Photo Gallery

Dear followers, readers,

Finally, here is my photo gallery of our journey from the Middle East (Bahrain) to the Netherlands. It will take a while to download the files, so sit back, relax and take your time to watch them all.

And while you're waiting for the download, please do remember that our journey is over and has an happy end, but for many, many people their journey has just began....

Ride for hope, donate!

Warmly,

Mary

ps: for those of you who enjoyed my writing and want to follow our family, please follow me on my personal blog (Dutch).

Looking back at our whole trip

Here are some statistics:

• Distance travelled: 9600 km
• Gasoline used: approx. 950 litters
• Money spend on gasoline: don't wish to know
• Countries crossed: 12 (Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands).
• Onno watched 212 episodes of Top Gear at the back of the car.
• Noelle listened to 3 books and read 4 Dutch books on my e-reader while travelling.
• Average Kabab-dishes per day while in Iran: 2
• Flat tires: 0
• window cracks (due to asphalting technique on Turkish roads) 1
• Damage to car: 1 street pole in Istanbul
• GPS-navigators trown out of the window: 0
• Fights and arguments: not to be mentioned, peaceful trip
• Worst hotel: Hotel Ghods in Bandar Abbas
• Nicest hotel: Hotel Silk Road in Yazd (back packers hotel but atmosphere is great)
• Worst beds: Hotel Ishfahan (in Eshfahan)
• Best beds: Prague
• Nicest cappucino: Internet cafe in Hotel Ishfahan
• Best restaurant: Van (East Turkey)
• Worst border crossing: Bandar Abbas (getting in Iran with our own car, please read more here and practical info here.)
• Most amazing ride: from Shiraz to Yazd (Iran).
• Most amazing site visited: Persepolis
• Most beautiful city: Prague
• Biggest disappointment: Mount Nemrut Dagi (interesting place but not worth the detour).
• Person producing worst gas: Thijs (Mary, second).
• Most astonishing moments: border crossing Bazargan (from Iran to Turkey where Mary, Onno and Noelle witnessed the beating of a cigarette smuggler while taking all our luggage out of the car to pass through a x-ray machine).
• Most boring part of the trip: the boat (arriving at 3 pm, departing harbour at 10 pm, 12 hour ride on the boat).
• Most friendly person we came across: Ishmael from Bandar Abbas, who offered to put the 1 month insurance of our car on his and Mary's name so we could obtain our transit plates.
• Most unfriendly person: the officer at the Serbian/Hungarian border.
• Biggest tourist trap: Goreme (Turkey)
• Happiest moment: when we were given the transit plate in Bandar Abbas by the traffic police.
• Scariest moment: when some bureaucrat in Bazargan came up with the idea we had to drive back 2000 km in Iran to return the transit plates.
• Most impressive country travelled: Iran
• Most stupid moment: driving in a speeding trap in Austria (becoming a tradition).
• Most annoying: (teenage- and child Gipsy beggars at the Serbian-Hungarian border)
• Happy moments: a good meal, a nice bed, a clean shower, a glass of beer (in Turkey), crossing borders, a good cup of coffee, coming home...

Home sweet home

On the final day of our journey we left Prague and decided to drive straight home to Leiden. Our big friend, mister GPS told us it would be a 865 km drive. It was weird to put "Home" in the options for our last trip.
"Please drive to highlighted road..." is how we left pretty Prague...

We took turns driving and my spine was holding on pretty well yesterday. Thijs bought a bottle of Vodka (using his final coins in the Czech Republic) and we filled up the gas tank in Germany and bought groceries (for lunch) in a German Supermarket.
We just carried on, watching mister GPS telling us we would be getting closer and closer to home.

Niels spend the last few months in our apartment in Leiden and was meanwhile making preparations for our return. He probably had loads of laundry and cleaning to do. His text-messages asking: "how much longer?" were probably not because he was that excited about seeing us again: it would give him indications how much time he had left for cleaning up his mess...

We crossed the border to the Netherlands around 7:30 and had our first Kroket at the first exit!

At 22:05 we heard Mister GPS telling us: "take turn to right, you are now arriving home..."

