This is Iran: November 2017

As keen as I was to travel to Iran, like any place you travel to, you never truly know what to expect until you arrive. As a Canadian, since I was not permitted to travel independently I had engaged the services of a local guide to accompany me though Iran. I didn’t doubt for a moment that what I would see in Iran would be extraordinary and I wasn’t disappointed, but I was overwhelmed by the hospitality, generosity and friendliness of the people of Iran. I’m always grateful for having had opportunities to travel in my life, but that I was able to go to Iran, still seems amazing to me. I look at this collection of some of the highlights of my trip and can’t believe that I was in Naqsh-e Jahan Square (eating saffron ice-cream no less) and that I was bathed in a kaleidoscope of sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows of the pink mosque.

This trip inspired for me several vignettes that appear in my GlobeTrotter blog. How being in Iran triggered a memory of a favourite childhood book: The Land of Hidden Gems And that misconceptions about safety and acceptance of westerners in Iran couldn’t be further from the truth, as in Iran, you are welcome And quite frankly sometimes words failed me, when it came to describing the details of the architecture so Instead of 12 thousand words It doesn’t seem possible that I could walk amongst columns originating from 330 BC representing the Rise and Fall of an Empire. And that I met a man, who was my local guide, for whom the pride in his country, it’s history and culture reinforced why travel is transformative and yet as the differences between us, the greater the similarities, When you think your neighbours hen is a goose

The photo essay below, showcases those highlights from Isfahan to Yazd to Shiraz.