Alexandria

On Sunday, we left most of our luggage at the Indiana Hotel, and headed for Ramses Station and the 9 am train to Alexandria. We thought this was a two hour train, but it arrived in Alexandria at 12.

It was a short ride to our hotel, which is located across from the harbour. Our room has a wonderful view of the harbour. The hotel, called Le Metropole, was built in the grand style in 1902 and remains in beautiful condition. It is apparently one of the better hotels in town and is very much a step up in class from what we have experienced elsewhere on our trip.

There isn't that much to see in Alexandria. It gets numbers of tourists from cruise boats (most of whom are bused to Cairo to see the pyramids), as well as large numbers of Egyptians looking for a beach holiday in summer.

We walked around the harbour and had an excellent fresh fish meal at the Fish Market Restaurant.

We continued to wander for the afternoon. There are many old buildings which once must have been quite grand, but which are really in need of cleaning and restoration. Apparently, Alexandria was a thriving and even modern city from 1900 to about 1950, with impressive buildings and public features and parks, but it seems to have been in something of a decline since then. Some form of building renovation or restoration is happening for a few buildings (mainly bank buildings), there is a long way to go to make Alexandria an architectural jewel - the city suffers from the general uncleanliness, rubbish and decay that seems endemic in Egypt.

It isn't easy to find a restaurant that serves alcohol, but fortunately we did so for dinner and shared an expensive but welcome bottle of what passes for wine in Egypt - we are even getting close to appreciating it.

On Monday, we took the opportunity to sleep in - we felt that we had done our quota of early starts and we knew that we had to fly out at 4 am the next morning.

We then went for a stroll along the Corso, by the harbour, towards the new library (the Bibliotheca Alexandrina), which has a striking architecture and is airy and spacious internally.

We had a light lunch on the way back to our hotel and then headed for our 3 pm train back to Cairo. The train passes through densely farmed areas, watered by irrigation channels from the Nile or its delta. The fields are generally small, and mostly growing food crops. Tractors seem rare; the donkey is the universal aid. Egypt relies entirely on the Nile; if the Nile water isn't there to provide irrigation, the land is nothing but desert in all the areas were saw from Alexandria to Aswan and beyond.

We returned to the Indiana Hotel (using the Cairo Metro, which is surprising clean, efficient and cheap, even if not very extensive). We had a light meal and a short sleep, before rising at 12:30 am to taxi to Cairo Airport for our 4:15 am flight home, via Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur.

Cairo - Again

The overnight train from Luxor was quite good. Thanks to the blanket that we bought in Aswan, we had a cosy night and got some sleep. Egyptian Railways excelled and the train arrived just before 10 am on Saturday.

We headed for the Indiana Hotel, where we had previously stayed in Cairo.

For the afternoon, we went to look around Islamic Cairo. This is the area of the markets (more shopping!). Firstly we took the Metro to Ramses station and bought some tickets for Alexandria for Sunday and Monday).

After the usual negotiation, we took a taxi to Islamic Cairo (Khan el-Khalili). When we exited the taxi, we clearly looked lost. Two lovely girls took pity on us and guided us to the market area and oriented us. We shared a cup of tea with them and their friends at Fishawi's, the oldest tea shop in Cairo. They were local university students, studying English literature.

We wandered around the market area, buying various gifts and other dubious items, as well as running into most of the other people on the tour.

On Saturday night, most of the tour group had a final meal together at a restaurant on the Nile, and we said our good-byes as we had to move on early the next morning.

Luxor and the Valley of the Kings

On Thursday, we left our felluca by motorboat at 6.00 am (another early start) and returned to Aswan. We collected our luggage and boarded our bus, ready for our convoy. Egyptians require foreigners to travel in police convoys in lower Egypt (essentially the area south of Cairo), so your travel times are determined by the convoy times.

We had stops along the way to Luxor at Kom-Ombo and Edfu. Both are temples.

Kom-Ombo is on the edge of the Nile and has good relief carvings. It is a double temple, where most features are duplicated, side-by-side, along a symetrical central axis. The temple is dedicated to Sobek, the crocodile-headed god, and to the falcon god, Horaeris (also called Horis the Elder). The temple is Ptolemaic (from about 180 BC). Earthquakes, Nile floods, damage from later Coptic users and reuse of the stone for local building have taken their toll on the building, but is remains worth seeing, particularly for the reliefs.

The Efdu temple is dedicated to the falcon-god Horus. It is inland from the Nile on the western side. For centuries, it was covered with sand, which protected the building from earthquakes and the elements. Consequently, it is one of the best preserved temples in Egypt, with even the roof remaining. It is newer (comparatively) than the temples of Luxor. being Ptolemaic (after about 300 BC).

From Edfu, is it a one hour trip to Luxor, where we would stay for one night. Luxor was the capital of Egypt in ancient times (it was then known as Thebes). We took horse-drawn carriages from our hotel to the Karnak temple complex, about 2 km north of the town. Luxor is on the east side of the Nile (the side for the living).

