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World trip - Anna & Bertram
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World trip - Anna & Bertram

A 202-day adventure by placeswetravelled Read more
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  • placeswetravelledWorld trip - Anna & BertramTraveler
    Sheikh Lotfollah mosque
    Amazing roofs2Coffee and tea :-)The Jameh mosqueThe courtyard of the Abbasi hotel

    Beautiful Isfahan

    March 29, 2018 in Iran ⋅ 🌙 14 °C

    We strolled around Isfahan today. We started off at the main Nagsh-e Jahan Square. It’s huge, about 500 meters in length. Enough place for all sorts of fountains, gardens, and a polo court where there actually was a game on! Most Iranian tourists sit on the grass and picnic there. For us sitting and people-watching is not always so easy: within 2 minutes there is usually a small crowd of Iranians around us wanting to chat, take pictures and extend invitations to their hometowns in the Iranian hinterland.
    We thus moved on into the Sheikh Lotfollah mosque. It’s not really being used today anymore - and serves more as a monument than as a place of worship. Still it was impressive to see.

    In true German fashion, we then went on a self-guided walking tour from the main square through the bazaar and to the Jameh Mosque (main mosque) of Isfahan. This was truly impressive! Like so many places in Iran, this is also a UNESCO world heritage site. Different than most other parts of Isfahan, there were very few people inside the mosque and we really enjoyed the tranquility.

    Pretty tired, we made our way back, got ourselves some Turkish honey (“Gaz”) and then relaxed in a coffee shop near the main square. Nice coffee shops are few and far between. The culture here is more to sit indoors in traditional tea houses, probably due to the heat from the sun. But we found this coffee shop that had outdoor seating in a nice backyard and were quite happy with our find :-) (That’s not to say that the teahouses aren’t nice. But sometimes the craving for a cappuccino gets too strong :-))

    For dinner, we joined a couple of German and Catalonian tourists for a fancy meal in the Armenian quarter and then some tea in the courtyard of the Abbasi luxury hotel. The courtyard is vast - a very nice place to hang out :-)    Read more

  • placeswetravelledWorld trip - Anna & BertramTraveler

    Ready to leave Isfahan

    March 29, 2018 in Iran ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    Today was our last day in Isfahan. We spent the morning doing Yoga (Anna) and then heading to the main mosque in Naghshe Jahan square (the third and last mosque in Isfahan for us, in case you weren’t counting). Despite having some construction going on, the mosque’s inner courtyard impressed us. Again, we enjoyed the tranquility, particularly when compared with the hustle and bustle outside. Tourists pay 2-4x of what locals pay, so we made sure we’d get our money’s worth, visiting all parts of the mosque. We also came across an exhibition area, where information was presented on the 1953 coup all the way to the Islamic Revolution, the Iran-Iraq war and the wars in Syria and Jemen. Sadly, the information was very one-side (you can guess which one) and left us not better informed but somewhat saddened to realise that this is the only information that is given to Iranians. (Access to international news sites is limited.)

    Outside the mosque we were immediately approached by hawkers, following the typical Isfahan-tourist-trap-spiel: “What’s your country? - Ah, Germany! - Come visit my shop, I want to show you my culture. - You don’t have to buy anything, only have some tea. - If you do want to buy, we take MasterCard, Visa and Amex.”
    Being approached in this way quickly exhausted and annoyed us. When we told the guys that we will likely not visit and that they should stop pressuring us, they still only relented after stuffing a business card in our hands. It’s a shame - many Iranians are truly interested in foreigners and it is nice to be “ambassadors” for your country when visiting other places. But being annoyed like this kind of just made us want to put our heads down and get out. So we did - and headed to our now favourite coffee shop.

    Two hours later we met with Mohsen, an Iranian acquaintance from Natanz. He was very lovely and made us a gift as well as chatting with us about all sorts of things (and practicing his English on the way).

