Family Blog

Last Saturday we arrived in New York, where we got picked up by our son, Philip. It was very warm in NY but when we entered the train we were freezing - it was so cold in the train. In the meantime we got used to the difference between the hot outside and the cooled down inside.

The next days we visited Times Square, Central Park, the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, the United Nations and a lot of other sightseeings. New York itself is a very busy city, where you can find all kinds of nations. But without Philip I think we would have been lost in the jungle of Metro lines and bus stops.

We were also invited to Philip's family, where he worked for one year as an Au-Pair. It was a very nice meeting with a good meal and interesting talks.

Yesterday Cordula came back from S-Africa where she was for two weeks together with the school choir of the Robert-Bosch-Gymnasium. She had an exiting time during the trip through the country but also on the flight back. Now we are happy to have her back.

Last weekend we came back from Tehran. The articles in this blog are not in-time with the displayed blog-date because in the beginning we had no internet access. The real dates were (Gregorian calendar):

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15. + 16. May	Arriving at Teheran
17. + 18. May	Tehran - Masuleh
19. + 20. May	Masuleh - Kandovan
Sat 21. May	Kandovan - Merivan
Sun 22. May	Merivan - Kermanshah
Mon 23. May	Kermanshah - Hamadan
Thu 24. May	Hamadan - Isfahan
25. + 26. May	Isfahan
Fri 27. May	Isfahan - Persepolis - Shiraz
Sat 28. May	Shiraz
Sun 29. May	Shiraz - Yazd
Mon 30. May	Yazd
Tue 31. May	Yazd - Abyaneh
Wed 1. June	Abyaneh - Tehran
Thu 2. June	Tehran - Stuttgart

Length of the whole trip: about 5300 km

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The most often heard question of our trip was "What do you think about Tehran?" followed by "Do you think we are terrorists?". The answer to the second question is easy: no!

The answer to the first question is not so easy. The first contact with Iran was the passport check at the airport in Tehran. And here I had a strange feeling because the officer there looked not very happy. But inside the country the people and even the policemen were friendly to us.

Iran had a great history. But I'm not sure if the Iranian itself are aware of their past. That was my impression after some visits of the museums. Also the architecture in the past seemed to be much "modern" than today. At that time the architects know how to keep a house cool without all the electrican equipments we now had. These knowledge seems to be lost :-(

There are areas in the Iran where you find no plastic bag or other garbage beside the road. Unfortunately this is the exceptional case. Iran is such a lovely country and it makes me sad to see the pollution of the environment.

"We should judge the country after the people and not by the government!" This was also a sentence we heard more often. It seems that the government and the Revolutionary Guards are very unpopular for the normal people. You can find many forbidden books or songs in the bazaars or shops. And some laws as the prohibition of the water pipe are not respected.

There is a different between "Iranian" time and our time: not only another timezone (2.5 hours later) or year (1390 AH), no, also another meanig: e.g. 9 o' clock means "perhaps 9:30". But the Iranian people have something we had lost in Germany - time!

I had no idea about the Iran when I started our trip. But I enjoyed it really and was happy to made it. There were so many friendly people we met. Some emails from Iran reached me in the meantime - some emails may be blocked by the spam filter of my provider (try it again - sometimes they reach me).

Continued from: Abyaneh - Tehran

At 3:25 AM our flight went from Tehran to Istanbul. We all went at about midnight from Tehran to the airport outside of Tehran. The airport was very busy at this time and we said goodbye to our leader (he fly back some days later, to his sister and niece and to our driver. Then we had to pass controls to reach our plane.

In Istanbul we had some time to go up and down in the airport. We recognized that the dress code in an islamistic country has also its advantages - most men looks awful in shorts. Even the women in Iran are in general more fashionable than the tourists we saw on the Istanbul airport.

Back in Stuttgart we had to pass a last time the passport control. We all looked a little forbidden and tired because we had no sleep this night. But we passed all controls and were happy to be at home again. On the scale in the bathroom I realized that Iran is a very beautiful country with nice people and a great history but not a place to lose weight.

Continued from: Yazd - Abyaneh

In the mornings we visited Abyaneh. Unfortunately many houses are broken but some were rebuilt. On the ride to Kashan we saw many antiaircraft guns - I guess the atom center must be somewhere near. In Kashan we went to the Fin Garden, an old Persian garden with nice water features. The rest about this garden I forget - it is the last day and we are all pretty exhausted and no longer receptive.

On the way to Tehran we did a stop at a salt lake to thank our driver for the last 5000 km and gave him a little present. Then we continue our trip to Tehran. It is a somewhat melancholy mood in the bus because we soon will leave the Iran. But before we leave the sister of our leader has invited us to a wonderful dinner in Tehran whereas she had yesterday began to cook four us. The diner was wonderful but nevertheless we had to go to the airport to get our plane.