Karnak is a large and impressive temple complex, built and re-built by many pharaohs over the Middle and New Kingdom periods, starting around 1500 BC. It is a large site and we had a good local guide. He was quite a character, having been born in the temple area itself in 1943 (then, locals lived among the ruins). The complex itself is spread over a large area. Particularly impressive are the large statues, the remaining tall granite obelisks and the Hypostyle Hall, with its array of 134 massive columns.

The next morning we rose before sunrise yet again - this time to take a motorboat across the Nile to the west bank to visit the Valley of the Kings. The west bank is the side of the dead (ancient Egyptians lived predominately on the east bank, where the sun rose, which was seen as the side of life). It is a few kilometers from the bank to the Valley, so we set off on donkeys provided by locals. Fortunately, the donkeys knew the way well and we made it, even if the ride isn't terribly comfortable.

The Valley of the Kings is a relatively small and desolate valley, with steeply sloping sides and a rocky peak at the head that resembles a pyramid. It was quite crowded, even at this early hour (about 8 am). We visited four tombs. The general layout is similar - a gently sloping descent though a rock-cut corridor about 5m square, passing through two or three somewhat larger spaces, to end at a burial chamber (of maybe 8m square). Walls and roof are covered with incredibly well-preserved drawings and hieroglyphics, which are typically carved into the plaster of the wall and painted.

The tombs can be crowded and become quite hot and stuffy. It must be very unpleasant visiting in the hottest summer months.

We bused to Deir El Medina, the area of the tombs and village ruins of the workers who actually built the regal tombs. These tombs are smaller (of course), but colourfully executed and show more scenes of normal life. One worker showed a scene of his wish for the next life - to be farming by the Nile with his wife.

We returned to the Nile by our trusty donkeys.

In the afternoon, we had free time. We found a jewellery shop and helped the local economy, before walking past the floodlit Luxor temple to have a G & T on the terrace of the Old Palace Hotel - the grand hotel in town.

We had a meal at the Jamboree Restaurant (for the second night - we had been there previously to sample the local delicacy, stuffed pigeon). At 10pm we headed to Luxor station to board the 11pm overnight train to Cairo.

Felluca

Back at Aswan, we quickly grabbed some day-packs and headed for the river. There we boarded our felluca.

A felluca is a single-sail Nile boat, typically crewed by Nubians. We were on the felluca for the afternoon and overnight. We had two boats (one slightly smaller) for the 19 of us. Each boat has a padded deck (which you lie/sleep on), a very small cooking area and a small cabin (for changing).

We sailed up the Nile, past various sites (such as the Old Cataract Hotel, where Agatha Christie wrote Death on the Nile). We moored at a quiet spot on a rocky island (part of the Nile cataract) and had a swim. This was really quite refreshing. We had adequate supplies of cold beer on the boat and it was good to relax.

Towards evening, we moored on the bank, near a Nubian Village. For dinner, we walked though the village to the home of one of these families and gathered in an open courtyard.

The meal was delicious. It was mainly vegetarian, with some kofte and chicken, washed down with some of the beer from the boat.

Following dancing (the Nubians seem to love to dance), we headed back to our boat to sleep.

We were up at 5 am to take a motorboat back to Aswan, to pick up our luggage and board our bus for Luxor. Yes - another Egyptian sunrise - this was getting to be too many!

Abu Simbel

We headed off to Abu Simbel just after 3 am. Yes - we were seeing a lot of Egyptian sunrises on this trip.

To travel to Abu Simbel by bus is about a three hour trip from Aswan. The authorities require that tourists (foreigners) travel in convoys organized by the police and protected by the police. Everybody in any sort of uniform in Egypt seems to carry a sub-machine gun (usually with at least one spare magazine).

Our bus travelled to the convoy muster-point and then (after the obligatory waiting around), away we went. The drive is uneventful - it's all desert anywhere in Egypt away from the Nile.

Abu Simbel (and a smaller temple to Rameses II's Nubian queen) is on the banks of Lake Nasser. These temples were moved here in the 1970's from their original location about 200m away (which is now under the lake).

Abu Simbel is worth visiting. The towering statues of Rameses II outside the temple are striking. Inside, there is a hall of multiple columns and decorated walls, all hewn from the sandstone rock.

The convoy approach means that everyone arrives at once, but if you look at the smaller temple first and then the larger, you seem to miss the worst of it (most tourists crowd into Abu Simbel).

Our local guide gave us an overview of the temples and then left us to explore the internals (guides aren't allowed to operate inside).

Both temples are worth seeing, even if it means an early rise, long drives and (consequently) a higher cost (still only about $A100 each). Rameses II built these temples well down here in Nubia to make something of a statement to the Nubians - and the scale of these temples is a mighty statement. He was a cunning scoundrel in many ways - he also married a Nubian bride to keep them on-side (this is the queen in the smaller temple). Rameses II ruled for 67 years (he died at 92) and made a habit of marrying queens from each area of Egypt and from every surrounding tribe or country - he had over 50 wives and about 200 children.

You leave Abu Simbel as you arrive - when the convoy leaves. However, you do have enough time (just) to see the site.

