On day 2 of the tour we were meant to take an 8am flight from Tehran to Shiraz. However, Caspian Air, that well known international carrier, decided to cancel all flights. It was agreed that we would spend another day in Tehran and wait to see what the airline would do.
I was actually quite glad that we had an extra day as there were a few places I wanted to see. I took a taxi to the S'ab Abad Musuem complex, which is in the North West corner of the city. The further north we drove the lusher and greener it became and in the distance I was able to see the snow capped mountains that surround Tehran. There are 18 Palaces set within 104 acres of woodland at the complex. I could have spent the whole day there but as I wanted to see other things I just visited the White Palace, Green Palace and the Royal Car exhibition. The S'ad Abad houses the Summer Palaces of the Royal family. The White Palace was built between 1931-1937 and served as the main Summer Palace until the revolution in 1979. Little has changed since the revolution so you really get a sense of how the Royal family lived in their 54 room Summer Palace complete with Ceremonial Hall and Banqueting Suite. It was very much modelled on the French and English palaces and was quite classy and sophisticated. At the far end of the complex up a VERY steep hill is the more classical looking Green Palace (when I say classical I mean loads of bling). The Shah only lived here for one Summer as he found the bed too soft so he slept on the floor and had another palace built - as you do. It was then used the guests residence and previous occupants include Charles de Gaulle and Jimmy Carter. The design really is over the top opulent, with wall to wall mirrors in the hall and bedroom. One of the rooms even has a burgundy ceiling made from Italian leather - kinky.
The car musuem houses a "small" selection of the Royal cars, which includes 5 Rolls Royces, a one of a kind fully armoured Mercedes Benz 600, a stunning 1960's Mercedes Benz convertible, motorbikes, skidoo's......
From S'ad Abad I headed back into the centre of the city to visit the Jewellery Musuem, which is housed in a vault at the back of the Iranian Central Bank. In fact all of the jewels are owned by the government and the Central Bank holds the jewels as a deposit for the country. So if the country goes bust the Bank will keep the jewels and sell them off to get their money back. Most of the collection dates back 500 years when the Shah's scoured Europe, India and the lands of the Ottoman Empire for jewels to decorate their then capital Esfahan. The most famous (and in my opinion the most beautiful) jewel is the Darya-ye-Nur (Sea of Light), which is a pink diamond weighing 182 carats and said to be the largest uncut diamond in the world. I also loved the Globe of Jewels. A beautiful World Globe made in 1869 using 51,366 precious stones. The seas are made from Emeralds and the land from Rubies, except France, Britain and Iran, which are set in diamonds.
My final stop was the National Musuem of Iran, which is full of artefacts depicting the countries history. It was OK but I think I might have been a bit cultured out by this stage so I didn't spend that much time here.
When I got back to the hotel Mustafa said there was going to be a flight to Shiraz at 8pm, which we were booked on. After a mad dash I was packed and on my way to the airport - looking forward to starting the next part of my adventure.