Wednesday, the 4th of April
The previous evening, we picked up Abdel from the airport. As he only speaks French and Arabic, we had prepared some sentences in English for him, a hotel reservation, a planning… Just to make sure he could pass customs without any problems. In the end, he breezed through every control without being asked one question. We missed each other in the arrival hall though, so he was almost ready to take a taxi to the hotel when we finally found each other…
On Wednesday, we visited the shrine of the sister of Imam Reza, the 8th Imam, in Qom. Metusaleh was buried here in the 9th century, after dying en route to visit her brother in Mashhad. Because of this shrine, Qom is the second holiest city of Iran, after Mashhad (burial place of Reza himself). Through gifts of pilgrims, the shrine has become very opulent:
(The gold ornaments you can see in one square alone, add up to over 200 kg of pure gold!)
(Wafa almost died boiling under the chador. She didn’t understand how Iranian women are able to wear this, or put up with it… Respect for our Iranian sisters!)
We then set out towards Kashan, where we booked a room in a nice traditional house. We didn’t do much for the rest of the day, as it got pretty hot. In the evening we had dinner in a very nice setting though:
(There were a few of these renovated houses/palaces in Kashan, that gave you a real feel for the architecture of the time (mostly 19th century, Qajar dynasty.)
Thursday, the 5th of April
We stayed in and around Kashan on Thursday. First we visited a traditional bath house (hamam), which was beautifully renovated:
And then another palace of a merchant:
We had lunch in the Fin garden, which was designed for one of the great Shahs in Persian history, Shah Abbas the Great (Saffavid dynasty, 16th century). This guy’s name is going to pop up a lot more, so you might want to remember it 😉
Afterwards, we drove towards a nearby village, Nyasar, which was supposed to have a nice waterfall. However, when we got there, the waterfall itself was rather underwhelming:
Still, it was nice to see how the Iranians themselves spent their weekend (Thursday and Friday in Iran!), as they were picnicking all around, smoking a water pipe, or just taking a nap.
Friday, the 6th of April
Today we would drive to Isfahan, but first we stopped by Abyaneh. The drive to this little town alone was worth the detour, as it is hidden in a valley, surrounded by snow-capped mountains:
Because of its isolation, the inhabitants apparently still speak an older version of Farsi, called Middle Persian. They were also out in their traditional garments:
On the drive towards Isfahan, it started raining, so no more stops. We drove through Natanz though, which is famous for being the town where Iran’s nuclear program is/was being developed.
*DISCLAIMER* We can neither confirm nor deny there were any weapons of mass destruction present. *DISCLAIMER*
When we arrived in Isfahan, we quickly dropped off our luggage, and went to explore the city centre nearby. What we saw was simply jaw-dropping:
The most impressive monuments on the Naqsh-e Jahan Square (2nd largest square in the world, we were told. After another one in Pyongyang…) were built during the reign of Shah Abbas the Great (yup, that one again). These include the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque and the Masjed-e Shah Mosque you see above.
In the evening, we went for dinner in a restaurant on the square. Of note here was mainly the dessert: some sort of yoghurt pudding, with lamb meat mixed in (0,5 kg of meat per 10 kg of yoghurt, for the foodies among you). Had a very nice, non-meaty taste!
Saturday, the 7th of April
We wanted to explore the city further, so we dived into the bazaar. However, after more than 3 weeks of non-stop travelling, writing, planning and other stuff, Tom’s brain decided it had had enough, and went into shutdown. So we split up, with Wafa and Abdel soldiering on, while Tom spent most of the day in bed, resting.
Some of the nicer stuff that was visited:
(Ali Kapu palace.)
(Sheikh Lotfollah mosque.)
(Masjed-e Shah mosque.)
(Masjed-e Jameh mosque.)
Each by themselves, these are architectural gems to behold. To see them all in one place, almost one square even, is just astonishing.
We had dinner in a lovely restaurant, in Qajar style. The food in Iran is quite good by the way (according to Tom only >_>), although it might get a bit monotonous after a while. Lots of kebab (chicken, beef or lamb), stews and rice. Wafa is starting to have trouble finding variety in her menu 🙂
Sunday, the 8th of April
We’d planned to visit the outer sights of Isfahan, but almost immediately got sidetracked by a very charming carpet salesman, not far from Naqsh-e Jahan Square. Although we made clear his carpets were way above our budget, he still gave us an interesting introduction to Persian tapestry, tea included. What really appealed to us, is that he stayed very friendly until the end, even when he couldn’t convince us to buy anything. This has been quite different in some other countries we’ve visited, where shop visits frequently turn nasty once the shopkeeper understands you’re not buying, but only windowshopping.
(Boone, we thought about buying this one for you, but too expensive… 🙁 )
Isfahan is also famous for its lovely bridges, mostly Pol-e Khaju and Si-o-Seh Pol (again dating from the Saffavid era). We thought some of the charm was missing though, as the riverbed was completely dry:
We also visited the Armenian quarter of Isfahan, Jolfa. Beautiful paintings inside the cathedral:
(Reminds us a bit of Bosch, with the demons.)
But lunch in one of the many restaurants was spoiled by the fact that the waiter kept whispering in Tom’s ear to put a tip underneath his plate. Big no-no.
On our way back towards the hotel, we stopped by the atelier of a master craftsman, Hossein Fallahi, famous for his miniature paintings. This gentle old man (almost 80, and still his hands are steadier than ours!) explained to us how he had travelled all over the world for exhibitions, including Belgium:
(On top of his list: Ardooie! He said he really liked Belgium, as people had been very friendly to him there.)
(He also made us a nice little painting. We ended up buying a couple of souvenirs from his shop :).)
Afterwards, we changed hotels in Isfahan. Two days earlier, Wafa had stumbled upon a brand new hotel by accident, which offered us a deal we couldn’t refuse (-50%). It had only opened the week before. Big recommendation from us: it’s called Keryas Hotel, right behind the Masjed-e Shah mosque.
So the next 2 nights: luxury! It actually turned out we were the very first guests of the hotel!
(And it was a very nice hotel! Even Suzy got a view while parked in the street 🙂
They were still sorting things out, so a lot of our questions were bounced around by management before we got an answer, but this also had its advantages: because there wasn’t a price list for the minibar yet, we could take anything we wanted for free 🙂 🙂 🙂
Best two nights of sleep we’ve had so far during our trip!
Que c est beau!