We did it, we made it, we're back!!!

Final 197 kilometers

Pointing out on the world-map to Niels and his girlfriend where we travelled

Dreading unpacking...

Prague, final city

Onno is completely fed up with our journey and starts to hate every minute of it, except when we feed him, when he gets a cola, when he can sleep in or when he gets free time to game on the laptop or watch Top Gear episodes. Today his torment was complete: we woke him up at 9, went for a long walk through Prague, stopped for many pictures and navigating, walked up the Prague Castle, visited boring churches and cathedrals,walked back over the Charles Bridge back and to make this joyful day complete, we bought tickets for a violin concert for the evening.
"I'm almost 16 mom, I HATE all this." he tried to explain. "I WILL travel when I grow up and you do NOT need to take me to those boring places.You only make me hate travelling more if you keep dragging me along."

Tomorrow, we'll be heading home to Leiden. It's another 950 km drive and we can do it in one go if we want to or take a rest somewhere in Germany. We're not sure if we want to or can do.

Onno will turn 16 on Monday the 15th of August. He started the wishlist with expensive gift suggestions but has now downgraded his list; he has only one birthday wish left:
"I just want to be home on my birthday, that's my biggest wish." he said this week.
I guess, after dragging him to all those amazing and special boring places, that's the least we can do...

Charles Bridge

view from the Castle

Budapest

We acknowledged our children's hardship and let them sleep in this morning as we all skipped breakfast. As we arrived last night at midnight, we didn't care about getting up early too...
We started our day with an early lunch and simply walked from Pest to Buda and back to Pest again. The view and the architecture is amazing.

20 years ago, Thijs and I (young and unmarried) visited Hungary and I don't remember Hungary being so European as it is now.
We made a trip (by car) to the Balkan and started in Berlin 8 months after the wall collapsed with Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' Concert. (What an amazing experience that was! And yes, we went there without tickets but as the gates opened, we were able to watch the concert with 250.000 other people on former no-mans-land).
During our travels through Yugoslavia (which would fall into war only a few years later) we travelled to Hungary passed Budapest, but never stayed here. I'm so delighted to be here now with the same guy and 2 of our children...

We took the children to the House of Terror, where they learned more about Hungary in Fascist (WW II) and Communist dictatorial regimes in their history. The dungeons in the former Headquarters of the Secret Service made quite an impression on them.

I wished I could tell the children that humans learn from their mistakes. But we don't...

Budapest from Buda-side

Noelle's lizard from Buda to Pest across the bridge

The 'Brooklin Bridge of Budapest'

Parliament

Hungarian Flag with the hole in the Middle

The hole in the Hungarian Flag originates from the Hungarian Revolution in 1956

From Sofia to Budapest

From Sofia to Budapest was an ambitious trip, but we want to head home now. We're all tired and we have loads to do once we get back. As our journey progresses, we start thinking about the next chapter in our life: Thijs' new job, the new school for the children, Niels leaving the house starting his study in Maastricht and our new house for which we receive the key in a month time.
All exciting new things happening in our life and all things we look forward to.

There are however a few more places we want to briefly visit: Budapest and Prague.
The trip from Sofia to Budapest is a more than 750 km ride and we could never foresee that the border stop to leave Serbia would be such a delay.
Getting into to Serbia wasn't a big deal, but leaving it was a nightmare: we lined up with thousands of other cars and there seemed no end to the huge line waiting for the boots ahead. Thijs complained that even crossing Saudi borders was more efficient.
As we approached the line we were swarmed by beggers: young children and teenagers (with younger chilren) all begging for money. They knocked on our windows, kept talking despite us waving them away. The kids felt uneasy to see this: children their age making a living out of begging.
Some fat Germans (obviously very busy eating) in a similar fat car lowered their windows and started handing out coins to the crowd. Thanks to people like this, the problem persists...

