Iran +

For years Sandra has wanted to visit Iran, Syria and Jordan. My interest level has been minimal. Why? Just doesn’t call to me. Plus the antagonism between the U.S. and Iran continues to escalate.

Why does she want to go? Well, one reason is she’s a lover of old stones (some would call them ruins) preferably more than 2,000 years old. And there are plenty of old stones in these countries. And she adores mosques. She loved being able to wander around the mosques in Turkey and Egypt and says that her interest in Morocco diminished when she learned she wouldn’t be allowed in their mosques. There are many exquisite mosques in Iran and Syria.

In our most recent conversation on this subject I relented. I didn’t say I’d go. I did say that I’d consider it. Given the lead-time we need to arrange travel using miles we’ve banked in our United account, if we were at all serious about a trip within the next year I realized that I’d need to get tickets booked soon – like right now.

So I did the research and found that it wasn’t difficult to fly from San Francisco to Tehran on Lufthansa via Frankfurt. And it was possible to fly from Tehran to Damascus, travel to Amman by car and then fly to Athens en route to Frankfurt and back home. Decision time had arrived. Do I make the reservations?

I did. I also ordered travel books from Amazon for all these countries, which books will help me decide whether to actually make the trip. Should we cancel the tickets we pay $200 and the miles are returned to us. So the process has begun.

I’m still not committed to going. At this point I’d say the odds are 50-50. Ms Marsh is a happy girl.