Aswan

We arrived at Giza Station in Cairo for our train. It was due to leave about 10:15 pm, so it was pretty good that it got away at 11:00 pm. We felt as though we had been on the go for days, so we were all pretty tired and ready to take a seat on the train.

The train isn't too bad, as long as you understand its limitations. The seats are good (we were in 'first class'), with plenty of room and a good recline. However, the toilets at the carriage ends aren't first class (their class level diminished as the trip proceeds). The lights stay on all night and it gets a bit cold.

The trip is supposed to take 13 hours. Ours took 15 hours (we arrived at 2 pm), which is apparently a good performance.

We got to our hotel and had a shower, which was bliss. We then had a walk around the nearby souks, which weren't worth much attention. We had an early dinner at a restaurant on the Nile and then got an early night. This was merely self-preservation - we anticipated a 2:45 am wake-up call so that we could travel to Abu Simbel

Cairo

We convinced our guide to have a 8 am start to get us moving to the Pyramids early. We had an Egyptian guide for our trip (by bus) to the Pyramids. Unfortunately the day was hazy (it cleared progressively), so we didn't see the pyramids until we were nearly next to them.

It's difficult not to be impressed. They are what you expect - very big and very old. We went inside the 'middle one'. There is a narrow sloping passage down (only about 1.2m high), then a horizontal passage, then a passage up. You arrive at a chamber of about 10m by 4m, with a pitched ceiling about 6m high. There is no decoration anywhere and just a large stone sarcophagus in the chamber (they would probably have to demolish the pyramid to remove it). It is oppressively hot and humid inside, so you don't linger. There were only a few people inside when we were there - it must be terrible when there are larger numbers.

We had a good look around the pyramids and the sphinx and then went to a papyrus shop (seems almost a mandatory thing!). Of course, we now have a a decorated papyrus to take home.

The tour group met up for lunch (our last meal together). We went to a kushari - this is the type of restaurant and the name of the only dish that it serves, a meal that is a mix of rice, brown lentils, chickpeas, macaroni and onion, topped with a garlic, tomato and chili sauce.This is cheap and filling and is something of a staple food in Egypt.

Traffic in Cairo is simply maniac - much more so than anywhere else we have been so far in the Middle East. Traffic is almost constantly gridlocked, cars squeeze into every space, there is no concept of a lane and no traffic lights (which would be ignored anyway). The whole shambles is basically left to sort itself out. All this makes crossing the roads a complete adventure. You simply have to find the best way across that you can - the best approach seems to be to watch for a local and them use them to "shield" you as you cross.

For the afternoon, our brilliant team member (turned guide) Eileen had organized a tour of the Egyptian Museum. We took taxis there and met with our own guide. This was a brilliant thing to do. Our guide was great and we spent over 2.5 hours having our own guided tour of the museum. Our guide showed us key exhibits and really explained what they meant and why. She was a trained Egyptologist and could read the cartouches (the hieroglyphic names of the kings) on the statues.

The material from the tomb of Tutankhamen is simply amazing, both in terms of the quantity of items and the magnificence of the works. The solid gold funeral mask, inlaid with blue, is breath-taking, as are the various sarcophagi (one inside the other). The other material (jewellery, beds, chariots, boxes, jars and so much more) fills rooms. And all this for a fairly unimportant boy-king who reigned for only eight years!

From there, it was back to the hotel, a quick stop for supplies for the train, a quick meal and off to the train. We farewelled Eileen, James, Mary, Leeanne and Roberta, who finished their travels with us here. We were now with a new group (seven of us from the 'old group' joined 11 who had travelled in parallel to us from Amman). We also had a new guide (David).

Mount Sinai

We were up at 1:45 am (yes - AM) to climb Mt Sinai to catch the sunrise. Apparently it's what you do - there were lots of other people with the same idea. We bused to the start of the ascent.

We took camels for the first hour of the walk - they seem to be able to see well in the dark and they find their way up the winding switchback camel path from St Katherine's Monastery at the bottom to a saddle near the summit. Others walked up the path. It might have been more comfortable walking, but the camel ride was interesting. These camels had smaller saddles than those at Wadi Rum, so it was a tight fit between the front and rear 'horns' of the camel saddle - every time the camel moved upwards quickly, the rider got a quick punch from the front saddle horn in the belly.The stars sun brightly in a clear night sky as were rode.

From where the camel left us, it is a walk up 750 rough stone steps in the dark to the summit. There we all waited for the sunrise at 5:50am. Apparently it wasn't a busy day, but there seemed a crowd to me. Some groups sang hymns and others simply waited. At the expected time, the sun rose, much as it does anywhere else on the planet. However, there is a good view over the rugged Sinai mountains (this really is a wilderness).

Then it was down the 750 steps (at least it was now daylight) and then a walk down the winding camel path, which took us to the ancient St Katherine's Monastery, still the home of about 22 Coptic monks. We got into the grounds, but no further (it was closed on Sunday).

Back to the hotel for breakfast and a shower and then onto the bus for the trip to Cairo. This takes over seven hours and crosses the Sinai to the Red Sea coast, then across the Suez Canal (in fact, under, by tunnel) and then straight on to Cairo. You see the strange sight of ships proceeding across the desert as they move along the Suez (you can see the superstructure above the canal banks).