    In the evening we had dinner with our new Catalonian friends and then went for a longer walk around town, visiting the old stone bridges that go across the river in Isfahan. The water in the river is long gone due to drought, but on the plus side we witnesses an outdoor performance from local musicians playing from the bridge to a large crowd standing in the old riverbed. :-)    Read more

  • placeswetravelledWorld trip - Anna & BertramTraveler
    4The view from our hotel room on the roof :-)

    Transfer to Yazd via desert town Na'in

    March 30, 2018 in Iran ⋅ ⛅ 5 °C

    Today was a rather uneventful day. We started off with our two Catalan friends and took the bus to Na’in, a supposedly nice and interesting desert town with sights like an old mosque, castle ruins, an old bazaar. It was really windy and we all got teary eyes from the sand in the air - welcome to the desert :-)

    While the mosque was an interesting sight, the other 5+ sights in town were less impressive and a lack of other tourists (Iranian and other) seemed to confirm the low touristic merits ;-) The four of us had tea and a snack in a rudimentary cafe that featured interesting decoration material: sheep skins that looked like balloons....

    In order to get to Yazd, we then went to the big roundabout at the edge of town and waited for a bus that we could stop. We got lucky after 20 minutes /-) and the waiting time was made more pleasant by two young Iranian ladies who were promoting travel safety and first aid in the service of the Red Crescent 🌙 (Red Cross in muslim countries). We got candy and chairs to sit on in the shade.

    Arriving in Yazd, the city immediately struck us as a great catch: much calmer and with fewer people than Esfahan. We also saw many cute little cafes and restaurants that looked very inviting from the first sight - something we missed a bit in Esfahan. Together with the Catalans, we met the German girls for dinner in one of the roof tops restaurants with views on the mosques around the town, it was great!    Read more

  • placeswetravelledWorld trip - Anna & BertramTraveler
    The Zoroastrian fire temple

    Walking around in Yazd's heat

    March 31, 2018 in Iran ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    The German-Austrian-Catalan tourist group got going again :-) With the 6 of us, you have to know that it makes it hard to cross any kind of public space without having one of us being stopped and asked for a picture. But we got to see quite a bit:

    - Zoroastrian temple with an eternal flame 🔥 burning since ~470 AD - we only got 5 of us on the picture and the second Anna is missing

    - Masjed-e Jame (Main Mosque) - the girls having to take a separate entrance and borrowing chadors. 👻 While Iranian religious teaching emphasizes that the chador is a protection for women “like the oyster protects the pearl”, we actually felt like rather sweaty women. A nice surprise was the presence of a calligraphy artist and both Annas got their name written in Persian calligraphic script

    - the shrine of a religious scholar (which was undergoing construction - thus the „holy repair” street sign). It also had a variety of praying beads on a rake, it looked very nice

    - coffee stop at a nice restaurant court: great coffee ☕️ and pomegranate juice 🥤 also a fantastic escape from the searing sun

    - walking the old streets of Yazd: almost everything is made of reddish-brown brick and wind towers (called badgirs) help to ventilate rooms and courtyard by channeling in air from outside through intricate systems

    - traditional house: only Bertram and David went there while the rest had already left: it was not really impressive and the collection of western women pictures on the walls looked rather creepy

    We are now back in the hotel to escape the afternoon heat - it really is the desert here in Yazd and rain falls as rarely as 3 times a YEAR!

    In the evening we will go out together to another traditional Iranian restaurant with roof top seating.

    Happy Easter 🐣 to all of you back home!    Read more

  • placeswetravelledWorld trip - Anna & BertramTraveler

    Water museum and Iranian sport sessions

    April 1, 2018 in Iran ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    We started our last day in Yazd at a relaxed pace. We saw most of the major sights yesterday and planned to use today to read and soak in some of Yazd’s atmosphere from one of the many rooftop cafés.
    We first set out to Yazd’s water museum. It chronicles the work of the local people digging underground waterways to provide water to the city. The museum was housed in an old family building and we enjoyed it a lot :-)
    Continuing with the water theme, the next stop was the former water reservoir of Yazd. From the outside it is barely noticeable, but from the inside it is very much like a huge egg placed underground. Pretty impressive! Nowadays, the site is used for practitioners of an Iranian sport where heavy wooden clubs are swung around. We actually came back in the evening to watch a “performance” of these sportspeople. The place was packed, there was singing and live music and about 10 men practices their sport in the middle. Quite a peculiar way of evening entertainment :-)

    Finally, after visiting one last mosque/gallery in Yazd we played some billiards at or hotel. Anna: 2, Bertram: 1 (though Bertram pocketed the black ball twice...) 🎱    Read more

  • placeswetravelledWorld trip - Anna & BertramTraveler

    Persepolis!

