Day 06 - Inching toward Tehran

 Day 06 Friday August 19

After breakfast we started from Eshfahan at 10.15 am and went to a carpet showroom where they gave us a brief history about Persian carpets. There are handmade and machine made carpets. The handmade ones are obviously more expensive and are made by either the nomadic people who roam around in the desert or by people, mostly women, at their homes and sold by the shops. Cotton and silk are the main raw materials along with natural dyes and colours. The cost could be anywhere from 150 dollars to 15000 dollars. Priti was as excited as a kid in a candy store, she saw a few small ones but the one that she liked was for 900 dollars, however better sense prevailed and we walked out without buying it.

We walked about 500 metres to the main area of Eshfahan called Nakshe Jehan square. It's the second largest square in the world. In the centre there are gardens with fountains and the whole periphery has shops, cafes and restaurants.

One of the most beautiful mosques called the Sheikh Lotfallah mosque in the square was made for the royal family of Shah Abbas. It is of marble and decorated with mostly blue coloured tiles. There is a lot of calligraphy in the inner hall and when you look at the centre of the dome there is a lovely tiled peacock. The sun's rays shine through it's tail to illuminate the inside.

Miras Cafe is a quaint little place with a middle eastern touch. Going down a few steps and you find 2 rooms with the tables, a small counter serves coffee, tea, cold drinks etc. We had a nice refreshing lemon mojito.

Walking along the arched colonnade we saw shops selling Iranian carpets, curios, pottery items, herbs, rugs, etc.

We left Eshfahan at 3 pm and drove to Tehran. On the way we had a tea break at Mahr O Mah shopping mall. This is a huge mall like the ones we see in any European city except that there are no American or British brands. It was full of people and there were at least 500 cars in the parking lot.

Our hotel, Espinas Palace, is on a hill overlooking the city. We had a terrific view from our 11th floor room.

Statistics for the day:

Hotel Abbasi Eshfahan (13210) 10.15 am

Diesel top up (13221) - 11 kms

Mahr o Mah shopping mall (13518) 6.45 pm - 7.15 pm - 297 kms

Espinas Palace Hotel, Teheran (13668)  10.30 pm - 150 kms

Traveled today 458 kms

Total distance 1575 kms