Da ich letzte Woche von einer mehrwöchigen Reise durch Mexiko zurück gekehrt bin, sitze ich jetzt zu Hause in Quarantäne. Ich hätte natürlich schon eine gute Beschäftigung. Aus über 4.000 Fotos die besten aussortieren. Tja, ich könnte auch die Wohnung putzen. Von wegen Frühjahr und so.
Aber was macht eine Strickerin, wenn sie zu Hause bleiben muss? Genau! Deshalb habe ich meine Vorräte durchgesehen. Dabei habe ich einige Wollen gefunden, von denen ich gar nicht mehr wußte, dass und warum ich sie gekauft hatte.
Zeit für neue Ideen! Eine habe ich bereits begonnen umzusetzen. Eine Sommerweste aus Baumwollbändchen.
Reklame in der Zeitung, Farben oder Eindrücke auf meinen Reisen, wie etwa shabby chic Holzdecken in italienischen Palazzi, inspirieren mich. Einige Ideen schwirrten schon länger in meinem Kopf herum.
Nun habe ich wieder neue Muster entworfen und alte remixed. Einige neue Socken sind dabei entstanden.
Mein neuestes Werk sind 2 Pullover in einem. Vorder- und Rückseite haben ein anderes Muster. Den Halsausschnitt habe ich bei beiden gleich gestrickt. So kann man den Pullover nach Lust und Laune wenden. Vorne einmal schwarz-blau, das andere Mal blau-schwarz. Auf den richtigen Dreh kommt es an.
Und das nicht erst beim Anziehen, sondern schon beim Stricken. Um die Fäden nicht immer mitnehmen zu müssen, habe ich teilweise mit 6 bis 7 Knäuel gestrickt.
Damit sich die Fäden nicht total verheddern,
muss man bereits während des Strickens auf ihre richtige Drehung achten.
Der Faden, mit dem ich als nächstes stricke, wird entweder oben drüber oder unten drunter zu dem zweiten Faden geführt. Diese beiden Möglichkeiten müssen sich während der Arbeit ausgleichen. Das Strickstück darf während des Strickens auch nicht immer in die gleiche Richtung weiter gedreht werden, sondern immer nur einmal auf die Rückseite und dann wieder zurück.
Und wer das jetzt gleich selbst ausprobieren möchte, dem wünsche ich viel Spaß beim Stricken und gutes Gelingen.
Damit der Look perfekt ist, habe ich gleich die passende Haube gemacht.
On my tour to Persepolis and Pasargadae I have a driver and a guide.
During the day with them I complain about that I haven’t a supermaket around my hotel. After the tour when we come back to Shiraz they bring me to a big supermarket and a bakery and help me with the purchase.
Friday afternoon
The square in front of the Vakil Bazaar looks like in Italy. Only the entrance to the Vakil mosque with typical Shirazian tilework reminds me where I am. A nice place with several cafés, tables outside and sunshades. It’s Friday afternoon (that’s like our Sunday) and the sky is overcast. I’m sitting in a café and observe the scene. An old grey-haired man with a stick begs. Maybe he is alone and has nobody to look after him. A family sits beside me, parents with two childrens. The adults are drinking coffee, the kids are having ice-creme. The women show their new and fashionable manteaus. A group of tourists pass by.
Two days later when I’m arriving in the café the waitress gives me a very warm welcome. She is happy to see me again. Unfortunately, the weather is colder now and windy. The right time to leave Iran.
Bagh-e Eram باغ ارم
Answers to FAQ
It’s easy to travel in Iran. You can go without a group even as a woman. I travelled alone. Most Iranians are very friendly and helpful. They speak English (sometimes even German) and if not they use their translation-app on the cellphone.
Women have to wear long shirts with long sleeves and cover their heads. Because the temperatures were high (around 30 ° C) during my journey I only wore thin cotton blouses and cotton trousers. In Teheran I bought two fashionable manteaus with shorter sleeves. Advantage: under the manteaus you can wear your normal clothes/shirts. Hairslides help to fix the scarfes or chadors (at some holy places you have to wear chadors!).
In Teheran the streets and stops in the underground are written also in Roman letters like the most signs on the streets. The most money changers are in the Jomhuri-ye Eslami Ave around the Cafe Naderi.
Visa: the letter of invitation you can get by Iranian tour operators via the Internet. I heard even at the aiport but the airline asked me for the visa when I checked in for the flight to Teheran.
is a very old city between two deserts. The small streets, the old mudbrick houses and the many badgirs (windtowers) an old form of aircon you should not miss.
Bagh-e Dolat Abad باغ دولت اباد
The pavilion was build in 1750 and was the residence of Karim Khan Zand. Its badgir is with 33 meter the highest one in Iran.