Next section: Tehran - Stuttgart

Continued from: Yazd

In Meybod we visited a pottery in which I would have got out my wife probably not as fast. We were also allowed to visit the workshop - it was very very hot where the men had to work (one as sitting in the baking oven and brought out the ceramics).

Chak Chak is a small green spot in the dessert, middle in the mountain. After a myth one of the guardian of the fire had found refuge here when she fled from the Arabs. There is a Zoroastrian mountain shrine at this place where water drips from the rock (chak, chak, ...). Our guide thanked us for the journey (Hey, we had to thank him!!!) - it was the next to the last day of our Iran trip.

After Nā'in, as we were driving through the dessert, we saw a rare phenomenon: rain! Normally it never rains there (said our leader - but we already knew that from Tehran). But this time we had even a rainbow!

On the way to Abyaneh we saw an injured turtle on the roadside. We stopped, disinfected the wound and covered it with a band-aid. If you will see a turtle with a band-aid around Abyaneh - tell it a greeting from us.

We reached Abyaneh (a wonderful mountain village) and our hotel in the dark.

Next section: Abyaneh - Tehran

Continued from: Shiraz - Yazd

First goal today was the Tower of Silence, a burial place of the Zoroastrians. Until 50 years ago the dead bodies were laid down and eaten by the vultures. Many Iranians are (inofficially) Zoroastrians. Also Freddie Mercury (from Queen) was Zoroastrian.

After a little nap, we visited the old historic center of Yazd (a World Heritage Site). Unfortunately many houses were decayed. Not only the historic center but also old wonderful mansions are not repaired and get worser and worser. It seems that the relationship to the history is missing - what a pity.

As we visited the Jameh mosque of Yazd there was a sandstorm and we waited until it was over. Next we visited the fire temple Atash Behram of the Zoroastrians.

Diner we had in an old "Hamam" (bath in former times).

Next section: Yazd - Abyaneh

Continued from: Shiraz

From our driver we heard that there were disturbances in Teheran and Shiraz. A famous goalkeeper and trainer of the Iranian soccer team, who was popular with the population and critical to the government, died. We notices more police on the streat as ususal - these were the only impact for us.

In Abarkuh we did a stop for lunch and visited then the oldest living cypress, also called Sarv-e Abarqu. After that we went to the desert - flat as a pancake and hot.

The hotel in Yazd was in a side rad where you never would assume a hotel. It was a traditional hotel with a nice atrium with access to the hotel rooms.

In the evening we visited a traditional material arts training which took place in an old cistern. Next we visited one of the windcatchers where Yaszd is famous for.

After dinner we went back to hotel, drank some tea and smoked the water pipe. We had also some sherry we drank with our neighbours. They asked us if we needed some more to drink but we were a little bit tired from the last days.

Next section: Yazd

Continued from: Isfahan - Persepolis - Shiraz

Before breakfast I wanted to go into the internet but it had not been opened yet in our hotel (Shiraz Parsian Hotel). Also in other ways this hotel was special: we had a heated toilet. The flushing was connected to the hot water.

We visited Arg of Karim Khan, the bazaar and also the underground (historical water supply). All public museums we entered had a standard price of 5000 Rial (about 0,30€). It seems that from site of public the history is not worth that much.

After a short break and lunch at the roadside we went to the botanical garden which was attended by many young couples.

In the late afternoon we visited the mausoleums of the two most important poets of Iran, Hafez and Saadi (comparable to Goethe and Schiller in Germany). According our leader they embody the soul of Iran and I noticed that the visit of their graves had meant a lot to him. But not also to him but also to all classes of population.

In the evening we were invited in a garden a little bit outside and had the opportunity to try the famous wine of Shiraz.

Next section: Shiraz - Yazd

Continued from: Isfahan

On route 65 we went from Isfahan over Abadeh to Shiraz. The first station we stopped was Pasagardae where you can find the tomb of Cyrus the Great.

In Naqsh-e Rustam we found four giant tombs of Achaemenid kings which are carved into the rocks. These tombs were near to Persepolis, another highlight of our Iran trip. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is very impressive and gigantic. We were all buried from all the details you can discover on this huge area. But the current government wanted to blow up the whole system some years ago. They had brought the explosive already on-site but were prevented by the inhabitants of Shiraz - thank God.

Late in the evening we reached our hotel in Shiraz. I wanted to go into the internet but it was already closed.