We spend a total of 3 hours waiting in line and once it was our turn we handed our passports to the most unfriendly lady we have seen in our entire trip. Heavy make up, botox-lips, uninterested look and obviously not pleased. I'm sure she's pissed up about Mladic being a guest in our country being tried for war crimes against humanity...
Many cars were looked through with unimpressive thorough search tactics: "luggage?" the lady asked Thijs. "Camping stuff, normal stuff, clothing." Thijs said. (and a lamp from Istanbul, and 6 pair of shoes, and three Saint Christopher Year books, and millions of phone and gadget chargers, and 5 different travel guides, and presents and a huge bag of dirty clothes).
"Anything to declare?" What the hell are we supposed to declare when we leave a country??? I thought you declare goods when you go in?
"Go!"
Yes, please, let's leave Serbia, not my favourite place on earth...

From Istanbul to Sofia

As Thijs woke up feeling a lot better, we did regretfully had to leave Istanbul. Our plan was to drive to Sofia, a 580 km drive. We left the lovely hotel and felt sorry for the children to have found yet another box in the car. They are extremely annoyed about their lack of space in the back-seat of the car, but we try to cheer them up telling them how beautiful the Istanbul - lamp will be in our new house.

Crossing the border from Turkey into Bulgaria was easy. No issues, just show the right paperwork. Our license plate did raise some questions at the Bulgarian border so many questions were asked about the car: "Iran?" "Iraq." (what a strange question if your license plate is from Bahrain and the ownership certificate states that the care comes from Bahrain... Again, our little google-map print with the highlighted route (from Bahrain, through Saudi, Dubai, ferry, Iran, Turkey, etc.) proved enough to make our point that we are on 'transit' and that the car is not from Iran but we travelled through Iran.
No more questions asked, we could pass. Incredible easy compared to the ridiculous paperwork we had to endure in Iran (going in and out).

Sofia felt like Russia and Onno enjoyed looking at the buildings and architecture. It must have been once a beautfiful city, but it looked old, run down, lot''s of drunks and alcoholist on the street and the same familiar Amsterdam-Central-Station smell.
We checked into a small hotel and as we were all hungry, tried to find a place to eat.

We found such a place where they served German size beers and young girls with very short skirts serving the food.

I guess we have left the Middle East...

Istanbul, day 2

Onno and Noelle at the garden of our hotel

Aya Sophia

We had to downgrade our ambitious for day 2 as Thijs woke up feeling and looking worse than yesterday. Time to act, as 5 days of stomach pain and frequent bathroom-visits was taking his toll.
I let him sleep through breakfast and Onno joined me for a cup of coffee downstairs. I asked for a clinic recommendation the hotel reception and thanks to Mr.GPS, we found our way straight in one try. It took us about 20 minutes, at least 10 of them for leaving the labyrinth in the Old Center (with one-way streets and narrow/blocked roads).
As it was Sunday, traffic was slow and it wasn't busy in the hospital.
The hospital looked very well equipped an staff spoke enough English to explain themselves.
As was to be expected, Thijs was dehydrated and an IV was suggested. Obviously, Thijs opted for the more simple suggestion and asked for the bottle of water (which was flavoured by the nasty ORS powder).
Blood- and sample test were done within 50 minutes and it seemed Thijs has been fighting a big bug. We left the hospital with 4 prescriptions, had some trouble to find a pharmacy which was open on Sunday but we were back in the hotel by 3 pm.


I took the kids for a stroll and a drink outside and did not manage to convince Onno and Noelle to visit the Blue Mosque.
"I will do it when I grow up and like boring stuff like that." Onno promissed, so today he officially made this commitment: He will, indeed, once in his lifetime return to Istanbul, visit the Blue Mosque and send me a postcard with the text: "Been there, done that!"

The walk in the streets, looking for some gifts for Niels and his girlfriend was just as boring as was expected (I can't beat the silly computer games they're doing in their spare time). I returned to the hotel around 5 to find Thijs still sleeping.
The Blue Mosque, which I can see from our bedroom window was still waiting for us, so when Thijs woke up, we did another attempt. (yesterday we were send off as prayer just started).
The line wasn't that bad and we patiently moved with the huge crowd. Although I really liked to have been in the Blue Mosque, looking around, watching people was more amusing and entertaining.
To my incredible surprise, many women, inappropriately dressed act surprised as their entry is denied (after passing big signs in 6 languages explaining them how they should dress respectfully). Women with hot pants, big boobs in sexy decolletes and uncovered hair are offered blue pieces of cloth to cover themselves. They are so excited about their new outfit, they spend most of the time taking pictures of themselves ignorant about the (local) praying women on the carpet.