The Tower of Silence and the Ateshkadeh the Zoroastrian temple with the fire that burns over 1000 of years.
old citadel in Saryazd سریزدmay well be the oldest mosque of Iran in Fahraj فهرج
I
have booked a bus ticket for the way from Teheran to Kashan via the
Internet. As I arrived earlier at the bus station they changed my
ticket for an earlier bus without asking me.
So
I thought it will be easier to go to the station on the day of
travelling and buy a ticket for the next bus.
I’m
sitting at the breakfast and tell my hosts that I want to go to
Esfahan. They look on the Internet for me for the schedule and for a
ticket. There is a holiday in two days and all buses and trains are
fully booked. What to do?
Also for this problem my landlords have a solution. They organize a driver for me. The price of the taxi with € 18,– is not so high as I had expected. I go by taxi through Iran! From Esfahan to Yazd it’s the same. The buses are fully booked and because delivery from house to house is convenient I also go the other routes by taxi.
motorway service area „Supermarket'“
Esfahan اصفهان
Naqsh-e-Jahan square
Shah Mosque
Sheikh Lotfallah Mosque
Ali Qapu Palace
Breakfast in Esfahan
I stay in Esfahan also in a traditional accommodation. I inhabite a great room, the only one with a window out of the street. In front of the entrance to my room there is a roof terrace where you have a wonderful view on the Jame Mosque. Exactly at half past five the muezzin is calling.
Iravani Historic House
During my stay there is a holiday. Therefore many Iranians are also in the hotel. Two young women with fashionable manteaus are already in the breakfast room as an elderly couple arrives. The woman wears dark clothes and a black chador with grey roses. The more the old lady wrap herself into the chador the deeper the scarfes slip from the heads of the two young women. At last the scarfes are around their necks. Both have long black hair.
Fortunately, the Char Bagh school is open and I can visit it (with a chador!). I think the school is a must see! The mainly blue tilework is amazing. With one hand I hold the chador with the other one I try to take good pictures.
On my first steps out of the hotel I must get familiar with such many people and traffic. And many, many men they observe me when I walk along the street. The traffic is horrible. If you want to pass the street start and go, go, go. Don’t stop that’s dangerous. Go to the bank exchanging money. You will enjoy it. After your visit you be a multimillionaire.
Golestanpalast
My first lunch
After the visit of the Golestan Palace it is noon and I’m hungry. The map of my guidebook shows a restaurant near the palace at the beginning of the great bazaar. While I’m standing and looking for the restaurant a man asks me if I need help. Though I’m not interested in his carpets he explains me the way to the restaurant. In front of the door there is a long line. Many, many people are queuing up. I ask a lady if this is the entrance. She speaks very well English, agrees and push me in front of her in the line. She and her friend help me to order my lunch and organize seats for us. Without them I were helpless because the menu is written only in Farsi. I get a huge meal of Taschin, that’s baked rice with chicken. We are chit-chatting during lunch. It is a nice lunchtime.
Don’t go alone to Iran! The meals of food are too big to eat them allone. Or ask for a take-away box.
Café Naderi
I’m sitting in the Café Naderi, an old coffee house in Teheran established 1927 and feel like home. It’s similar to an Austrian coffee house in Vienna except that the women wear scarfs on their heads. It’s playing piano music. Ballade pour Adeline. The choice of coffees is like home, the variety of cakes is smaller. Only chocolate and cheese cake but they both are tasty.
Saad Abad Complex
Women only
Today
I visit the Saad Abad complex one of the shahs palaces. It is located
in the North of Teheran. It’s my first time that I go by
underground. I take the red line from Imam Khomeini square, that’s
the first line (like home) till the terminal stop.
As I’m alone on the way I get in the section of the train who is only for women. The black colour still dominate, many young women wear chadors. Many people go through the wagon to sell something. One woman offer red lace bras. While some ladies look at the bras she pulls a transparent lace undershirt out of her bag also in red and shows it around. And that in Iran in the underground. I can’t believe it!
Kashan كاشان
Bagh-e Fin is the first garden I visit in Iran.
Persian
gardens have a long tradition. The oldest of them was found in
Pasargadae, the palace garden of Kyros the Great.
In the old Persian language they called the gardens paradaidha what was translated in other languages as paradise. They are symmetrical gardens often divided into four equal sections. Waterchannels, pools and pavilions (called koschk) are typical elements of the Iranian garden.
A very sophisticated irrigation system brings the water from the mountains into the cities and the gardens. The green gardens with the shade of their high trees are often a great contrast to their dry surroundings.
Abyaneh ابيانه
is an old village in the mountains.
In Kashan you can visit some traditional houses and an old hammam (bath).
As a great fan of Art Nouveau I also visited places in other countries with buildings in this architectural style. Antwerpen and Brussels in Belgium, Riga in Latvia, Barcelona in Spain and even in Morocco, in Rabat I found some houses in this style.