Next section: Shiraz

Continued from: Hamadan - Isfahan

Space... the Final Frontier. We write the year 1390 A.H. These are the voyages of the starship Flying Carpet. Her ongoing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life forms and new civilizations, to boldly go where no tourist has gone before. (free after Star Trek)

As I wrote this lines in my (paper) notebook we were sitting in a tea house right in the bazaar which is pretty smoky and is attended by all the locals (and in former times by our leader). The bazaar itself is several kilometers long and you can easily be lost in it. Before we had visited some sight seeings around the Naghsh-e-Jahan Square. The mosques around this place have a turbulent past and served as role models for other mosques. We stay three days at the Abbasi Hotel where you can can think you live in another world. Esfahan (and the hotel) was one of the highlights of our tour. We visited the Shaking Minaretts, some churches in the Armenian Quarter (e.g. the All Savior's Cathedral).

When we go in the late evening to the Naqsh-e Jahan Square (also known as "Shah Square" or "Imam Square") there was so much life on this place. Several times we were asked what we think about the Iran. Most of the people were students but also other peoples (e.g. one who works for the army) spoke to us.

Next section: Isfahan - Persepolis - Shiraz

continued from: Kermanshah - Hamadan

In Hamadan we visited two mauseoleums: Baba Taher and Mausoleum of Avicenna. On the way to it we met an Irani who asked us on German - he had worked over 10 years at Stuttgart and was also very happy that we visit the Iran. As he noticed our leader he meant we are good guided.

On the way to Isfahan we did a stop at Saveh were we eat our melon we bought two days before. Also here we were the attraction of the village.

There were many trucks on the road when we continued our journey. For us as German tourists the overtaking on a normal road with two lanes were very adventurous. Not only that trucks were overtaken regardless opposing traffic but also trucks opens a third lane to overtake two trucks if there is no opposing traffic.

At a radar control we had luck. The police exempted us the penalty because we were tourists. And he railed against the mullahs before us who drived without any ID cards ("They believe they have control of our country...").

The Abbasi Hotel in Isfahan was stunning and well attended. In general Isfahan is a lively and very clean city. After dinner (where we had first to wait because there was Mother's Day in Iran) we visited the famous bridges who unfortunately were standing in the dry.

Next section: Isfahan

Continued from: Merivan - Kermanshah

After breakfast we visited the reliefs from Kermanshah (Taq-e Bostan). Our local guide as again very interested about our opinion about the Iran. Iran is a country where over 4000 years ago the first brain surgery had taken place. And we should judge Iran not by the political leadership but by the people (and don't confuse them with the Arabs!).

Next object of interest was an over 100 year old house where the governor lived in former times. Impressive was not only the Hall of Mirrors but also the sophisticated architecture. The architects in former times knew how to keep the climate cool and nice without any technical equipment. Unfortunately it seems that this knowlegde is lost if you see the modern hotels where we were.

After that we wanted to visit the Relief and Inscription of Darius, a World Heritage of the Iran. But unfortunately this highlight is closed for the moment because a German professor examins the level of the pollution of this heritage. But also the other attractions like Farkad Toras or caravanserai were it worth to visit this place.

In the evening we wanted to go into the Ali-Sadr Cave but we were to late. But the restaurant were still open an I tried an Iranian cuisine, "Dizzie" (I don't know how it is written but this is the pronunciation).

Again we reached our next hotel (Baba Taher Hotel, babetaher-hotel@yahoo.com) in Hamedan in the dark. What I noticed in the hotel room were the telephones - an application from the "Deutsche Bundespost" with a dial which I knew very good from the beginning of my career at Alcatel SEL.

Next section: Hamadan - Isfahan

Continued from: Kandovan - Merivan

Actually we wanted to go to the water lilies on the lake but we had to go by motor boats and you need a permit from the authorities (because of Environment) - so no water lilies for today. Yeah, not really, the inhabitants showed us a place where we could go by foot.

The first part of the trip to Kermanshah we used a road which never has seen a modern car like our little bus. It was more a bigger path as a road through the wild Kurdistan - also a smuggler area or, as our guide said, the duty-free area. The mountains are rugged but the scenery is wonderful. The men wears wide trousers and the women colorful clothes. We need 4 till 5 hour for this first part where the inhabitants needs only 2 (the fly over the rocks with their cars). At the end of this road our driver shouts suddenly "asphalt" when he saw the normal road - he was so happy to be on a normal road again.

Late in the night we arrived Kermanshah. The hotel there has internet access and was the first opportunity for me to come in contact with the rest of the world. But not all addresses were accessible, e.g. Twitter, Flickr, Facebook and also blogspot.com I can't access.

Next section: Kermanshah - Hamadan