    April 2, 2018 in Iran ⋅ 🌙 6 °C

    Today’s attraction: Persepolis! We hired a driver to take us across the Iranian plains from Yazd to Persepolis.
    Along the route, there are actually a number of archaeological sites that more or less belong to the Persepolis archaeological site (we stopped at three, Pasargadae, Nagshe Rostam and Persepolis proper). We were impressed by the monumental buildings and tombs that were built about 2500 years ago. It’s hard to compare different cultures, but we’ve seen a number of archaeological sites now over the course of our travels and this was certainly the oldest and - with that age in mind - certainly one of the most impressive. We very much enjoyed looking at the detailed pictures of the various groups of peoples that were ruled by the Persian emperors. The engravings in Persepolis pictured them paying homage all differently: some carrying cloth, some bringing camels, others driving chariots and so on.Read more

  • placeswetravelledWorld trip - Anna & BertramTraveler
    2

    Express but extensive visit to Shiraz

    April 3, 2018 in Iran ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    We left Persepolis in the late morning and treated ourselves to a taxi ride to Shiraz (~1 hour and 8 Euro :-)). Upon arrival we checked in and got going to explore the city as we had now planned to join our Catalan friends for a 2-day hike as of tomorrow. So no more time than today!

    We first walked in the semi-deserted streets around noon as everybody hid away from the sun :-) perfect timing ;-) we walked to the main mosque near the old bazaar which had beautifully designed columns in the prayer hall.

    Afterwards we walked into the bazaar (mostly for the shade not for the wares) and reached a shrine on the northern side of the (dried out - like many others we have seen so far) river. Anna got another chador to wear and we were allowed to take pictures of the blinking mirrors inside. We then made it even further outside of the center and went to the mausoleum of famous Iranian poet Hafez. Essentially, it is a park with an octagonal pavilion housing the tomb. It was okay...

    Back in town we had a coffee (and Bert a nap ;-)) and we went to get some business done: exchange money and book a domestic flight to Tabriz for April 5. All was accomplished successfully :-)

    We now had another drink at the bazaar plaza (Anna dared the local specialty called Joulep: Rose water (of course, it is EVERYWHERE :-)), saffron (dito), orange blossom extract (the Shiraz specialty), and chia seeds - plus a fair amount of sugar :-) and will later head to a small local restaurant before getting to bed early for tomorrow’s hike!

    Like on so many days, we again met very friendly Iranians who chat us up, wanting to know where we are from and whether they can help us. We met one lady who actually lives in Germany and is now visiting her family in Iran. Another gentleman found us as we studied the map in our guidebook and immediately proceeded to tell us which sights are worth visiting and which are not :-) All in all - apart from the annoying sellers in Isfahan - we only met friendly people here, eager to talk to foreigners and to help us as we visit their country.    Read more

  • placeswetravelledWorld trip - Anna & BertramTraveler

    Hiking in the Zagros mountains

    April 5, 2018 in Iran ⋅ 🌫 15 °C

    After a brief morning visit to the pink mosque, we got in two cars and drove off the the southwest of Shiraz for our hike including spending the night in the village or with nomads.

    We reached the village near Kaserun after ~2 hours and prepared the lunch - marinated chicken kebab and vegetables to be freshly grilled on the mountain. The hike was not too difficult and overall it was more a picnic than a hike in German-Austrian fashion :-) The lunch took about 2 hours including collecting fire wood, starting the fire, drinking tea, grilling kebabs, eating, drinking more tea. Our group was really nice, the two well know Catalans and a couple from Munich being with us.

    A great aspect of it was, however, that the girls did not have to wear any Islamic dress during the hike - freedom! It was so nice to feel the breeze in hair and neck....

    We arrived back in the village quite late and, thus, changed the original plan: no sleeping over at the nomads but sleeping at our guide’s home. Anna went for an our of yoga before we got great dinner by his mother. Soon after dinner, everybody went to sleep.

