Tag: Beirut

Journey To Lebanon, Syria, Jordan & Eilat (Israel), Day Two: Mountains, Cedars & Byblos, 4 March 1997

A placeholder & links covering the whole journey can be found through the link here and below:

Journey To Lebanon, Syria, Jordan & Eilat (Israel), 2 to 23 March 1997, Placeholder & Links

Left Beirut early – drove out through East Beirut – past Byblos and then up into mountains – superb vistas to photograph – to Cedars [see headline photo].

Stunning scenes on the roads up into the mountains

Mist was lifting as we drove up – stayed up long enough for our photos and promptly descended again to pelt down [on us].

Stopped at Hotel Chbat in Bcharre for labne sandwich – then back down to Byblos.

Down to Byblos – an old Phoenician ruin (the building, not me)

Toured castle which includes Phoenician and Roman ruins as well as Crusader and Ottoman periods.

You can see Pepe Abed’s in the distance

Rested late afternoon and had dinner at restaurant Pepe Abed’s [aka Chez Pepe] and tried chanchalle? (cheese & tomato) and fresh fish.

Le patron mange ici (mash potato and stewed apple).

In 1997 we did really meet Pépé himself and he really did eat while we were eating there and he really was just eating soft food rather than tucking in to the hearty food we were eating.

People continue (into the 2020s) to claim in their on-line reviews to meet Pépé Abed at his restaurant or at his fishing club, but as he was old as the hills when we met him in 1997 and he died in 2006, my guess is that they now see his son or a “Tribute Pépé”.

All of the Lebanon photos in our album can be seen here and below:

01 3 March 1997 - Beit Ed Dine Interior Courtyard LSJ_1997_G1 (3)

Journey To Lebanon, Syria, Jordan & Eilat (Israel), Day One: Beit Ed-Dine, Sidon & Beirut Touring, 3 March 1997

A placeholder & links covering the whole journey can be found through the link here and below:

Journey To Lebanon, Syria, Jordan & Eilat (Israel), 2 to 23 March 1997, Placeholder & Links

Monday 3 March 1997 – Set off early to Beit ed-Dine in the Chouf mountains. [see headline photo and photo below.

Then back through Deir Al-Ahmar…

Deir El-Ahmar

and on to Sidon, by which time sun had turned to rain. Ruined castle– old souk – patisserie.

Then back to Beirut for tour of green line development – shopping and then rest before dinner with Elias Habre at Al Mijana (beautiful old villa in Ashrafieh (East Side).

Beirut Corniche
Dinner with Elias Habre

Janie had treated the Habre family in London for many years…decades even. Elias Habre was in Beirut at the time and insisted on providing hospitality to us that evening.

Al Majana still seems to be well regarded in 2022 if this review is anything to go by.

All of the Lebanon photos in our album can be seen here and below:

01 3 March 1997 - Beit Ed Dine Interior Courtyard LSJ_1997_G1 (3)

A Two Week Mediterranean Cruise Ahead Of Starting At Alleyn’s School, late August 1973 –Day Seven: Lebanon

By Jove! Temple Of Jupiter At Baalbek

For the context, itinerary and links for this entire holiday, click here or the link below:

A Two Week Mediterranean Cruise Ahead Of Starting At Alleyn’s School, late August 1973 – Context, Itinerary, Links & Day Zero: Porto di Rimini via Luton Airport

The fifth port of call was Beirut, in Lebanon. Our visit was just a few weeks before the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, which must have put a stop to such touring for some while.

I returned to Lebanon, more than 20 years later, with Janie, with hilariously predictable results at Beirut airport:

Journey To Lebanon, Syria, Jordan & Eilat (Israel), Day Zero: Getting There, 2 March 1997

I remember the coach journey from the Beirut port to Baalbek being a long and mostly tedious one. Dad took the street scene below twixt the two places.

Baalbek was nestled amongst some permanent refugee camps which I imagine might still be there – they were still there when we visited in 1997.

I remember being wowed by the ruined temples there – finding them in many ways more awe-inspiring than the Athens ruins, not least because they were less crowded and we were able to scramble around the ruins more comprehensively. That might well no longer be the case.

Some crumbling old ruins (and us) scrambling around the Temple of Jupiter

I was especially struck by the Temple of Bacchus, depicted below. I remember dad saying that Bacchus was his kinda Roman God. Hard to disagree now that I know a bit more about him.

Me and Mum Before The Lion Head Capital

There is just over a minute of cine, between 10’25” and 11’30”, until you start to see the invasion of light damage on the cine and the film jumps from Lebanon to Corfu, several days later. Dad lost almost a whole reel – I think the film got stuck in the camera at Crete and he had no changing bag with which to rescue the reel before most of it, including his Jerusalem footage, was destroyed.

Mum was very upset. I don’t think dad ever travelled without a changing bag again and I certainly never travelled without one…until digital photography came along.