27th, 28th & 29th Aleppo, Antakya & Nigde

Free day in Aleppo today that started with a 3 hour walking tour of the old city with Ahmed Modallal, through the old city. He took us to the front gates of the Souq and explained that the entrance was made with fortification in mind as a battering ram could not be used to enter. A little hard to see from this picture but there is a wall opposite the gate. We went to the Al-Bahrambyya Mosque, inside a hammam and also an old hospital which they are in the process of converting to a museum. We zigzags our way through the souq finishing outside the citadel.

We left the group and set off to find lunch (8o cents for 2 falafel rolls) and wander around the Christian quarter. We wandered for a while before making our way back to the hotel. David went for a walk around the souq and then listened to music in the room while Catriona played cards with Jill and Tony. In the evening a few of us went  up to the terrace restaurants below the citadel for dinner. A nice end to another busy day.

28th Had a lazy start to the day, breakfast at 9am then walked back to the citadel. Public buildings are not open on Tuesday so that is why we had to wait until today. We had a good walk around and were able to recognise different parts of the castle from our previous castle tours. There was a hammam that they had reconstructed part of. We stopped at the top for a cup of tea and a cola for around 20 minutes while we recapped on what we had done on our trip so far.

Catriona went back to the hotel while David set off in search of cushion covers. He managed to buy 2 for around $9. They are very bright! We walked a couple of blocks to the local bus station for our bus to Antakya (Antioch) in Turkey. The boarder crossing was a little confusing and it was raining heavily. The first time we have seen real rain since we arrived in Cairo almost a month ago. Luckily Catriona had her umbrella so she stayed nice and dry as we had to wander around outside. We made it to Antakya around 4.30pm and set off to see the Mosaic Museum. The Mosaics were incredible. There is a pronounced difference in Turkey from the 3 other countries we have visited so far. Everything is so green and clean and it is much more European. We didn't manage to find the holy hand grenade of Antioch though. I just hope we don't run into any killer rabbits on the road.

29th Quick start this morning and back on the road. We caught a very nice coach from Antakya to  Nigde, a 7 hour drive. The scenery on the way was magnificent, reminded us of the Swiss alps. We arrived around 3.30pm and had to change some money. The rest of the group set off to have a look at the local markets and the Castle, we followed later. The castle was very small compared to the others we have visited so far. We met at 6.30pm for dinner. The two of us shared our meals and finished with a shared rice pudding. We finished the night in the games room in the basement of the hotel.

Flickr photos

Here is a link to our photos big trip 2010 photos if you want to have a look.

We did take photos of the Felucca.

26th Crac des Chevaliers and Aleppo

Crac des Chevaliers, described by author Paul Theroux as the epitome of the dream castle of childhood fantasies, and we had finally made it. We set off at 9am for a 2 hour tour of the castle, starting at the stables we then saw the roman baths and checked out the secret passages to outside. We also walked through the great hall, chapel and the outer wall of the castle which had great views of the surrounding countryside. They had been filming a movie of Cleopatra at the castle and the sets were only half taken down so a few of the rooms were decorated in Egyptian style along with a market scene in a courtyard.
Oh no I've been hit!
Our guide was very good, it was such a shame we didn't have more time here but we had to set off to Homs for our bus to Aleppo, our next overnight stop. We had 2 minivans for the 1 hour trip to Homs where we transferred to a public coach for the 3 hour trip to Aleppo. We stayed in a hotel in the Souq (Dar Halabia) which was quite comfortable. Mark took us on an orientation walk around the city and we stopped in for a gin and tonic at the Baron hotel, where Agatha Christie wrote murder on the orient express. We finished up having dinner next door at Al-Andalib a place that has a write up in the lonely planet.

25th Palmyra

25th Started the day with the standard breakfast of olives, flat bread,tomato, cucumber, jam and cheese, then set off for a tour of the ruins of Palmyra. Palmyra was an important trading city in the Bysantine times. We saw many of the usual thing for Roman ruins like the colonaded street some baths and most importantly the water and sewerage systems. The difference with these water pipes is that they were not made from teracotta but carved from rock so that they would not be damaged by the horses and chariots.

After visiting the temple of Bel, Jill Kathy and the two of us went to see the Funerary towers, called the towers of Yemliko. There were four levels to the burial chambers with carvings of heads depicting the dead. We then set off to view the temple of the three brothers, which was an underground tomb. The frescos inside were remarkably well preserved due to the lack of humidity.

We met the rest of the group back in town and had pancakes with banana and chocolate for lunch, then we all squeezed into a little mini van for the 3 hour trip to Crac des Chevaliers. Our hotel was opposite the castle but we did not have a direct castle view room however we could see it if we leaned out over our balcony. This is the view from the bar at the bottom of the hotel. We walked up the road for another huge dinner that had the mezze, chicken with a garlic sauce and we finished off with a rakki. Western tourists are still quite a novelty here as on the way to the restaurant a few local girls were taking our picture, quite funny.

