The Bulvar

Morning in a new city. Breakfast and a walk.

The Old City is a medieval walled space in the centre of Baku containing the old Palace, cobbled streets, a few carpet shops, a few embassies, a few homes and lots of hotels. We were staying in one of them.

Baku lies on the Caspian Sea and it faces and embraces it’s seafront with a broad expansive pedestrian boulevard called The Bulvar. The walk from our hotel to The Bulvar took us 5 minutes and past the almost finished Four Seasons Hotel. It would be useful to get our bearings on our return.

Arcing in a crescent a stroll along The Bulvar was the perfect way to set eyes on the main sights of Baku from South to North. To the South on a hill overlooking the city a dazzling piece of architectural development called The Flame Towers is forming. This triple skyscraper is eventually to be the shape of three flames playing around one another and will be a mixture of apartments, offices, hotel and mall space. Of course. And it will be lit up bright orange and red at night. Also of course. As I was to learn, Baku is nothing if not showy.

To the North, the distance appeared as a forest of growing skyscrapers. Cranes buzzing around them busily. The Bulvar was also dotted with a number of recently finished or refurbished projects.

Within a few minutes walk of the enormous sea front flag we came across the Maiden Tower, the Opera House, the Carpet Museum and the other main governmental buildings that you find in a Capital.

We also came across a building with a thermometer on it which informed us that it was 44 degrees. At 10am. Time to look for shade and the railway station.