Yazd

In the morning the hotel served up a super breakfast, a buffet with all sorts of yummy things, yoghurt, nice bread & great scrambled egg. The only thing that was missing was bacon, for that I have some time to wait. I certainly got my money's worth, not leaving the table for over an hour.

When I finally set out to explore the alleys of the old town at 10am it was getting really hot. Being Friday the streets were quite empty, shop windows firmly closed. The high walls that surrounded houses in the old town provided much appreciated shadows. At noon the heat of the day & the disappearance of shadows got to me & I escaped to the coolness of the dormitory to wait for things to cool down a little.

I explored further in the afternoon when the temperature dropped nearer to 30 °C. Yazd has a great old town, its old winding streets with high mud brick walls are fascinating. Every so often one got a glimpse of a dwelling behind a wall. Occasionally a ruined building would open up a mini-vista. A few of the old houses were open to the public. They all followed a similar pattern, with a courtyard surrounded by rooms, some open, others closed. There was usually a pool in the centre of the courtyard. Sometimes trees or vines of some sort provided shade. They were small havens from the heat of the streets.

At around 5pm life returned to the streets & the city became more active. As the Sun was setting a thunderstorm passed near the city. I found a nice vantage point on a tower over the old city & watched the fork lightning & listened to the end of day prayer call while enjoying a nice cool breeze.

I cycled 0 km