Antwerpen
In Antwerpen you find many houses in Art Deco around the Waterloostraat.
Unfortunately, as I was in Belgium it was very cold and most of the time cloudy though it was in May.
Brussels
The capital of Art Nouveau from there
the new form of architecture spread over the whole of Europe.
https://visit.brussels/de/profile/art-nouveau-art-deco on this website you find many informations about Art Nouveau in Brussel. They offer guided walking tours. As I was there I got a map for five walking tours. So you can do it for your own.
Picture A: The house on the right is in Avenue du Mont Kemmel Nr. 5 designed by the architect Arthur Nelissen.
Hôtel
Stoclet
A
very famous building is the Hôtel
Stoclet (Palace Stoclet) designed by Joseph Hoffmann an Austrian
architect. It hosts a wonderful frieze of Gustav Klimt.
Unfortunately, it is still a private property and not open for the
public.
Riga
In this city more than one third of all buildings are in Art Nouveau style. Thanks to the construction boom since the second part of the 19th century caused by the fast industrialisation around Riga.
The most famous houses are designed by Michail Eisenstein. They are located in the Elizabetes iela and Alberta iela.
A romantic picture in a flyer of the Austrian post office was the reason why I’m here on the Cote d’Azur. The second time in the Provence within two years. The foto was from a place in Antibes with a short travel report.
I had already the guide book. The
flight to Nice was booked rapid. Away from cold Vienna to the warm
south. The weather forecast for Nice unfortunately, was not so well.
But thanks god in this case the meteorologist go wrong.
In Nice I stay in a small studio apartment in the city centre, the last four days of my journey I stay in Vence.
the famous Negresco
Eze – cactus with a stunning view
Eze-Village is in the mountains behind Nice. In the exotique garden not only the cactus enjoy the wunderful view over the Cote d ‚Azir and the Cap Ferrat.
Cap Ferrat
Where the most expensive villa of the world changed its owner several years ago. You can see it very well from the habour.
Villa Kerylos
There is a nice foothpath along the shore from the habour of Cap Ferrat to Beaulieu-sur-Mer where the Villa Kerylos is located. The Villa was built between 1902 and 1908 for Théodore Reinach an archaeologist. It is designed like a noble house of Delos, an Greek island.
The last trainstation before Italy is Menton. In this village are many villas with beautiful gardens. One of them is the botanical garden Val Rameh.
Villa Fontana Rosa
Villa Rameh
Menton looks very Italian and the restaurants are very Italian. With food like pizza, pasta and tiramisu including the Italian charme of its owner.
Antibes
Monaco
Here I want to snag a millionaire. Unfortunately, my fishing line is too short to reach the yachts down in the habour.
Though Monaco is vaster as I thought it seems that the place is still not enough.
At the beginning of my walk I saw fences and barriers. I thought this is a building site. But at the end of my visit I know that’s the racecours.
racecours
casino
Grasse
The city of fragrance. The best noses (=perfumers) of the world were educated here. Therefore it’s a must to visit one of the factories who produce parfum. They offer free entrance, a guided tour and a small museum.
After the visit I walk through the old part of the city.
I have lunch in one of the restaurants before I walk over one kilometre to the garden of Villa Noailles.
Above the roofs of Vence
My accommodation has a terrace where I look at the roofs of the houses nearby and the mountains behind. Vence is a medievale town in the back country of the Cote d’Azur ….
and my starting point to visit …
St. Paul-de-Vence
It has still an entire city wall.
Tourrettes-sur-Loup
a must see!
Unfortunately, it’s raining cats and dogs when I’m there. The advantage: nobody runs into my pictures.
Carros-Village
It seems to be an insider’s tip. Though
the sun is shining I’m the only tourist in the medieval town at 11
a.m.
Le Broc
There are also no visitors. It is noon and I’m looking for an open restaurant. I saw only an open bar and so I ask there if they have something to eat. The waiter lead me to his neighbour. It is a restaurant. But the tables and chairs on the terrace aren’t assembled and the door looks very dark, so I haven’t seen that the restaurant is open. That mistake you shouldn’t do. Indoor four tables, an one-man-show. The owner is chef and waiter in one person. The service is excellent and the lunch the best I have ever had in France.
You think of visiting the Oktoberfest in Munich or the Wiener Wiesn (=Austria’s largest traditionel customs and folk music festival)? Than you should think about what to wear.
Maybe such wunderful socks? Self-knitted.
The patterns I designed from old, traditional embroidery patterns.
I mixed, changed and transformed them to new designs. And I adapted the patterns to the right size of the stitches.
Do you want to make such socks for the Wiesn? Begin early enough to design and knit. It needs time! But make fun.