We left the mosque within 10 minutes; I had seen enough.

We went shopping for gifts and one of those lovely Ottoman mosaic lamps. Since my eye fell on them, sold in a store in Bahrain, I was determined to buy one in Istanbul before leaving Turkey.
Although Thijs looked and felt horrible, both of us hoped to succeed in purchasing this piece as it would fit our other Arabic pieces of furniture in our new home. It took us at least 1 hour, Turkish coffee, tea, lot's of small talk and some negiotiating, but we did purchase a lovely gift for ourselves.

A big box is now waiting in our car and will join us during the last days of our journey.

We wonder were we will put the kids tomorrow when we continue our ride back home...

M.

Istanbul

Istanbul has been on my list for many, many years and I am extremely excited to finally be here.
We arrived late after a long 750 km ride from Cappadocia but we all agreed that we should continue and find ourselves a nice place to stay. The traffic wasn't bad at all, perhaps because it was Friday, perhaps it was after dark so everyone was home for Iftar or perhaps we were simply lucky. Thanks again to our loyal friend GPS, he took us straight into the city center which we identified to be 'the-place-to-be'.

It's always a hassle to find a hotel (and parking spot) in big city centers, but so far the benefit from being in the center of your interest is great: you go to the trouble once, the hotel usually assists in finding you a spot (they know the secrets of the city or they have their own private car-park) and once unloaded the needed luggage (we only have one travel suitcase that we use per country/portion) you're ready to settle and explore.
Istanbul however is congested and the lovely narrow roads, that you appreciate as an pedestrian, are a nightmare when you're here by car.
In a dead-end street, close to the Blue Mosque, Onno and I got out of the car, walked into a small hotel, asked for their bottom-last minute rate, asked for the obvious other questions (internet? non-smoking? including breakfast? Car park?) and checked the room. It was a small, basic two bedroom suite for a bargain price, but when the guy tried to turn on the light, the electricity failed and it was warm and humid inside. "Ah, problem with electricity. You get luggage, I fix problem."
Onno and I didn't think so, goodbye, we're not desperate enough...


A few meters further away was another hotel. It offered an acceptable rate, lovely cosy (small, in hotel-language) rooms, wi-fi internet, breakfast outside in the morning and a restaurant at the terrace. Onno and I checked the rooms, checked the mattresses and agreed downstairs with the duty manager. Deal.

And we love it: we're right in the center of everything and had dinner with the Blue Mosque view.

Today Thijs needed a few extra hours to get better from the bug but around 11 we could finally explore the city. We did two sites today; the Aya Sofya church/mosque and after lunch did the Topkapi Palace. As the kids really don't like 'licensed tour Guides' because they're 'boring' and they tell to much details that you don't remember anyway, we completely rely on our travel guides (Lonely Planet or Rough Guide). The Istanbul Guide from Lonely Planet has a detailed explanation about the sites and as we wander through the sites, I cite from the guide and try to engage the kids as much as is possibly possible with teenagers.

In the Topkapi museum the most interesting part is the Harem (private quarters for the Sultans). As I tell the children about the history of the place we're visiting especially Noelle is hooked to the story and background. We read the guide, try to imagine life in the Harem and meanwhile offering our children some incredible educational experiences while taking them to all these sites.

Onno is almost 16 and would have had no problem driving 10.000 km while staying at hotels and eating the odd hamburger to survive, ignoring all the incredible learning opportunities on his way. They qualify as 'particularly boring' and he has no clue why on earth Thijs and I keep jumping into every new site with new energy, interest and curiousity.
He vows he will never do 'such things' when he grows up...

So, after two interesting sites, lot's of cramps and bathroom stops for Thijs and Noelle, we called it a day and returned to hotel for some rest.

There's only one more thing on our list for today: A cold beer and dinner!

