Family Blog

Continued from: Arriving at Tehran

On the third day we started with a bus our trip to the North of the Iran, to the Caspian Sea. On the way to it you saw a lot of green and paddy fields you wouldn't expect there. At Bandar Anzalī we wanted to see the water lilies but we were to early - only at summer you can see them.

In the evening we reached Masuleh, a mountain village which is build direct at the flank of the hill. The roof of the lower building is the fore court of the upper building.

On the next day we took a walk around Masouleh and visited the castle Rutchan where you have to go 1400 steps upstairs before you reach it. Unfortunately the weather was rainy and foggy.

Next section: Masuleh - Kandovan

At the moment of this writing I'm at Kermanshah, a city in the south of Iran with about 600,000 inhabitants. The hotel here (Grand Azedgan) has internet access but the Iranian keyboard is a little bit unusual for me.

One week ago we (a small group of 7 persons with me) arrived at the airport of Teheran. The local time here is 2.5 hours before ours and I need over an hour to adjust my watch. At the airport we were well received by the sister and niece of our tour guide and friend.

The first day we use the taxi to visit Teheran. The Iranian way to drive by car is much different from Germany because each centimeter of the road is used for driving. It is not unusual that for a road with two lanes three cars drives side by side. It is like driving in Italy but with more traffic on a smaller area. But my biggest care was that I loose our leader (who is born in Iran) because we must use two taxis. If that would had been happened I would be completely lost in Teheran and could not write this lines here now.

The first evening the sister of our leader organized a party for us where we had the opportunity to get some Iranian people to know. They are very interested to know what we think about them and are open-minded about other cultures. And they know how to party.

Teheran has about 15 million inhabitants and normally there is smog over the city. But we are lucky and got some rain here also it does not rain in Teheran (Jahan said). So the air was clearer than normal and we had a good view on Teheran when we go uphill on the surrounding mountains.

These were the first two days in Teheran. More will follow at the next internet access point...

Next section: Teheran - Masuleh

In a few hour my flight to Iran will start at Stuttgart Airport. For nearly 3 weeks I will go with friends to Iran. Our trip will start in Teheran before we go to the North to Masuleh. It is the first time that I go in this area and I'm very excited.

Next section: Arriving at Teheran

Last Thursday we went for four days to Rome. When we started we did not know if we come back at Monday because there was a strike call of the pilots for this week. On Friday we decided to go to the Vatican by Metro but there was a strike of the public transportation. So we went to the Colosseum.

Rome has more churches and old temples than days in the year. We had a room near the "Stazinone Termine" (the central railway station) where we could reach most of the places of interest by walking. There are also a lot of museums and we were always tired when we came back to our accomodation in the evening.

On Monday we go back to the international airport. Fortunately our flight was not cancelled - only delayed for some hours. On the runway we had to wait again because all Alitalia machines were allowed to start before our machine .But at last we could start.

Yesterday we came back from our vacation on Mallorca. We arrived our hotel in Cala d'Or in the rain and we left the hotel in the rain. But apart from that the wheather was better than expected but not so hot as in California (100°F, as Philip told us).



The first day it was a little bit rainy and we visited the main city Palma de Mallorca with its impressive cathedral Le Seul. The rest of the week was cloudy and sunny and we explored the island or swam in the swiming pool or sea.

We lived at Club Martha's and each evening there was a special event e.g. a performance of the Four Tops or Elvis and the Teddy Bears.