Posts From Azerbaijan

The plan for today was that we would leave the hotel in Aktau at 00:15 (thats right 15 minutes after midnight) to head to the airport for a 2:55 plane to the city of Baku in Azerbaijan. However the plane was delayed and did not leave until 5:00 which deposited us in Baku about 5:00 Baku time. To get to our hotel our minibus had to cross the city which turned out to be a difficult process because Baku was in the throws of preparing for their annual F1 race which was scheduled for the 13-15th of Sept. So streets were blocked off, and police were everywhere directing traffic; even at 5:00am.

Today proved to be a long day of driving and sightseeing.

Today we spent half the day driving West from Baku to the mountain resort town of Şeki (pronounced Sheki). Appart from its beautiful mountain location this town is famous for the Palace of Shaki Khans which is renowned for being constructed (in 1762) without a single nail and for the colored glass windows which are constructed without nails or glue.