Back at the hotel we played a few rounds of cards downstairs at the bar before heading to bed.

22nd, 23rd & 24th Damascus and Palmyra

We set off for another boarder crossing today. We shared and international taxi with Ken, the others were split up into 3 other taxis for our drive 0ut of Jordan and into Syria. We passed road signs for the way to the Saudi Arabian boarder and the Iraq boarder.

But we were heading to part of "the axis of evil" Syria! We made it out of Jordan and into Syria with little problem. They checked our passports very carefully, we think they were checking to make sure we had not been to Israel. Our driver was doing around 90mph down the highway and we ended up having to wait for the others to catch up as we transferred to local taxis on the outskirts of Damascus. The traffic in Damascus reminded us of Bangkok & Cairo, very slow moving as there was so much of it. After checking into our room in the hotel Mark took us on an orientation walk around town. We first picked up some small pizzas (4 for 90pounds = just over $2) then some freshly squeezed juice @ 50 pounds or a little over $1, then we found banks for people to exchange money, next on past the sweets shops and the old part of town not in the old city.  We ended up in the Souq al-Hamaidiyya ( a covered market built during the Ottoman period.
We walked past the Umayyad Mosque and looked around the shops and stalls that were selling everything from linen to wedding dresses and food and spices to hair products. We managed to buy a Syrian flag for around $6. Mark took the group out to dinner at a local restaurant where the menu was in Arabic. The food was fantastic.

23rd We had a good breakfast in our hotel and then set off with Mark for our tour of the Sayyida Ruqayya and Umayyad Mosque. The first Mosque Mark called the disco mosque as the inside ceiling is covered with mirror mosaics, chandeliers and bright colours.

 

These two mosques are pilgrimage sites for Shiite Muslims, many from Iran, the women all wore full black coverings. The women in our group had to get "Special clothes" to wear into the mosques. 

This mosque contains the tomb of the Prophet Mohamed's Great granddaughter.Next stop was the Umayyad Mosque - one of the holiest places for Muslims. Built in 705AD over a Cathedral that had been built on the site of a Roman temple. It contains a shrine said to house the head of John the Baptist 

   as well as a Shrine for Hussain,

 

grandson of Mohamed (Sayyida's father). The women were weeping and the Men were chanting and beating their chests all paying their respects to John the Baptist (Considered a prophet  by Muslims) and Hussain. The columns in the courtyard were covered in some beautiful gold and green mosaics.

 

We then visited the Mausoleum of Saladin- the Arab hero who helped defeat the Crusaders. We had the rest of the day to ourselves and being Friday most places were closed. A shop where we could get lunch finally opened at 2pm so we grabed a bite to eat and head off to the National Museum with Sharon. There were many amazingly old things to see, the highlight being a stone with the worlds first alphabet. We bought a

replica from the book shop.  The frescos from a 2nd century Synagogue (the oldest in the world) were also amazing. They had been preserved as they were found burried in Dura Europos. After the Museum we headed back to the Souq to meet up with the others and had dinner in the courtyard of a restaurant that was once an old Damascene house. Latter that night we managed to catch up with Catriona's Mum and Sister Megan on Skype. It was good to catch up with them.

24th Packed up and checked out by 9am and headed back to the Souq. We walked through to the Christian Quarter where there were many little shrines to Mary and many women without headscarves. Catriona bought a couple of damasc table clothes, having found out that Damascus is where they come from. We shopped around first and bought the more expensive but better quality ones.  It was then a mad rush back to the post office  as it shut at 12pm(just opposite our hotel) to send them back home, along with a few other things we did not need. At 1.30pm we all jumped into taxis for the ride to the bus station. Our taxi driver could speak a bit of English and he was telling him his country was safe, which we agree with. We agree with him, the people are very peaceful and we feel very safe. We caught a public bus to Palmyra 200+km away. At Palmyra we boarded a 1950's rickety old bus to get us to our hotel.

 We checked in and headed off to the citadel to watch the sunset.

We had great views over Palmyra ruins and town, the mountains and tombs. We finished the day with dinner of the usual mezze and main of chicken & rice with peanuts and a yoghurt sauce, delicious. There was a cave bar at the hotel where we played a few rounds of cards before heading off to bed.

20th & 21st Dead Sea, Mount Nebo, Madaba, Jerash & Amman

Departing Petra we headed off down the Kings Highway, yet another sunny day. Our Jordanian guide was amusing pointing out the obvious - Bedouin tents, housing, farming, Japanese camels (cars), and that they have 3 types of coffee pots, large, medium and small. He basically just kept on talking until our tour leader asked him to stop as one of our travel companions were about to put in ear plugs.

