5 Days In Lebanon

With Tony being of Lebanese descent we couldn't not take a trip to the "Paris of the Middle East". After ignoring the travel warning on Trip Advisor I managed to find a great little hotel tucked in behind the corniche (waterfront road) in Beirut. It was Eid and everyone was on holiday so it was great to find somewhere near Hamra Street.
Before describing our wonderful visit I will share a lesson we learned. We had booked a transfer  to our hotel from the airport. As we came out of customs we looked for a sign with our names on and spent the next hour trying to contact the company and find out where our driver was. Eventually an airport worker rang the number on his mobile and found out the driver was parked outside the terminal door. He had been inside and was looking for two "tourists". He didn't have a sign because he thought he could pick us out. I suppose it was a compliment, looking like locals, but it wasn't funny at the time.
Getting back to the trip, the hotel was five minutes to Pigeon Rocks and a couple of cool cafes with awesome views of the rocks. We spent the first afternoon / day wandering the corniche and came across a carnival. We couldn't resist the ferris wheel ride which gave us wonderful views of the surrounding area. Dinner was at a cafe, mezze and wine while watching the local football on TV.

The following three days were booked for tours. "Golden Holiday Tours" provided us with the wonderful Oxana, our tour guide, and Nasser our driver. The first day we headed off to Baalbeck via Zahle, where Tony's grandfather grew up. The mountains in Lebanon are amazing, very steep compared to NZ, and numerous. We saw our first statue of Mary, with her arms outstretched, overlooking Zahleh as we drove through the area. Christianity is alive and well in Lebanon! Baalbeck is known for it's temples, which are still in great shape considering they have endured earthquakes and civil wars. On the way back to Beirut we stopped in a Anjar, a city from the Omayyad period. I must mention that while we had lunch near Baalbeck we were entertained by men speeding past in car shooting their rifles in the air. We were told by Oxana this is normal as it is a Hisbollah area.

Finally found a street sign that said Zahleh

Baalbeck ruins were great for rambling around

The crossroad at Anjar

View heading back to Beirut from the valley floor

Day two's tour took us back into the mountains to Geitta Grotto. If you don't see anything else you must see this place. It reminded me so much of Waitomo, without the glow worms. Byblos was our next stop. Built over centuries, it includes a port, a citadel and many temples. Outside the citadel the municipality have made it law that all buildings should be in keeping with the crusader type buildings. We found a wonderful shop which sold fossils so we bought a 100,000,000 year old ancestor of the salmon - very cool! Last stop for the day was a gondola ride up to Harissa to see the Virgin of Lebanon. Beautiful views back towards Beirut and Jounieh!

No photos were allowed inside the grottos.

Iti found a cannonball to play with at Byblos

Several sarcophagi were found buried in a very deep pits

The souk at Byblos

The view from our gondola heading to Harissa

Tony on his way up to the Virgin at Harissa.

Day three was back to the mountains, in a different direction again, to the Chouf Mountains. Oxana, being the wonderful guide she was, filled us in on the history of the area and of stories of locals who still live there. We visited Deir El Qamar, a small village with narrow streets and a beautiful church of St John. Not far away was Beiteddine, the palace used for the President's Residence, which we were able to wander through at our own leisure. I loved the simplicity of the place, not as ornate as some of the other palaces we have seen in the Middle East but just as beautiful. The mosaic exhibition was huge, as were the mosaics. I thought the mosaics in Jordan were impressive but these are far better preserved. Our final stop was the cedar forest, a reserve in the rocky mountains where the cedars are looked after by local rangers. Many of the trees date over 200 years. If you're looking for tour guides in Lebanon I'd suggest you have a look at Golden Holidays. They worked out the cheaper than the hotel's tour operators and were very reliable and friendly.

St John's Church.

One of the many mosaics at the palace

The palace court

Oxana, Tony and I at the Cedar Forest.

Day five was left to us so we headed off to the National Museum for the morning. The government has done an amazing job restoring the building after the war. I hope when Egypt has the new museum built they take a look at the Lebanese museum displays. The headsets and apps for laptops were free too. It took us about an hour to get back to our part of town as we had decided to walk. Didn't lose any weight though.
The food was wonderful, the shopping in Hamra St was okay and the tours were well worth booking. If we ever get back to Beirut again we will head further south to areas we missed. Five days was plenty to get a taste of "Paris".

The ground floor of the museum

Artefacts found in the obelisk temple at Byblos

Tony & Iti outside the museum.