    We visited the nomads on the next morning (today) and has tea with the woman as the man had climbed up the mountains with their ~200 goats. Luckily, they had a couple of young goats still at the camp 🐐 so cute! In good Iranian-nomadic fashion, we had another cup of tea before driving back to Shiraz.    Read more

  • placeswetravelledWorld trip - Anna & BertramTraveler

    Flight from Shiraz to Tabriz

    April 5, 2018 in Iran ⋅ 🌙 15 °C

    We spent a leisurely afternoon in Shiraz, drinking coffee in the square opposite the main mosque and bazar. After saying farewell to our travel companions we made our way to the airport.

    We took the metro to the airport, confident that the airport is at the final stop of the main line going through town. However, somehow the metro planners thought it would be ok for the airport stop to be about 800 metres away from the airport terminal building. So we walked the last distance for about 10 minutes.

    (Fun) fact about the airplane seating plan: to avoid unmarried men and women from sitting next to each other, the rows on one side of the aisle alternate with all male/all female rows after one another. Alternatively, couples can sit on the other side of the aisle where there are only two seats...

    Not so fun fact: after the flight I read on Wikipedia that our airline (Iran Aseman) had a fatal accident only 2 months ago. Most of the Iranian airlines are not licensed to fly to Europe due to their poor safety records. Sanctions on Iran often mean that spare parts cannot be obtained and force Iranian airlines to operate old airplanes, resulting in more frequent accidents. Ours was a Fokker 100, the last of which was built 1997 after which the company went bankrupt. At least the food was good! :-)    Read more

  • placeswetravelledWorld trip - Anna & BertramTraveler
    1

    Lazy day in Tabriz :-)

    April 6, 2018 in Iran ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    We did not anticipate much action on this Friday in Tabriz but were positively surprised that the UNESCO World Heritage Bazaar was up and running. After roaming through it, we made our way to the newer and supposedly hipper suburbs where we went for lunch, coffee, and dinner - what a feast! :-) Even though the restaurant called Barcode (lunch, dinner) was a more chic restaurant, the waiters barely spoke English and Google Translate could have done a better job as well (see picture :-)). But we got nice food and that’s the main point.

    It was more difficult to get back into the city center than anticipated: the subway was already closed when we got there at 19:57... but we asked a helpful young man at the station who directed us to the bus station where we hopped on a random one but got lucky and were dropped off next to our hotel’s street.

    After driving in a car for parts of every day in the last 4 days, it was nice just to chill and read our books.

    Tomorrow we will likely have a longer journey ahead as we will hire a driver to go around the north and along the Aras river valley to the East.    Read more

  • placeswetravelledWorld trip - Anna & BertramTraveler

    Today was Anna's birthday!

    April 7, 2018 in Iran ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    Today was Anna’s birthday! To celebrate it - and to make the most of our last few days in Iran - we embarked on a big tour (by car with a driver). About 550km 🛣 and 4 highlights:
    - The mountain village of Kandovan, where houses and shelters for sheep are carved into the mountainside. The houses look a bit like the hats of the smurfs (but they are not white). We met a lot of shepherds and their animals.
    - The Armenian monastery of St. Stephanos, a christian orthodox church/monastery that is nicely settled into the mountainside ⛪️
    - The Araz River Valley and the border stretch between Iran on one side and Armenia/Azerbaijan on the other side. The valley is enormously beautiful, plus quite an attractive change to the desert lands of central and southern Iran. The valley also still bears the scars from the war between Azerbaijan and Armenia that began with the dissolution of the Soviet Union and lasted until 1994. We saw a number of train-wrecks, abandoned villages and military observation points everywhere. Travelling on the southern (Iranian) side of the river - where we were driving - was, however, easy and without problems.
    - Babak Castle, a 9th century fortress of which some ruins still remain. 🏰 To visit the castle, we would have to hike up for about 1 hour. We were quite disillusioned when we started the hike, as there was fog and clouds everywhere and one could hardly see 10 metres. However, as we climbed up the mountain, we actually climbed higher than the surrounding clouds and were rewarded with amazing views down on top of the clouds 😊

    By the time we got back to the car it was already 7:30pm. The original plan was to drive to Ardabil, but this would have been another 4 hours. We were too exhausted and we didn’t want our driver to have to drive so long (+in the dark), so we got off at Ahar and left our Catalonian friend Martí and the driver to go back to Tabriz. We found a hotel and quickly realised that Ahar is not a city that’s on most tourist itineraries: the hotel manager speaks no English whatsoever and the check-in forms one has to fill in are also entirely in Farsi.