Courtyard in the Harem in Topkapi Palace

One of the Sultan´s privy rooms

The Bosporus

view on the Blue Mosque from the Topkapi Palace

Bugged by a bug

We're not sure, but somewhere down the road, we all caught a bug. We suspect it happened in Diyabakir where it was extremely hot.
Fact is that Onno was the first one to get sick, then Noelle (who got very sick with a high fever and rested all day in Goreme). Next in line was Thijs who got sick during the first day in Goreme and just when we decided we would prefer to carry on, I got sick...
As I'm not a big eater, my bug-ratio was less than with the other family-members, so I guess I was the least sick off all.

While Thijs got sick too and Noelle rested, got rid of her fever, visited the bathroom every 10 minutes and slept most of the day in the tent, Onno and I went for tiny drive and a stroll into one of the famous valleys in Goreme (another famous Unesco site). We both couldn't leave the camp-ground too long, as we needed toilets in our proximity, but we still enjoyed the little walk we did.
The view was amazing and I let Onno drive the car back to the campground again. He smiled all the way back (a small drive on a deserted dirt-road).
He now refers to this little moment of quality time (driving the car) as 'The best thing of this whole entire vacation.'

We regret to leave Goreme without having been able to actually explore the valley's, or a balloon-ride, but we don't regret to leave a tourist trap like that.
All feeling sick and irritated by the constant swarm of wasps, it took us hours to pack all our belongings again.
We did, however use the opportunity to wash a few loads and re-organize our luggage. We have now one suitcase left with clean clothes and should take us through the final 9 or 10 days of our journey!

Goreme, just behind our camp-ground

Onno during our little stroll in one of the valley's

Enjoying the view before departing Goreme

Breakfast in Goreme

Goreme

We have arrived in Goreme and we're still on schedule. The Toll-Highway has speeded up our journey at a price: we miss a lot of the beautiful scenery in Turkey...
As we were all tired and fed up with hotels, we have decided to put up the tent in Goreme. The weather temperature has dropped (29 degrees) compared to the places we visited in the East (e.g. Diyabakir: 41 degrees), so camping is now possible.
We all love putting up the tent and the kids were all in favourite for our suggestion.

Onno hasn't been feeling well for a day: he started having a stomach bug (inevitable) and had lot's of cramps. The trip to Goreme was fortunately not to long and he slept most of the trip.

Once our tent was put up, Noelle jumped in the pool, Thijs and I left to the supermarket to buy our own food and when we returned Thijs prepared a simple vegetarian pasta.

When the sun went down, the temperure dropped even more and we actually had to take some jersey's out of our suitcases.

In the middle of the night, Noelle wakes us up completely panicked and crying. The poor child had developed a huge fever and was very, very sick.
We moved her bed into our tent and it took both her and me hours to fall asleep again.

So today, we have all declared this day as a re-organize-, recover-, laundry-, car-wash- and relax day.
Noelle is feeling a little bit better but still has a fever. Meanwhile, the air balloons, horse-riding trips, quad-bike trips around us are tempting, but it will just have to wait...

Wereldomroep

 De wereldomroep volgt onze reis!

Lees hier het eerste artikel van Maurice Laparlière over onze binnenkomst in Iran. Lees daarna het artikel over onze reis wat vandaag gepubliceerd werd.

From Diyabakir to Adana

As we're travelling away from Iran, through Turkey towards Europe, everything around us changes constantly. The children perceive Turkey as a huge improvement (as it seems more civilized to them), for us, traveling to Turkey is much easier: the traffic seems more organized, we don't spend too much time in banks changing our money into two different valuta's, we haven't booked any hotels so we're more flexibile and there are actual supermarkets where we can buy bread, drinks, lunch, etc.
The view has also changed significantly and it changes constantly. We have now travelled from the more poor 'Kurdisch' part of Turkey to a more and more European view. For us, we feel as if we left the Middle East, so coming home is now getting closer.
Yesterday, we visited the most bizarre place ever: Mount Nemrut Dagi where a narcissist king (pre-Roman) ordered some statues to be sculptured. It is said he is buried underneath the rubble on the mountain, but nobody actually knows for sure. The statues are littered around the mountain looking over the Turkish country.

