IRAN – OVERVIEW: Our trip to Iran was organized by Spiekermann Travel, a U.S. company that has been taking Americans to Iran for more than 15 years. They have never had any difficulties, and the Iran trips are very popular. Our guide, Bachmann, was as good a guide as we have ever had in our travels. 
Quite a few people seemed shocked that we would travel to Iran and often asked “why go there?” We wanted to go for several reasons, including:[1] We like to travel to places where we have not been before. [2] We have been interested in Iran because of its long history. The Persian Empire of the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. was the first real superpower in world history. Cyrus the Great and Darius, Persian rulers, are also important in the Old Testament. [3] Iran is filled with important archaeological sites, and we knew that we could visit a number of them. The picture is from Persepolis, one time capital of Persia,
[4] More important, though, was our interest in going to Iran as friendly ambassadors from America. We wanted to show the friendliness many Americans have towards the Iranian people. [5] We wanted to see for ourselves what Iran is really like. The Iran that we that we experienced is far different than the Iran that is reported by our media and by our politicians! And, our trip to Iran will go down as one of our very favorite excursions.
In our travels to many countries we have never been greeted with a warmer welcome or people more friendly than those that we met throughout Iran.
We traveled almost 4,000 miles by bus, plus a plane ride to the northern part of the country. We sa
w lots of mountains, many up to 18,000 feet in height. We had the chance to drive through some of them and enjoy spectacular views. 
We saw extreme desert country, villages and cities, forests and barren landscapes.
We saw sites that are thousands of years old, and we saw modern cities with contemporary buildings and traffic jams.
Through all of our 3 weeks of journeying we were always greeted by a people who were hospitable. Without exception, they were excited to learn that were from the U.S., and we had numerous conversations, often spurred by meeting on a street or in some other public place such as a restaurant or park.
We could go anywhere that we wanted. There were no restrictions, except those we have in our country – military bases and the like. The only soldiers that we saw were guarding museums or archaeological sites, or young soldiers on leave. The only police that we saw were traffic police. Most of them were unarmed. This was a surprise, for it was so different from the impression that we have gotten about Iran here at home. We did not feel any discomfort or threat. Iran has a very low crime rate, and we felt completely safe, even when we were walking around on our own.
