Up bright and early this morning for another full day. Tourism is the number 2 industry in Lebanon so they make it a full value day! I have had Lebanese lunch everyday :) We start with the Mezza (Lebanese appetizers) which consists of bread with hummus, babaganouche (sp?), moujjanat and different salads. For main courses we have had chicken, fish, shishkabob. I think it is funny now to watch people struggle with their eating utensils. I just pick the food up and dig in like a real Arab. (I think it may be difficult using all those utensils again).
Today we journyed to southern Lebanon. it's a little tricky because that is where the hezbollah stronghold is but we had a very pleasant day with no difficulties whatsoever.
Our first adventure was to the palace Beit Eddine. It is high in the mountains and I confess our driver made me feel a litttle anxious as he just zoomed around all those hairpin curves. I guess he is used to it and we are not.... The palace is beautiful! Some prince built it in the early 19th century and it is now used as the summer residence of the Lebanese president (sort of like Camp David I guess). The architecture was fabulous and the basement of this palace contains many beautiful mosaics. When you stand away from the mosaics you cannot see the individual tiles. As you get closer you see the teenie tiny tiles. Someone put a lot of time and effort into those projects! There was a rose garden and other nice lawns..all this on top of a mountain!
We then decended the mountain and drove to Tyre which is called Sour by the Arabs. On the way we passed the largest Palestinian refugee camp in the world. Looks like a terrible place. There were Hezbollah flags everywhere. We came to the ancient Roman ruins which were interesting. It was in the familiar Roman cross shape dividing the city into quarters. Apparently Alexander the Great had been there first in 300 BC and then the Romans came and made their own embellishments. The largest Hippodrome that the Romans ever built was made there. We then drove to Sidon and had a nice lunch right beside the sea.
Sidon has a wonderful Crusader castle. It was built on an old Roman site. It looks as if some Crusaders came, decided this was a good place, oh and there are some old Roman columns we can use to build a fort...and we have to make it so the men are protected. When you see the pictures of it on facebook you will see these round things on the walls. Those are the old Roman columns the Crusaders used to shore up the castle! It was a very pleasant day!
These last two cities I mentioned are in the Bible. When I go to Turkey I will see Ephesus and the Isle of Patmos. It ended up being a good thing I didn't get a visa to Syria. One American woman did. The Syrians stopped the tour group at the border and the Syrians pulled her off the bus and grilled her for half an hour. Then they had a police car follow the bus for the entire tour so they could report any unusual activity by that American! I think I will skip Damascus.....
Tripoli tomorrow (Tripoli, Lebanon...not Libya) then off to istanbul on Tuesday.
Love to all!
Christine
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