Finally in Beirut!

A short greeting from Lebanon - we are fine and our flights here went well. Arrived to the hotel this morning at 4-5. Slept to 10, then we spent the day together with Femke's old friend Olivier (who lives here and works as a teacher) and his Lebanese friend Nadine.

They took us on a tour of the city including Nasralla's hoods down south. Very interesting, but I was under no circumstances allowed to take photos there :-(.


Late lunch at a seaside restaurant, then a nap for Femke while I am enjoying an Almaza (local beer) at Cafe de Prague.
I have never seen so many fancy and expensive cars as here. Ferrari, Daimler, Jaguar and piles of German cars in the upper end of the market. All side by side with incredibly battered 70's Mercedes and Volvo's.


In some areas there are still visible trails of the civil war that ended 1990, with lots of bullet holes in the facades. Other parts looks more like Southern Europe than the Middle East. In fact most of the city is very clean and stylish do be down here - first when we drove down to the Southern neighborhoods of Beirut (where Hezbolla and Amal have their stronghold) did it look the way we are used to from other Middle Eastern cities.

Tomorrow we are picking up our rental car and driving North along the coast. First to Chateau Musar, a famous vineyard, for a visit and tasting. Then to Byblos where we will stay over the night.