    To finish the day, we went for a meal that turned out to maybe have been the cheapest meal of our entire world trip: two beer (non-alcoholic AND with pineapple and lemon taste, respectively = no beer) and two falafel sandwiches for about 1.33 EUR. Cheapest birthday meal ever 😉    Read more

  • placeswetravelledWorld trip - Anna & BertramTraveler

    Visiting Qazvin

    April 9, 2018 in Iran ⋅ 🌙 10 °C

    Originally, our plans for today were different: we intended to go hiking in the supposedly beautiful hotspot of the Alamut valley. We decided differently - here is why and what we did instead :-)

    We arrived awefully late yesterday (23:30) and had the first bad experience with Iranian bus travel: the bus was quite expensive (more than 2x what we expected...), the driver smoked inside the bus AND stopped about 4 times during the 6 hour journey to smoke some more. Then they objected to us leaving the bus to pee while they smoked. And the best part: the bus did not stop in Qazvin bus terminal but somewhere along the northern highway... it was really a shame. Luckily, we had experienced far better service and hospitality so far in Iran that we brush this aside as a one time thing.

    After hearing from other travellers and reading the tourist bible called Lonely Planet that going into the Alamut valley costs about 30 USD one way and takes 2.5 hours we were quite discouraged. Another day in the car for most of the day, only getting out for a couple of short stops and maybe a 2-3 hour hike? No thanks! We have great mountains that are accessible in Germany/Austria and we will do so once we get home :-)

    Thus, we visited Qazvin, a booming town 2.5 hours northwest of Tehran. We liked the old church and the park where men held chess competitions. But we especially fell in love with the old restored caravanserai: where camels 🐫 and their drivers loaded and unloaded goods for transport along the ancient Silk Road there was now a fine building with coffee shops and art and design shops. Very nice to spend the day. We also met Ali, a theology student and had interesting discussions about Islam and religion in general. The best thing was that he accompanied us to the neighboring mosque 🕌 and helped to decipher the kufiq script - see annotated picture.

    We finished the afternoon off with yoga (first Anna on her own, then Anna teaching Bertram) and had nice dinner nearby.

    Tomorrow, we will move to Karaj and meet Iranian friends from an earlier part of the trip.    Read more

  • placeswetravelledWorld trip - Anna & BertramTraveler
    Anna: Chied Eggplant OfficerPomegranate Juice ShopThe cafe set on top of an aquariumKids and dogs play :-)Anna's beautiful nightdress

    Reunion with or Iranian friends

    April 10, 2018 in Iran ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    Today was a great day :-)
    We travelled from Qazvin to Karaj to reunite with Ali and his family here. We met him, his daughter and his wife in Natanz in our first week in Iran.
    Ali actually lives in Mehrshahr - a beautiful suburb of Karaj (which is itself a satellite city to the nearby Tehran). We first had tea and some self-made kashk-e bademjan (smoked eggplant) and then we went for a walk around the neighbourhood. It is really very different to most parts of Iran we have seen so far. Many tree-lined streets, nice cafes with outdoor seating, and we even stopped at a pomegranate juice shop :-)
    We then sat down at a very fancy cafe that had little booths set on top of a giant aquarium with fish in it. Really very cool :-) The group got progressively larger with more relatives dropping in and finally we returned to Ali’s apartment for dinner and lively discussions and storytelling about our experiences in Iran. A big part of the discussion was about what we thought of Iran and the image the country has abroad. Recounting our travels (not just in Iran but also in all the other countries we visited on our journey) made us realise the privilege we enjoy to be able to travel so much (both that we can afford it financially but also that our German and Austrian passports allow us to travel most everywhere without restrictions).
    Visiting Ali and his family is certainly a highlight of our Iranian travels. Having seen many mosques and traditional houses and ancient Persian ruins, it is now really nice to spend some time with an Iranian family and get to know them better. We were treated with enormous hospitality. Anna was given a beautiful ring as a gift and - but only to borrow - a nightdress to wear for sleeping :-)
    Tomorrow we will drive north towards the Caspian Sea to spend a day there, before finally returning to Tehran and heading home to Germany.    Read more