Cairo is a very populous city and traffic is terrible at most times. Our bus took about an hour to get from the outskirts to our hotel near the west bank of the Nile. We arrived by about 8 pm and were tired and ready to drop. We had a quick meal at the rooftop restaurant of our hotel (the Indiana Hotel).

Red Sea

On Saturday in Dahab we had the first breakfast that was different in four weeks - the hotel offered omelets and toasted bread. Simple things really do delight sometimes.

This is a good hotel, on the beach with beach-views from our room.

For the morning, we took jeeps to a local diving site, the Blue Hole. This is about 30 minutes outside town and there is a sort of shanty town there, with shops selling drinks, food and providing snorkeling and dive equipment.

We snorkeled. The water was reasonably warm and extremely clear. The coral reef is right on-shore and then falls away in a 80m cliff. There are good coral colours and lots of reef fish of all colours and shapes. We spent a few hours there enjoying the sea and sunshine.

Back to town, we had a meal from one of the many restaurants on the foreshore area. It's great to be able to get beers reasonably and easily.

At 5pm, we took to the bus again and drove for 90 minutes to St Katherine, which is at the base of Mt Sinai.

To Egypt - Dahab

Friday was a day of hanging around. We had to get from Aqaba in Jordan to Dahab in Egypt, which involves Jordan Customs, a ferry across the Red Sea and then Egyptian Customs. This is a very bad combination - any one is likely to be hopeless and the three together are horrendous.

The key thing is to find out when (even if) the ferry is running. Initially we thought that we would leave at 10am, then 12am then 1pm. We took our bus to the Aqaba port at 1 pm and we got on the ferry at about 2:30pm (having been allowed to leave Jordan). The ferry finally sailed at about 3:30pm. You get you passport stamped for Egypt entry on the boat, so this is finally looking more efficient.

The ferry arrived in Nuweiba in Egypt at about 5pm and we were allowed to disembark at about 5:45pm. We got on our bus - fantastic we thought.

In fact, the bus took us for a 4 minute drive to the Egyptian Customs, where we unloaded our bags and proceeded to hang around for a while. Eventually, we had to heft our bags to a building to have them perfunctorily scanned and then back on our bus. We then got as far as the gate and an Egyptian immigration officer checked all our passports. By about 7pm, we were finally on the road to Dahab, which was about a 90 minute drive.

Dahab is a Red Sea resort, famous for its reefs and diving. Our hotel was one of the best we had been in - clean with large rooms and a view over the pool and the beach.

We strolled along the foreshore strip to have a good meal together, to end a day that really only consisted of getting out of Jordan and into Egypt.

Wadi Rum

On Wednesday evening, we reached our camp at Wadi Rum. Wadi means 'valley'. Wadi Rum is a desert valley, with a floor of sand and many isolated rock hills that rise from the sand. Wadi Rum was a home of the Bedouin and our camp area was run by Bedouin. It was in this area that Lawrence of Arabia lived and fought with the Bedouin (some of the film was shot here also).

We stayed in a canvas tent with a double bed. Our hosts provided a delicious buffet meal featuring chicken roasted in a large pot sunk into the sand. Of course, we had brought the rain with us....

On Thursday, we rose early to have a camel ride at 7 am (as you do ??). Bedouins led these camels as we perched precariously on their backs. Over the one hour ride, we begun to get the knack of sitting on these beasts and found the ride quite gentle.

Back at camp, we had breakfast and then set off on a two hour desert 4WD trip. We sat on benches in the back of three 4WD utes (great OH&S !) and were driven to various sites (a Bedouin cave with a 1000 year old rock map, a sand dune and a Bedouin camp). Between camping, riding a camel and a dusty 4WD ride, we were getting pretty grimy.

Wadi Rum is a beautiful desert and our Bedouin hosts were welcoming and gracious.

Back on our bus, we travelled the short distance to Aqaba (about 1.5 hours). Aqaba is Jordan's port at the head of the Red Sea (with the Israeli city of Eiliat across the water). Aqaba is a resort town, but we were happy to find our hotel and to get a shower and into clean clothes.

Petra

On Wednesday, we were up early to arrive at the Petra entrance just after 7 am. It was alarming to see the number of buses in the parking lot already (it was high-season), but we later found that these were parked there overnight as there probably isn't anywhere near the hotels to park them.

The day started out cool and overcast, but the threatened rain didn't appear and the day became clear and mild with blue skies.

You walk into Petra along an open track for about 700m. You then enter the Siq, a 1.2 Km natural narrow gorge in rocks that are about 80m high. The track winds and is from 10m to 2m wide. There are various carvings in the rocks as you go.

You know it is coming, but the first view of the Treasury as you come to the end of the Siq is breath-taking. The Treasury is a tomb and is well-known from its use in the Indiana Jones movie. It is amazing. It is huge - 30m wide and 43m high and was carved from the solid sandstone rockface in the 1st century BC. It is elaborately carved and has not suffered unduly from erosion over time, In fact, the most damage was by Bedouin tribesmen using it for target practice - this harmed some of the statues on the facade. Inside is simply one large room - this was a tomb.