Leaving Diyabakir, a Kurdish city in Eastern Turkey

On the ferry on our way to reach the Nemrut Dagi

The trip meant a few hours long detour, time consuming with all the winding roads to reach the top, a steep climb to the top on foot (painful for me with my aching spine).
But my camera was itching in my hands, and I didn't want to miss the opportunity.

We reached the top, the car worked hard on the winding roads and when the temperature got up, the airco shut down. We all went silence in our car and I'm sure we all had the same thoughts:  "please, make it..."

Reaching the top was amazing: the view was incredible and the statues had been waiting for our visit for a few centuries.


After the visit, Thijs got extremely fed up with the bad road conditions and the continues road-construction worksite and little villages we had to pass. We've been travelling on Secondary roads for the past 5000 km and we were exhausted. We looked at the map (a gift from a Iranian traveller who lived in Holland and made the terrible mistake to travel from the Netherlands to Iran, taking his car).
With all of us, we decided it was worth it to travel down southwards, to the Syrian border to catch the highway to speed up our journey.
When we finally reached the highway, it appeared to be a toll-highway and as Touristic Turkey likes to be; no explanation was found on how to enter this road and how to pay toll...
Thijs got out of the car, took the map and his wallet and went looking for a living person around the entry to the toll way. He returned with a card and yes, we could continue!
Entering the highway felt like gliding on ice. The kilometers were melting away and we decided to use the opportunity and travel as much as we possible could so we would have an easy day to travel to Capadocia the next day.

We drove until it was dark (not a safe option on secondary roads, but you can do this on these highways) and checked in at a hotel in Adana. We were all exhausted, hungry (we have a bad habit of skipping lunch) and dirty.

How great the disappointment was when I discovered that a problem appeared with my flash card in my camera corrupting all 1000 raw files on my new card.
I could no longer find the pictures of Nemrut Dagi and lost all the other 1000 files from our journey.
Thank God, I copied and did backup my pictures daily and thank God for fantastic computer and camera freaks who develop restoring applications like Zero-assumption recovery.

And thank you Thijs, for acknowledging my frustration and helping me to find a solution while I was mourning for the lost files of Nemnut Dag...

I'm pleased to share my restored files, enjoy!

From Van to Diyabakir

Looking back at Iran

Our route through Iran

• Think twice if you want to take your own car into Iran; be prepared for massive amount of bureaucracy on arrival.
• Make sure you have a Carnet de Passage (unfortunately, this document does not exclude you from the bureaucratic paperwork you can expect).  For more details on the expected paperwork when you enter and leave Iran, please take a look at Thijs' blog.
• Don't try to understand the system, it is in-comprehensive and most Iranian people will agree.
  
• We are sure we were the only people driving a Honda-CRV in the whole country (so better not have a mechanical break down). Make sure the car is serviced and working perfectly before you take it in the country. Spare parts will be difficult to obtain.
• Incredible landscape
• Iranians deserve to be nominated to be the friendliest people in the world
• No cuisine worth mentioning but Iranian people are proud to serve you their special Kebab.
• If someone calls you 'my friend', be aware; he wants your money (applies to all countries).
  
• chaotic traffic, takes a while figuring out how it works (and yes, it does, don't ask how).
• With such chaotic traffic, drivers in Iran are actually pretty good drivers.
  
• Driving rules are western regulations which are not needed in Iran.
• Beware of speed checks on highways by police. Make sure your ownership card/certificate and your passports are always at hand.
• Don't try to speak Arabic with Iranians, they do not appreciate it and prefer the language barrier.
  
• Iranians are curious where you're from, so always be prepared to answer the obvious question, even though almost the complete population (70 million) has just asked you.
• Young (studying) Iranians will approach you and ask you polity to talk to them so they can practice their English.
• Iranians feel honoured when you allow them to have their picture taken with you.
  
• There are as much Bank branches in Iran as Starbucks in New York City, but only one or two are willing to change your money (Melli Bank main branch in town).
• Iranian people are very pleased with visitors and their curiosity is well intended. If an Iranian offers to assist you, he means well and does not expect money in return, he is simply happy to help you (in contrary to many other countries, spoiled by tourism).
• Don't expect much from internet (slow and heavily censored). You will feel as disconnected to the world as Iranians do.
• Warning: Don't try to do a google search on 'proxy server': your laptop will explode.
  
