We were very lucky that our camping trip to Dorset coincided with a beautiful later summer’s weekend.
As well as visiting the River Cottage Autumn Fair for the birthday of Hugh’s biggest fan. We also enjoyed walking, a spot of mackerel fishing off Lyme Regis (and cooking the spoils), eating too much and sampling some of the local ales and rather too much of the local cider.
We arrived in Paris by TGV from Basel. A comfortable journey made all the more entertaining by the conductors attempts to seamlessly switch between German, French and English.
We spent the afternoon wandering around the 5th and 6th arrondissements and reading a collection of posters outside the Jardin du Luxembourg. The final night of our trip was spent enjoying a delicious meal with Dominique and Christian.
We enjoyed a great two days in Basel with Nicole and Christian. While we were there we explored the old town, took in the views from Bölchenflue, visited the Roman amphitheatre at Augusta Raurica, cheekily enjoyed a free beer at the Feldschlösschen brewery, took in a spot on the Rhein where France, Germany and Switzerland meet and crossed the Rhein by means of an ingenious ferry which used the power of the river to take us from one side to the other.
Nicole and Christian were determined that we sample a wide range of edible Swiss delights during our visit. These included the classic fondue, waldfest (forest party), Alpen macaroni, white asparagus plus a huge selection of Swiss cheeses and beers.
Our lightning stop in Munich began with an early arrival at Hauptbahnhof. We took the U-Bahn to our hotel but we were too early to check into our room so we headed straight out to explore. The city map we were given at our hotel had a short walking tour so after an excellent breakfast at a city centre cafe we strolled around the city taking in the sights. For lunch we visited the wonderful Viktualienmarkt where everyone was tucking into substantial pieces of pork. We tried the wurst and traditional Munich meat loaf. Both were very good. We also had a very simple but delicious sandwich of herring and raw onion in a crusty roll.
We spent the afternoon at the Pinakothek der Moderne. We spent a few hours admiring the four sections and we discovered that the IKEA BILLY bookcase is a design icon. For dinner we had no option but to visit one of Munich’s excellent beer halls. We enjoyed great food and very good beer at Augustiner am Dom (we also managed to squeeze in a visit to the Löwenbräu Keller.)
Our mammoth overland journey from the edge of Europe to Munich began at Istanbul’s Sirkeci station with the Bosfor Ekspresi. We decided to splash out on a compartment in the sleeping car for the Istanbul to Bucharest leg of the journey. However, on arriving at the platform, we discovered that the train only comprised of two carriages, neither of which was the sleeping car. It turned out that the sleeping car wasn’t running. Instead we were allocated couchettes and refunded the fifty-odd euros difference.
Sharing our six-berth compartment with us was Sven a Danish gentleman also on his way home from Iran. Sven was pretty miffed about the non-appearance of the sleeping-car though he proved to be very good company and he soon got over having to share a compartment with us. The Turkish/Bulgarian border at Kapıkule is unusual in that instead of the immigration officers boarding the train, shining their torches into the compartment and demanding ‘passportz’ the passengers are required to leave the train and queue to have their passports stamped. At around 3am we were summoned from our beds and after an hour or so we were entering Bulgaria. The next morning we woke as the train was passing through picturesque Bulgarian countryside.
As there was no restaurant car we tucked into the provisions we had brought from Istanbul (bread, cheese, apples, crisps and lokum!) Late afternoon we crossed the mighty Danube and entered Romania. A few hours later, after successfully acquiring a reservation for the train to Budapest, we were sipping beer at Bucharest’s Gara de Nord.
Our carriage for the journey to Budapest was new and very comfortable. We shared our six berth compartment with a young man on his way to Budapest to work on a Danube passenger ship. We shared a beer with him as the sun set over the Romanian countryside.
Arriving in Budapest we secured a reservation on that nights train to Munich. After leaving our bags at left luggage and having a spot of brunch, we headed to the Széchenyi baths. We had visited the baths nine years ago on our Interrailing trip and it was pretty much as we had remembered it – a maze!
We spent five hours steaming, sweating and washing away two days worth of grime before heading back towards the city centre and enjoying an excellent meal (we’d given up on budgeting by this point) before boarding the train to Munich.
More wonderful scenery on our journey from Erzurum to Kayseri and we were very lucky to have a cabin to ourselves the whole way. On the downside we arrived in Kayseri at 4:15am. After sitting in the station waiting room for the sun to rise we set off for the otogar. Arriving at the spot on the map where the otogar should have stood we were rather perplexed to find a large tarmacked area surrounded by a high fence. A passing dolmus driver must have noticed out confused expressions as he pulled over and nodded when I asked “otogar?” It turns out that Kayseri has a brand spanking new otogar on the edge of town.
The scenery around Göreme didn’t disappoint. We spent three days exploring the bizarre landscape: taking in the churches and their famous frescos at the Göreme open-air museum, walking through the picturesque valleys and crawling through the underground city at Derinkuyu.
The six hour bus journey from Doğubeyazıt to Erzurum took us past snow capped mountains and through a blizzard! We were expecting it to be cold but this was something else.
We used our twenty four hours in Erzurum to explore the city and to eat two very good meals. One of Cağ kebab at Gel Gör Cağ Kebap and, yes, more kebabs (this time döner kebab and iskender kebab) at Salon Asya.
A night in Doğubeyazıt gave us the chance to catch breath after Iran. We also took the opportunity to visit the impressive Ishak Pasha palace.
Doğubeyazıt is a Kurdish town and it felt very different to Maku even though we’d only travelled around 50km.
We enjoyed two good meals in Doğubeyazıt. Finding something tasty to eat proved a lot easier than in Iran.
The journey from Tabriz to Maku was very scenic. We first passed snow capped mountains then rolling hills decorated with flocks of sheep their shepherds and sheep dogs in tow. As we approached Maku the landscape became more rocky and we crossed a deep narrow gorge with a river flowing through it. Maku itself is located, impressively, at the bottom of a steep rocky valley with the remains of an old citadel looking down on it.
Arriving in Maku we took a taxi to the Avand hotel with Elisabetta. We arranged thwi the taxi driver to visit the Ghareh keliseh church after lunch. The church is located 70km from Maku, the journey passed through more fantastic scenery. The church itself is located scenically next to a small Kurdish village with a backdrop of rocky mountains.
The following day we took a taxi to the border at Bazargan then after dealing with the money changers and the scrum at immigration we entered Turkey and hopped in a dolmus to Doğubeyazıt.
Arriving in Tabriz by train from Tehran the two men with whom we had shared a cabin insisted on showing us to our hotel themselves. On arrival at the hotel they demand that the manager charged us the correct rate and not the rate he’d quoted Rhian on the phone.
After a breakfast of yoghurt and honey we headed to the tourist information office where we met Elisabetta Bonio, a retired actress from Trieste. We shared a taxi with Elisabetta to the village of Kandovan where the houses are cut from the curiously shaped rocks.
As well as checking out Tabriz’s modest list of sights we also finally got around to buying a carpet (or two as it turns out.)
