Mostar

Arrived to Mostar this afternoon, will stay here over the election to observe polling stations in villages South of the city. My partner is a young Albanian guy, Sokol. So far so good!
Here are some quick pics from today:

More temples, more wine

Zatar breakfast at Dr Jammal, then a guided visit to the stunningly well-preserved Roman temples in Baalbek. The enormous Jupiter temple has columns 23 meter high and Bachus’ temple still stands proud. Amazing.

On the way back to Beirut we stopped at two vineyards. First at Ksara, Lebanon’s biggest wine producer and the one with a really beautiful old cavernous cellar, the caves dating back thousands of years.
The last, but not the least, vineyard on our tour was lovely boutique winery Massaya, operated by two brothers, Ramzi and Sami. They produce some great wines and also a very popular arrak sold in blue bottles. Their gourmet restaurant is only open on Sundays but extremely popular so book ahead.

Wine and temples in the Bekaa Valley

The drive from Byblos to the Bekaa Valley was a tiresome one with horrendous traffic. It didn't help that we came out to a flat tyre this morning.

But when we reached Chateau Kefraya we could enjoy the beautiful views of a green valley and try some nice wines.

Close by we stumbled on another vineyard, Clos de St Thomas, where we tasted some beautiful wines. Recommended!

We arrived to Baalbek just before sunset so I ran away to take some photos while Femke checked out three rather tired and very simple hotels. In the end we settled for Hotel Jammal and had a simple but nice falafel dinner.