Esfahan

Abbasi Hotel

When you visit Iran, you must go to the famous city of Esfahan. So we did. And were not disappointed at all.The five hour drive became seven hours, but we love road trips and were in no hurry. We also knew that the hotel was going to be fantastic; an old caravansary that has been made into one of the finest hotels of Iran. The beautiful garden has intimate areas with small fountains and flowers everywhere. After a late dinner we sat out between the roses, enjoying the intoxicating flowery scent.

Sheikh Lotfallah Mosque


Esfahan is probably the most touristy city of Iran. This is one of the few places where you run into other foreigners. It breaths the atmosphere of Paris and is known as the city where you find half the world, centered around the Imam Square. You could continuously be sightseeing for two full days, ticking off the list of mosques, bridges, squares, monuments, churches, synagogues, bazaar's, tea houses, carpet shops, work shops, gardens, palaces, minarets, restaurants and so on. If that is what you want.

Traditional lunchroom

I'm glad to say that we have the same preference for traveling; start the day with a big breakfast, then stroll towards a tea house, sit down, relax and look around, if possible with a ghalion. The plan will evolve during the day. Tips come with the people we meet (one Iranian guy at the tea house knew some Dutch, to my surprise it was 'Goed gedaan jochie'! Later in the evening we approached another guy to ask if he new a good restaurant, he took a Paykan taxi with us and insisted to pay for us and then just left). You could say that the day is filled around food and drinks and in between we come across the most beautiful sites, where we again sit down and relax. That's the way to roll.

Khaju Bridge

We spend our time in Esfahan around the Imam Square, the mosques there, in the garden of our hotel Abbasi and around the bridges. The next morning we went to visit the Armenian Church (we'll do the synagogue next time) on our way out to Abeyane, which I remembered as a sleepy little village, with all buildings in red and all inhabitants over the age of 70. Village was still red, inhabitants haven't gotten any younger, but it was not sleeping. Instead, it was full with (all Iranian) tourists, the only road to Abeyane was jammed with buses and cars, and there was just one restaurant (we think food). It was still worth the visit.

Abeyane

Back in Tehran, leaving in a few days, NL, Qatar, Norway. It was good to see some more of the country before taking off again. The beautiful scenery of mountains, salt lake and dessert, the many people who saw us as a site seeing event, the great food, the different cities, the small villages with their own character and just being on the road. I think i should do these kind of trips more often in NL too. There's so much to see out there, anywhere.

-Esfahan & Abeyane Album-