Most of what remains in Petra are the tombs. Petra was an important city (the Nabataean capital and later a Roman colony) made wealthy through it's position on the caravan trade routes (particularly for frankincense). In time, trades routes changed and the demise of pagan religions lessened the demand for frankincense, which meant that Petra fell into ruins. Most of it's free-standing buildings were destroyed by an earthquake in 747 AD, with only the tombs remaining. Petra was re-discovered in 1812.

There are many tombs, of varying sizes. While numbers of tombs were grander than the Treasury, these are mostly much more affected by erosion and so in a much less complete state. We had the time to look at many of these tombs.

We hiked to a tomb called the Monastery, which is set up a flight of 800 steps cut into the rock. The views on the way up are marvellous and then you come to the only tomb that can rival the Treasury. The Monastery is huge and awesome - it is less embellished than the Treasury but its size and location are fantastic.

Arriving at 7am gave us one great advantage. We saw Petra without the crowds - because it does become very crowded indeed. When we first saw the Treasury, we were the only ones there. Similarly, we saw the Monastery without crowds. By contrast, the front of the Treasury was a milling crowd of tourists when we left at 3pm.

Petra is simply fantastic. The entrance through the Siq and then the tombs (particularly the Treasury and the Monastery) are breathtaking in their scale and drama.

We drove on from Petra to our overnight camp at Wadi Rum

The Dead Sea

On Tuesday we headed off in our own bus. We travelled to Madaba, about an hour south of Amman, to briefly see the remnants of a 4th century floor mosaic on a church floor. The mosaic is a map of parts of the Middle East (as it was then).

We then headed for Mount Nebo, which is supposed to be where Moses sighted the Promised Land and where he then died. While visibility wasn't great, we could see the Dead Sea, the Jordan Valley and Jericho across the Jordan. Sometimes Jerusalem (45 km away) is also visible, but not today.

From there, we travelled to the Dead Sea - a winding descent from over 1000m to 400m below sea level (the lowest dry land on earth). You swim in the Dead Sea from a resort hotel (they have beaches, showers, pools etc). We had the obligatory 'swim' - the sea is so salty (30% salt) that you cannot sink and really cannot swim (your legs won't stay under). You can float with arms and legs out of the water. You have to be very careful not to get the salt water into your eyes.

After washing the salt off and having a snack lunch, our bus took us to Petra (about three hours). By now it was raining - we seemed to be bringing rain with us. We had a good dinner at our hotel.

Amman

On Sunday, we headed off to Amman and Jordan. We were again in a local bus (again a comfortable coach).

We arrived and got our bearings. We had a felafel roll from the local vendor (an interesting variant that also included chips and grilled eggplant in the roll). This was followed by a stroll downtown. This is a 30 minute walk (downhill). The downtown is simply various streets with open shops selling textiles and various other items - we found it hard to find a coffee, but succeeded.

Amman is widely spread over about 35 hills (the number continues to grow). The environment is dry and the area is rolling stony hills with no vegetation. The hilly environment and spread-out nature of the city discourages walking as a means of getting around.

Amman is growing fast. While the downtown is a bit tired, there are new suburbs springing up and significant redevelopment. The road systems are very good. There is clearly plenty of money around (though there is probably a bit of space between the poor and the rich). There are lots of fancy cars around. All this means that prices are quite high (higher than Syria) - probably about equivalent to Australia (except for much more expensive alcohol and much cheaper cigarettes).

Berna was unwell, so she had KFC delivered to the room (Amman is much more 'western' than Damascus). Michael went o the Books@Cafe restaurant - a good restaurant with a fine view, but an interesting trip requiring a walk downhill and then finding a way uphill (including finding a way up many flights of steps in little light).

On Monday, the group headed off for a walking trip, starting with the citadel. There is little left other than some columns and low ruins, but the small museum is noteworthy because it has some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were worth seeing (see picture).

We walked down the hill to the Roman Theatre, which is well preserved. It has two small adjacent Folklore and Costume museums.

In the afternoon, Michael and others took taxis out to Jerash (about 1 hour drive). Jerash is the ruins of a Roman provincial town. The main street, the two theatres, the Hippodrome and various temples and fountains are well preserved. We also saw a 'chariot race' in the Hippodrome - three chariots raced as part of a show.

For dinner, we took taxis to the Blue Fig Cafe, all brilliantly organized by Eileen.. This cafe attracts the trendy younger people in Amman. The vibe was great, the menu interesting and the food very good.

Damascus

On Friday, we broke with the traditional breakfast of tomato, cucumber and boiled egg. Lydia had arranged for the Pancake Kitchen in Palmyra to open for us and many of the group decided that a change to some form of pancake was well worthwhile. Favourites included banana and chocolate varieties.

We then took a local bus from Palmyra to Damascus, which is about a 3.5 hour drive. The local bus is a comfortable coach. The trip is largely through desert, generally featureless, with scattered low vegetation and occasional buildings or wayside stops and that pass by without comment.

As it was Friday, Damascus was very quiet - most of the city was closed and there was little traffic.