Our first stop was the ruins of Karak Castle , a crusader castle where battles between the Crusader's and Muslim armies happened in the 12th century. Our guide painfully took us through the castle explaining which sections were used for what purposes and also pointing out where Roman and Nabataean stones (like circular roman columns) had been used in the construction of the castle.

We then drove down the very steep road to the lowest point on earth, the dead sea, where we stopped at Amman beach and had a huge buffet lunch before our float in the sea.

  What an amazing experience there was nothing we could do to not float. We had to be careful not to get the water in our mouths of eyes as the water is 10 times more salty than the normal sea. Catriona also had a mud bath along with Kathy, Susan and Jill, who ended up looking like the creatures from the black lagoon.

We then drove up to Mount Nebo, where Moses saw the promised land. We should have been able to see Jerusalem but it was very hazy and visibility was limited. In the afternoon we made our destination of Madaba, a historical town famous for its Byzantine era mosaics.  We had a walking tour of the town and had dinner with the group followed by ice cream at a local ice cream and cake shop. Mmmm delicious.

21st Today we had a free day and everyone except Kathy and Tony who were not well headed off to see the Roman/Byzantine ruins of Jerash. We had 2 hours to walk around the site, seeing the colonnaded street where you could see the marks left in the paving from the chariots

 

The North theatre is in very good condition

We also managed to see some of the chariot race before heading off to Amman to grab some lunch and view the Amman Citadel, more ruins and a museum that houses some of the dead sea scrolls.   We arrived back in Madaba with enough time to visit St Georges church. The church was built over the site of an old Byzantine church with what remains of a mosaic containing the oldest map of Palestine in existence. It contains all the major religious sites from Egypt to Palestine and is captioned in Greek.

 

17th, 18th & 19th Aqaba, Wadi Rum and Petra - Jordan

We had the morning to explore Aqaba, so we headed off to the corniche. Our first stop was the ruins of the medieval port, then a nice stroll along the beachfront watching the holidaying Jordanians frolicking in the water on one side and the locals in their community garden on the other.

We had a look at the ruined Aqaba castle and the big flagpole and headed back to the hotel via some shops to buy our picnic lunch. We set off at 11am with our Jordanian guide for our 2 hour drive to Wadi Rum. At the visitors centre we met the Sheik who owned the camp we were to stay at. We transferred to 4x4 cars and set off into the desert. Our first stop was Lawrence spring where we had a traditional welcome tea in a Bedouin tent.

We set off toward the mountains and had our picnic lunch in the shade of the magnificent coloured cliffs. We then walked up Jebel Khazali where there were centuries old rock carvings.

This one is of camels.

We then drove to Lawrence's house and then on to the last stop, Umm Fruh Rock Bridge.

When we arrived at our campsite we had a welcome tea with the Sheik in the shadows of the cliffs. We had time to go for a walk and do some yoga before watching the sunset.

We finished the evening with a wonderful meal that had been cooked under the ground and toasted marshmallows on the fire before retiring to sleep under the stars. This visit to Wadi Rum was an awesome experience and definitely a highlight of the trip.

18th In the morning we had a traditional Bedouin breakfast of flat bread, oil and dukka, we also had cheese and jam along with tea. It took 1/2 an hour to get to the visitor centre where we transferred to a bus for the 2 1/2 hour drive to Petra. When we arrived we dropped our bags off at the hotel and set off to buy lunch of falafel rolls at a local takeaway. Next stop one of my bucket list sights, Petra. It was a slow hot walk down past many tombs and through the Siq to the magnificent sight of the Treasury.

There were many other people there and it was difficult to get good photos. The guide was rather tedious, he showed us the famous Treasury- Al-Khazneh, the street of facades (40 tombs), 7000 seat ampitheatre, the royal tombs (they looked amazing), then continued along the main colonnade street and Nabataean ruins. We were happy when we had free time to explore. We had a bit of a walk around then headed back to the hotel. I then set off with a few of the others from the group to a hamam where we had a nice steam and a good scrub before meeting the rest of the group for dinner of mensaf, a traditional Jordanian meal of lamb, rice and nuts topped with a yoghurt sauce.

19th We set off at 6.30 am and walked to site with Mark and Cathy to the Siq. Because it was so early there were hardly any people there and we were able to get some great photos.

The Treasury

Royal Tombs

difficult to see in this picture but was increadible to see the intricacy of the carvings still in pretty good condition after so long.

High place of sacrifice

David in front of the Monastery - Al-Deir

We ended up getting back to the hotel at around 4pm. In the evening we set off to see Petra by night.