room, another da Vinci, this time, an homage of sorts. The Funeral of Mona Lisa by Yan Pei-Ming, 2008.

A Peek Behind The Curtain At The Uzbek National Academic Drama Theatre

James' brother recently came to Tashkent and he had a slightly unusual request. He wanted a backstage tour of a theater. OK. Not so strange since he works as a head carpenter at a Broadway theater in Chicago. Time to see how they put on a show in Uzbekistan.

Powerful exterior. Call it modern Tsar.

Inside, the hall is kind of cozy, holding about 500 people. Understated grand.

First peek, a look at all the scenery backstage, used for a current production.

Surgery on a door in the carpentry shop. The big layout of a background curtain, in the process of painting magic.

Vintage. An old lighting board, what James' brother came to see. Red phone to Moscow. "Comrade, raise the curtain!"

Fascinating Frieze Moments At The Shon-Sharaf Museum

There are a couple of large, bronze friezes outside the front entrance to the Shon-Sharaf museum, dedicated to the Great Patriotic War. A lot is going on in the friezes. Military preparations, a country pulling together for the war effort. Inspiring. Terrifying.

Small boys building big toys.

Portraits of the engineers of destruction and the aproned workers.

Old women, back at home, picking cotton to help finance the war effort.

Scenes of evacuating the wounded and then operating on them.

Victory! A family reunion and celebration at war's end.

Dynamic Dioramas At The Shon Sharaf Museum

Of course, the most fun part at the Shon-Sharaf museum dedicated to the Great Patriotic War is the group of cool dioramas. Nothing says War Is Hell and we won more than a Nazi beat down with a shovel.

Arrival in Berlin for the final showdown, fighter planes buzzing.

A little reconnaissance. Four eyes are better than two eyes, human or otherwise. Can a German shepherd be trusted? Nazis, impaled and scared.

At the old Tashkent train station, soldiers and officers, guarding and waiting. Nice jodhpurs.

Artillery, busy. Soldier in a log bunker, resting.

Going in for the kill with that lethal shovel.

Reliving The Great Patriotic War At The Shon-Sharaf Museum

The Great Patriotic War is what the Russians and former Soviet bloc countries call World War II. Uzbekistan recently built a museum complex dedicated to that war and the place is filled with the usual hero, sacrifice, violent, tribute efforts. Celebrating the war is an enduring piece of propaganda for the countries on the Eastern front. 

Triumphant entrance.

Beyond the main museum, the grounds are filled with military equipment and trench re-creations. Inside, a classic collection of mean guns and cases filled with uniforms, artifacts.

The entrance lobby features a huge mural, an elaborate illustration of a frozen moment at chaotic Tashkent train station. Soldiers leaving, families saying goodbye to loved ones. Biting bread for good luck.

There are also displays of the war effort at home. A powerful woman using a big tractor. Those boots were made for plowing. Uzbeks were busy growing cotton to finance the fight.

Not holding back with the hand grenades and the yell for victory.

Around Anhor Park In Tashkent

Think of colonial Williamsburg for the Silk Road set. They've created an ersatz ancient village at Anhor park in the center of Tashkent. Old houses with courtyards, complete with carved wood columns. Ikat textiles, tapchan furniture. And shopping.

The place is sort of a live and work mix of buildings. Some shopkeepers are housed at the complex. Of course, looking traditional, period.

The main purpose of the place is to give you a feel for an ancient Silk Road city, right down to the souvenir stalls. Go with it.

See how the khans lived. And relaxed, right on their expansive tapchan.

It is nice to get a peek at old, classic, iconic architecture. An interior courtyard, all white-washed and filled with elaborate columns. Period kitchen. No rat powered food processor.

Looking down a typical street. Squint and you could be calling your Uber - a camel.