We went to an Islamic Centre - basically a very large educational institute associated with a mosque and had a meeting with four of the staff and scholars there. We were invited to ask questions about Islam and we were given a very polite and friendly reception.

Afterwards, we walked from our hotel to the Old Town area. While most of this was closed, we did manage to get our bearings and to visit the Azem Palace. This was a luxurious Damascus house in the late 18th century (it was the Governor's House). Like much Muslim architecture, it was peaceful, with excellent courtyards and water features and finely decorated rooms.

For dinner, we decided to go the the Neutron Restaurant, which was in the Christian Quarter of the Old Town, most distant from our hotel. We armed ourselves with the destination written in Arabic and sallied forth. Of course, our taxi driver got lost, so we abandoned him and found another. It was all fun and we found the restaurant, which provided good food and some good Lebanese wine.

On Saturday, we set off to see the Old Town. We wandered all round. With the group, we visited the large Umayyad Mosque. This is a popular destination, particularly with very large groups of Iranian tourists (which seem to mainly consist of women clothed in black cloth wrap-around cloaks or shawls that cover their heads and body. The Iranians are Shia (most Syrians are Sunni) and they have slightly different practices. The Mosque is an important site for all Muslims (they believe that the Second Coming of Jesus will be to a minaret at this mosque), and particularly for Shia, as the relics of one of their early martyrs is here.

The mosque itself is large. The group sat inside and Bernadette started a discussion on the role of women in Islam. She claims that it was tiring sitting, so she stood up and continued the discussion. At least she can say that she has preached in a mosque.

We continued to ramble. We had a good lunch at a restaurant in the Christian Quarter (which meant that we could have a beer also). The Old Town is quite large and is a maze of streets, alleys and cul-de-sacs. There is on straight street (which was called Straight Street in antiquity and is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles).

It was Nico's last night so the group from Turkey went to a special farewell dinner. Nico dressed from his extensive wardrobe of Arabic clothing; he looked just like a local sheik. Our restaurant had a great view over the city and a great view of the large thunderstorm that started as we finished. We had to find a path back to our hotel that avoided the flooding in the Old Town streets, due to the volume and scale of the rain. We were told that it was the heaviest rain for five years.

Palmyra

The next day (Wednesday) we had another walk further afield in the town of Hama. The local museum has a superb mosaic floor from a nearby excavation. We grabbed a quick fast food bite (some sort of pizza roll and a delicious chicken donar) before we piled into a mini-bus and headed for the town bus station. At 12:15, we took the comfortable local bus for the 3 hour trip to Palmyra, via Homs.

The scenery changes quickly from fields to desert - mainly sand and scattered low-lying bushes.

Isolated tent camps (Bedouin) pass by, along with a large airbase, surrounded by radar posts and anti-aircraft guns.

We arrived at Palmyra about 4 pm and sorted out ourselves in the hotel. Palmyra is a small town, set among low hills in an otherwise flat desert. It is an oasis - the town is surrounded by walled fields of date palms and olives.

Adjacent to the town are the ruins of ancient Palmyra. At 5 pm the group had a guided tour of the Temple of Baal. This is a large walled court area with a central temple area. It had been restored to some extent and much remains. It would have been quite magnificent in 150 A.D. at the height of Palmyra's power and wealth. Palmyra was a Roman ally and colony, whose wealth came as a key city on the Silk Road - its people were merchants and caravans passed through the city (and paid taxes to do so). When its queen, Zenobia, got over-ambitious and took on Rome, Emperor Aurelian defeated their armies, captured the queen and sent the place into terminal decline, so that over time it was partially covered by the desert sands.

We had dinner at the Traditional Palmyra restaurant - a traditional Bedouin dish of lamb and peanuts on a mound of rice.

On Thursday, we headed out early (another rattling minibus), firstly to the tower tombs at the outskirts. These are mausoleums, built as towers of up to fours levels by wealthy families, with bodies stacked in layers. We saw one of the largest (it could hold about 280 bodies). We had to be early, as the tower is closed by about 8.30 am. We then went on to an underground burial crypt (Palmyrenes used both tower and underground tombs), which was also open for only a brief time. This had some interesting wall frescoes. We then went to another underground crypt which isn't normally open to tourists (I think that our guide and our tour leader used some influence or some bakseech here). While this has no frescoes, it is larger and much better preserved, including the bas-relief sculptures of the deceased used to seal their casket 'slots'.

From there we went to the city ruins. On the way, we stopped briefly to photograph the street sign at the town's edge with gives directions to Damascus and Iraq - we are probably about 120 km from Iraq as the crow flies. We walked the length of the main street, which is lined with columns (and also with locals selling scarves, jewellery, along with a couple of local youths on camels). Our local guide was excellent. The city was big and clearly prosperous. There is even a wonderful example of a Roman round-about where two streets cross (a beautiful structure of four groups of four columns, called a Tetrapylon). The city stadium is just near the main street and has been well restored. Other ruins (temples, baths, the agora etc) are visible to varying degrees of completeness.

After lunch and a rest, we briefly walked out into the oasis area. These are largely walled plots of old olive trees and date palms, with channels for irrigation (empty when we were there).