  • placeswetravelledWorld trip - Anna & BertramTraveler
    Leyla, Mohaddeseh and Anna in the carAttempts at Acro YogaOur friends Ali and Mohaddeseh

    Caspian Sea getaway

    April 11, 2018 in Iran ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    We drove “to the north” today, to spend a day (and the night) at Leyla’s apartment there. For Tehranis, going to the north is really a weekend getaway at the Caspian Sea. Still, the drive is quite long, and so we spent about 4 hours to get there and ~6 hours back in the car (including a breakfast break).

    Both days we got up early (6 and 7, respectively), to have the most of the day, and consequently it was quite tiring for us. Particularly if you consider that dinner was had at about 11:30pm and even later on the second day.

    We enjoyed looking at the scenery as we drove north from Tehran. Immediately north of the city, the Alborz mountain range begins and the road winds through various canyons and past rivers (yes, we saw our first river with water in it in Iran).

    As we discovered, in “the north” there is actually not all that much to do. Swimming in the Caspian Sea was really out of the question - the beach is much too dirty to be inviting and there is no real beach culture given Islamic law. People really just go there to look out onto the water. Well on our visit, it was quite foggy, so instead of looking out, we spent some time having lunch, playing ball games and football with Leyla’s 6-year-old son. Back in the flat we made some attempts at Acro Yoga and also visited the jacuzzi and pool at the top of the apartment. (Each flat tenant can book some time and then the pool area can be used exclusively by them. That way, no female covering is needed.)

    We finished the evening with corn 🌽 barbecue and after another short night, we drove back to Tehran for our final day in Iran.    Read more

  • placeswetravelledWorld trip - Anna & BertramTraveler
    Tea with Fatima

    Last day in Iran

    April 12, 2018 in Iran ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Today was our last day in Iran. Apart from meeting a friend in the city, we had only one sightseeing target for the day: the Azadi Tower. Built in 1971 it is very much part of Tehran’s skyline as well as witness to a number of protests and momentous events in Iranian history. It was a focal point during the 1979 Islamic Revolution as well as during the recent protests in Iran. It marks the west entrance to the city (before the new international airport was built, all visitors to Tehran would typically see the tower as they entered the city coming from the airport).

    We also visited Fatima, co-owner of our first hotel in Tehran. We got to know her when we first stayed there three weeks ago and now wanted to see her again to tell her about our travels. We had a great chat with her - as hotel owner and manager, she sees a lot of (western) tourists and told us about all the many questions people ask her that they are uncertain about before they visit Iran. (Like: can I eat something in my room during Ramadan? Can my boyfriend and I sleep in the same bed even though we are not married?)

    We returned to Ali and family for the 6-months-birthday party of their daughter Lena and one last (short) night before flying back home. ✈️    Read more

  • placeswetravelledWorld trip - Anna & BertramTraveler

    Reunion with Anna's family in Neheim

    April 16, 2018 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    We arrived tiredly but safely in Düsseldorf on Friday, 13.04.2018 and immediately started to meet family and friends. We started with an afternoon and evening with Ingmar and Swetlana in Hilden and were driven home by Anna’s parents.

    We had a great long weekend with the following activities:
    - yoga on the terrace
    - jogging in the Ansberg woods
    - bouldering in Dortmund
    - cooking and eating
    - presents
    - travel talks

    It feels good to be home again and be able to share in person all the experience we have had! :-)    Read more

  • placeswetravelledWorld trip - Anna & BertramTraveler

    Getting back to Munich

    April 17, 2018 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    We joined Anna’s brother Robert to the train station and all went to our respective homes. After some ~6 hours of quiet train travel we arrived back in our flat, exchanged keys with our subtenants again and received a couple of friends :-)Read more

    Trip end
    April 28, 2018
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