Today was to be "a last look at Khiva" day and so we headed into the old city to re-visit some of the buildngs of yesterday (and try to remember what the guide told us). Along the way we bumped into a number of wedding parties using the old city and its buildings for their photo shoots and in the process giving the hordes of tourists some photo opportunities. It seemed a little surprising to us that the young couples seemed not to have a problem with their wedding parties becoming tourist attractions.

Along the way we visited Khiva Silk Carpet Workshop an enterprise described in a book called A Carpet Ride to Khiva by Christopher Alexander that Nina was just finishing reading. As a result we (mainly she) had a special interest in seeing the place and its products, watching the ladies at the weaving looms and relating all that to the books tale of the struggle getting dyes, finding weavers and overcoming local politics.

Back at our hotel we noticed a few old cars arriving and observed that they were all carrying stickers announcing that they were part of the 2013 Silkroad Rallye. By the end of the day there were 20 vintage cars parked alongside our truck and maybe 40 (mostly Swiss) folks generally livening up the hotel. One of the real benefits of the influx of tourist was that the hotel management finally figured out how to turn on the hot water system and for the first time we actually got a really nice hot shower.