• If you want to taste Shiraz wine, better go to a supermarket in Europe as the Shiraz wine is no longer produced in the Shiraz area.
• Detoxing from alcohol and social media in Iran is part of the experience.
• Iranians are amazingly helpful and hospitable. 
• The baker will always refuse your payment when you buy his fresh bread on the street. Offer him at least 3 times, to make sure he's serious.
• Iranian people are world champion picnickers: they like to set up their tent anywhere also on the not so obvious camping place: roundabouts, top of a car, parks, side of a busy highway, next to the highway in proximity of a Mosque or gasoline station, etc.
• Beware of hotels calling themselves: 'International Hotels' : they are usually very unfriendly to foreigners, charge outrages fees for their censored Internet (per hour) and their Fillet Mignon is as dead and as flat as a pancake.
• The more spelling errors in the menu, the less chance your meal will taste nice.
• Consider to stay in Back Pack hostels: you will meet the most friendly travellers and the exchange of tips, hints and sharing experience is very valuable.
• We would especially like to recommend two backpackers hostels that we really enjoyed: The Niayesh hotel in Shiraz and the Silk Road hotel in Yazd.
• Bring the Lonely Planet for Iran, don't miss it!
• If you want to find the main road to the city center, simply tell your GPS to find any Imam Khomeini street, square or roundabout.
• If you want to meet Iranian people, just take a walk in any park in the evening. Make sure you have an empty stomach as you are likely invited to join complete strangers for dinner at their carpet.
• Always carry pictures of your family (e.g nice little album in your phone) so you can show your new friends your family and pictures of your children.
• Bring lot's of clean long blouses to Iran (women). You need long sleeves and long blouses. It hot and sweaty. 2 blouses for 12 days seemed not enough for me :-)
• We wonder why female travellers from non-Islamic cultures seem to make some kind of statement wearing their scarf wrapped around their head in an attempt to 'cover' their hair but refusing to wear the scarf like local women do. If you don't intend to adapt, what are you doing in Iran?
• Make sure you purchase a reliable GPS gadget: it will save you lots of time and stress. It may save you marriage and hey, you'll have lots of fun in the car when you hear the GPS-voice-over choking on the pronunciation of the street names.
• To keep the relation healthy: do not annoy the GPS, appreciate him and do not make jokes about him when he's constantly 'recalculating' when you do not follow up on his suggestions.
• Try not to cover more than 500 km per day on your travel days. Calculate 'rest-days' to explore the city you are visiting.
• Make sure you have enough chargers in your car so your children (who might like to watch ALL the episodes of Top Gear) while travelling in the car.
•  Enjoy Iran, the people don't deserve to be so isolated and your presence as a guest in their country is an honour for them.

A special thanks for:

• Samira from Persia Tours for arranging our visa to Iran.
• Ishmael from Shiraz: for assisting us at customs and introducing his fixer Ali to us during our challenges in Bandar Abbas.
• A HUGE thank you for Ishmael (a complete stranger who felt sorry for our challenges) at the insurance office in Bandar Abbas for offering to put our month-car-insurance on his name so we could obtain the transit plates to travel through Iran to Turkey.
• Thank you for the police officers in Bandar Abbas at the traffic police for their excellent help and their friendly approach.
• Thank you for both ladies working in the insurance office for not giving up and really bending backwards to help us, against all odds.
• Sebastiaan from Iran Silk Road Reizen for assisting us to compile an itinerary through Iran, offering us his tips, suggestions, ideas.
• To the coffee shop owner in a crap hotel in Hamadan for making me the best Cappuccino in weeks and sharing the hotel-wireless internet password with me.
• For the kind shop owner (actually educated to be an engineer and fluent in English) in Tabriz who made Onno his best and biggest hamburger!
• To all Iranian people who we have met, who offered us their help, tea or food and who patiently assisted us taking our gratitude and smiles as their reward.

We put our hand on our heart and thank you!
Merci!