Creature Comforts At The Milan Natural History Musem

The Natural History Museum in Milan is classic old school. Huge building from the 19th century, endless halls of artifacts and lots and lots of beautiful dioramas. No antiseptic displays with miles of white walls. Just creatures in their exotic environments.

Starting early. "Get back! It's a hungry Tanystropheus!!"

Digging in the dirt. Humans can be considered animals, even archeologists. Turtles on the hard shell.

Ugly into adorable, a momma manatee with baby calf.

Let's eat. A seagull gets some salmon leftovers from a bear. How about a Polar bear, wearing seal rouge?

Llama train.

Ak-Saray Palace In Shahrisabz

The king knew how to live, even in the heat. Amir Timur built himself a grand summer palace in his hometown of Shahrisabz during his rule in the late 1300s. Not much is left of the place, save for two huge entrance portals. They're impressive and form a sort of gateway to one having to use their imagination as to what the whole place might have been.

Humbling. Guests as ants.

The portals still have sections of elaborate tile work. The condition is a nice contrast to most of the Silk Road era monuments in Uzbekistan that have been heavily (overly?) restored.

At closer inspection, the tile design starts to get a little trippy.

Life we'v sayd, relly, reavy tryspee.

Whew, gotta get some distance to get one's head back right. In silhouette, the palace looks downright commanding. You'd better have brought a nice enough gift for being a weekend guest.