Dear All,

After a very intense few days in Isfahan where we spent a lot of time with a wonderfully hospitable family, we took the bus on Thursday lunchtime to Shiraz. The road skirts the Zargos mountains where there are still snow peaks despite temperatures over 30 degrees. The mountains are barren and rocky but where there is water in the broad valleys there are rice fields and orchards. We reached Shiraz after dark and got a taxi to our hotel, tucked away in little side alleys in the old town. Our room looks through big coloured windows straight into the courtyard which is the restaurant, where we had a good evening meal and were as always late to bed.

Our first bus ride 

Shiraz is a town famous for its gardens, birds, roses and poets, and it lives up to its reputation. After getting deliberately lost in the little alleyways of the old town, Leander and I got out hair cut at a local hairdresser, bought bread, cheese and melon for a picnic in the park and visited a big botanic garden. The first highlight of the day was a visit to the shrine of the Iman Reza’s brother, one of the holiest shrines in Iran. It involved Norah borrowing a full-length hejab and us all having to give in our cameras before entering the complex, which is huge and impressive. There are at least three mosques set around a vast central square a lot of which is covered with carpets for Friday prayers. Men and women enter the shrines separately. Inside the walls are covered with small pieces of mirror, symbolizing the diversity of our earthly existence in the face of god. Worshipers in their thousands come to touch, kiss and revere the shrine and recite prayers and then walk backwards away from the shrine to avoid turning their backs to it. Norah got a woman guide who took a lot of pains to show us around and took lots of photos on her mobile (!) which she’ll send us on Facebook. In the evening we went to the Mausoleum of Hafez, the famous and revered Persian poet, set in beautiful gardens and full of Iranian visitors. Finally back to the hotel where we had heavenly double expressos and smoked a hookah on the rooftop café and watched the evening settle over this wonderful city.




Having a relaxing evening in the rooftop teahouse of our hotel

Gates of Persepolis

Off into the desert!

On Saturday we hired a car and driver, who took us to Persepolis, the ruins of the ancient centre of the Persian Empire before Alexander the Great overran it – and then on to the desert city of Yazd, where we have spent the last 2 days. Here the whole town centre is a warren of narrow alleyways between adobe walls. The skyline is dominated by the “badgirs”, tall chimney-like towers which catch the wind and draw cool air down into the houses.  Before entering the house, the air passes over cool water, cooling it still further and adding humidity to it. There are also some specially beautiful mosques to visit, and we’ve had some time to relax.

 

 

Wandering through the dark, quiet alleyways of Yazd 

Tomorrow we head for the desert for 2 days before returning to Teheran and then our flights back to Germany. Leander is so taken by Iran that he’ll try to extend his visa and drive around a bit more on his bike and perfect his Farsi! So in a few days I’ll be back in Germany and it will all seem like a dream from 1001 nights!