For exercise, the group walked up the nearby hill to watch the sunset over the ruins. This is quite a climb, to an Arab fortress perched on the top. While the haze meant the view wasn't exceptional, the exercise certainly was worthwhile.

We had dinner at the Traditional Palmyra Restaurant (again), which was good.

Crac des Chevaliers and Hama

On Tuesday, we piled into a small bus and had a 2 hour drive to Hama (for a stop) and then a further 1 hour on to Crac des Chevaliers. This is a large Crusader fort built from 1142 to 1271, with later additions, which is very well preserved and occupies a stunning location on a hill overlooking valleys below. We toured the fortress, climbing over the walls and towers. This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We followed with a large chicken lunch at a nearby restaurant with a great view of the Crac. The fortress is really stunning.

We rode back to Hama to our hotel. Hama is apparently the most conservative town is Syria, but is was very quite when we arrived at 4:30 pm. We had a short walk through the older part of the town to see some of the norias on the river. A noria is an old wooden water wheel (up to 20m diameter), designed to raise river water to an stone aquaduct, from where it flows to the fields. There are numbers of these norias along the river.

To Syria - Aleppo

On Sunday we travelled to Syria. We left Iskenderun and travelled a short distance by minibus to Antakya. Antakya is the site of ancient Antioch, which was a very major city in the Roman era. We stopped in Antakya to look around the local museum, which has an excellent collection of mosaic floors found from local sites. We had time to grab a quick snack and then we headed to the outskirts of the city. There we said farewell to Gurjan, our Turkish guide, and packed into two small taxis which were to take the eight of across across the Syrian border to Aleppo.

The ride was interesting, if a little hair-raising. As you come to the border area, you see lots of barbed wire and guard-posts, but all the guard-posts are on the Turkish side. We had our documents checked out of Turkey and then we drove on about three kilometers to the Syrian entry point. There we went through the same procedure - with no haste, but no hassles. A further hour brought us to Aleppo, where the taxi drivers managed to find our hotel.

Aleppo is a city of 4 million and is the commercial capital of Syria. It is a very ancient city. Some claim that it is the oldest inhabited city on Earth (people from Damascus dispute this) and was one of the major end points for the Silk Road. It is clearly dirtier and more "Middle-Eastern" then we found in Turkey. We met our guide who took us to the ATM, the felafel stand and then guided us to the entry gate of the souk. The entry gate is part of the old walled city and is called the Antioch Gate (it was the gate leading to Antioch).

The Antioch Gate leads into the souk, a very large and old covered market area of numerable streets and alleys filled with merchants of all kinds. Men push handcarts of goods (crying "beep beep" to get by), meat of all sorts hangs from racks, the air is filled with the scent of spices, black garbed women in groups seek out bargains, local boys approach to try their English and a donkey is led through laden with goods. This is as it has been for hundreds of years. The shops for various goods seem to be clustered together - a spice section, a gold jewellery section, a bridal section - everything you could want. The main "street" of the souk continues for 1.5 km and ends at the ancient Citadel of the city, a large fortification on a very high circular mound.

We continued our wanderings in the souk and found an exhibition on the restoration of this old town housed in a beautiful building which was once a Franciscan school. From there we went to see the Grand Mosque, an old and well restored building. Syrians are really friendly and seem to look to help and welcome tourists without hassling them to buy carpets or whatever. At the mosque a young man said hello and insisted on guiding me into the mosque, including ensuring that I saw the relic of Zacharias (John the Baptist`s Father) and praying at it.

We had an evening briefing from our guide and met the other eight people who have now joined us. We are now a group of 16. Our guide Bashar ("call me Beesh") then took us to a local restaurant.

On Monday, we decided to forego the optional trip to the ruins of St Simeon's Basilica and took ourselves off to explore. We looked around the old Christian area and looked in on Greek Orthodox and Armenian churches. This is an area of winding narrow streets, but seems to be very well kept and very clean. We continued our wanderings and eventually found the citadel. We did the tour - it's a large fortification (much ruined by an earthquake in the 1800's), which is being excavated and restored. It has excellent views of the city.

We had a look at an ancient Khan, which is part of the souk area. A Khan is an inn of sorts, or a caravanserai. Merchants would travel with their goods on camels and stay at the khan - the camels are tied in the enclosed central courtyard, with storage areas on the ground level and accommodation on the upper level. At night, the gates would be barred against robbers.

We had a good lunch at the Bazaar d'Charq Retaurant and continued to wander. We found the Baron Hotel, which is now much faded but which was the place for important people to stay (Agatha Christie wrote part of Murder on the Orient Express here, Lawrence of Arabia stayed and didn't pay his bill, Charles Lindberg, Kingsford-Smith and De Gaulle all stayed). We had a G&T in the bar, just so we could connect with the past glories.

We collected some drinks (not easy!!) and had a small cocktail party on our room terrace before we went to the evening briefing, followed by a meal.

While Syrian people are extremely friendly, the Syrian government clearly exercises a significant measure of control. There are pictures of the President and his predecessor (his late father) absolutely everywhere. Annoyingly for me, Syria blocks access to Blogspot (and Facebook and lots more) - I've finally worked out how to get around this enough to put up some belated details of our travels.

Iskenderun

On Saturday, we had the by now numbingly consistent Turkish breakfast of bread, tomatoes, cucumber and a hard-boiled egg, along wıth the Turkish tea (çay - which we have really learned to like).

We left Cappodocia and travelled for 6 hours by mini-bus to Iskenderun, which is on the coast near Syria. While this was our third crossing of the Taurus Mountains, the roads were generally very good wıth none of the excitment of the ride over the mountains from Pamukkale to Dalyan.

Iskenderun isn't really a tourist town (it is an industrial and port city of about 220,000), but we had a good hotel in the centre of the town. We had a wander around the town and had a look at the harbour and the shops. The town seems quite prosperous.

This was our last night in Turkey.

Cappadocıa

On Tuesday we drove to the coastal city of Antalya in the morning (about 3 hours). We had the afternoon looking around this cıty.

The weather was poor, with fairly constant rain. We took the tram out to the museum. This was good, wıth many items from nearby sites (particularly Perge), including some excellent sculptures and sarcophagi.

We had poor coffee and good pastries - which seems to be the Turkish norm. To stay dry, we went to the Old Bazaar for the obligatory browsing and shopping.

After a rushed dinner, we took a shuttle to the bus station and boarded our overnight bus. This wasn't too bad as we seemed to get some sleep and arrived ın Cappadocia the next morning (Wednesday) at about 7 o'clock. Another shuttle took us from the bus station at Nesagyır to our hotel ın Urgup. Luckily our rooms were available. We have three nights here.

After a rest, we all trooped off to the Turkish bath (hamman) to be heated, steamed, scrubbed, washed and pummelled. All good fun and quite relaxing.

The day remained overcast, with intermittent showers. We had a good Turkish pizza for lunch, and then had a rest to compensate for the lost sleep overnight. Dinner was at a restaurant specialising in grills - a good meal but reasonably expensive by local standards.

The next day (Thursday) the group had a minibus. We travelled first to drop us off for a two hour walk ın the Red Valley. This was an excellent walk - while it was overcast, the rain stayed away and we had the walk to ourselves. We saw many examples of the typical eroded peaks of Cappodicia, along with cave dwellings and the numerous alcoves crated for the pigeons. Apparently the locals previously did their best to attract the pigeons so that they could collect the guano as fertiliser for their crops. The valley contained remnant examples of fields of grapes, fruit trees and vegetable plots. İt seems that some locals still collect the guano and farm the small plots - we saw one local travelling out in a small horse-cart.

From the walk, we went to a local pottery. This was the usual demonstration and then a visit to their showroom. Actually, the pottery was interesting, with two predominant styles - one based on the old Hittite designs and the other on more contemporary (though hardly modern) Anatolian designs. Of course, we bought something!

We then went to Zelve Open Aır Museum, which is a set of gorges with various cave dwellings and churches. This was excellent, though it does involve quite a scramble over the rocks and into the caves (wondering when the soft-stone cave will collapse - as some have).

Then off to the Kaymakli Underground City, one of 150+ such cities in the region. This is a very extensive multi-level city, used as a place of refuge for the population and animals in times of crisis. İt has facilities for living, cooking, burials and worship, along with excellent ventilation and defensive systems. A key defensive measure was the ability to roll large mill-stones over to cover the doors and to chock these to stop outsiders rolling them back.

From there, we travelled to a couple of points that gave panoramas of parts of the area or or significant features, before heading back to Urgup.

We had a meal at a good restaurant (the Cappodicia Restaurant) which served a local speciality of a stew cooked in an earthenware pot or jar with the opening closed off by a plug of bread. The pot ıs prepared beforehand and then heated on a gas ring for us. The stew is served by the waiter arriving with the earthenware jar, a paır of industrial gloves and a meat cleaver. He then proceeds to strike and break the jar and serve the stew, with rice and salad. The best sign that a restaurant serves this meal is the mound of broken pots outside the door.

Friday dawned with clear blue skies. We had a free day, so we took a local minibus towards Avanos. We got off at the Goreme Open Aır Museum. This is probably much better known than the one at Zelve. İt is more of a monastic or theological site, with many rock churches, including some with excellent frescoes. Goreme Museum had ordered paths and seemed to have lots of tourists (it must be hell in the normal tourist season, as we are very late in the season). Overall, we preferred Zelve, though it is worth seeing both.

We caught the bus again, on into Avanos. We found a good restaurant, which served up a very good meat stew in a sizzling ceramic bowl (called a guvec) and a very poor white wine that they subsequently said was made by the proprietor of the restaurant. It was market day, so we wandered down to have a look. A wide assortment of spices, fruit and vegetables (particularly tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, chillies) were on offer, all looking very fresh and sometimes much larger than we would expect (especially the cabbages).

We were getting pretty good at this local travel, so it was back on the bus to return to Urgup. We had a drink in a local bar/restaurant (Cafe Turcos), which had a very welcoming staff. So much so that a number of the group went back there for dinner, including more casseroles and claypot stews.