A Cyprus Sandwich with a Lebanon filling Thurs 4th Oct

Beirut or bust today. We really don't know what's going to happen. We do know for a fact that people are refused boarding at the boarding gate because they have an Ecan stamp in their passports. We don't have an Ecan (the TRNC airport that is considered an illegal entry port by Greek Cyprus) stamp, but Anne and David have them aplenty.
We drove out of the "Dark Side" down to Larnaca Airport. This embargo is one purely instigated by Cyprus Airways and is nothing to do with Lebanon immigration policy.
So we park up and proceed to check in, where we immediately run into problems. We are OK but phone calls are being made about Anne and David. Anne counters this by threatening to phone the British High Commission, the UN and God. I'm not sure which threat carries the weight but the boarding passes are issued.
We're not out of the woods yet because remember it's the boarding gate where the problem may occur. Look at the picture below and you can see the end of the Karpass peninsula, ergo we are on the plane to Beirut.

The next picture shows the first of Lebanon

Our nice new only a quarter full aircraft landed on time at Beirut international airport. Immigration proceedings went smoothly (we were lumped in with Foreigners and Arabs) and then it was off to collect the hire car. After a bit of a wait they handed over a brand new Kea saloon. I signed that I understand the cost of repairs (scratches $65 plus the same for labour etc etc) and with some trepidation I drove out into the city.

A word about driving in Beirut. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would rate Delhi at 10 and Reykjavik at 1, I would rate Beirut at 8. More than half the streets are one way and always not the way that you want to go. Signposting is minimal, streets are rarely named and the traffic flow, which is continuous, comes from all directions. The usual arrangements for giving way and priority don't exist. However most drivers are considerate and do their best to avoid collisions. So I managed to drive nearly to the hotel several times, I think. We had two street maps with directions written on them, but when the ground and the maps don't agree, you're in trouble or at least not where you thought that you were. In this kind of situation there is really only one thing to do and that is to agree a price with a taxi to lead you there. This we did, the only snag being that he very efficiently took us to the wrong hotel. Unfortunatley we didn't discover this fact until we had unloaded the cases and were trying to book in.  Fortunately the one we had booked was left, right and right again. Easy.

          I was ready for a drink.

So you can see what I failed to find in all of Northern Cyprus was available in the first place I went into in Beirut. In case you can't read the bottle, it's 0% beer.

Above is the restaurant where we ate on the first evening. It was in our somewhat superior sister hotel that the taxi man took us to by mistake. The food was expensive and not really what our western palates were used to. An elegant ethnic experience but not one that we would care to repeat.
Below is the foyer of the same hotel.

This is our hotel and shows a nocturne study of our infinity swimming pool reflecting on the city skyline.

The next morning dawned bright and for the first time we were able to take in the view from our balcony looking north towards the sea and harbour area.

This half empty block is across the street from our hotel. It's worth expanding the picture to see how the building is being used. I don't know the history of it, but it may well have been started as the 1975 civil war broke out and has remained this way ever since. This is certainly the case in a number of the buildings near here and were used as sniper locations for various militia forces. Some are still occupied by the  army.

Hookahs are ubiquitous in Beirut's cafés as they are throughout the middle east, however it is only in Beirut that you will find your hookah stand is a gold-plated Kalashnikov. It's plastic really, not a Kalashnikov and in a one dollar shop.

We passed the shop on our way down to the promenade hereabouts called the Cornishe.

Helen looking elegantly alone on the prom, prom, prom.

There are some attractive survivors. Here is a handsome gothic villa from the end of the C19.

And some which would like to rise again. You are looking at what is left of the St George's yatch club. A landmark building constructed in the 1920s and destroyed in the civil war. The assassination of Prime Minister Hariri in 2005 further damaged the building. There is a statue of him close by. It was his vision to create the Solidere company to reconstruct downtown Beirut. However, as you can see there is considerable disention twixt club and company. All our friends thought that we were a little mad going on holiday to Lebanon and Beirut in particular. The standing joke was don't forget your bulletproof vests.
The  truth  is Lebanese people are very friendly and go out of their way to be helpful. I felt safer in Beirut than I have done in most European cities. Beirut is a trilingual city, ie Arabic, French and English so communication is easy.

The only way to really see Beirut is by sea. So we chartered a very natty vessel from the marina and sallied forth. Passports had to be shown to the Harbour Master before we could get out of the marina, but after that, well you can see for yourselves.

I rather like this picture of Helen with the north coast of the peninsula and the Cornishe running round.
We are rounding the corner and sailing down towards Pigeon rocks, where our pilot Ali and does his trick.

Here is Ali, showing off his much admired assets and driindr the boat towards Pigeon Rocks. The youths will dive from them to show their bravado and the likes of Ali will zoom through the narrow cave. I put it down to the practice he gets on the roads.

David checking for bandits off the port now.

The Skipper took the team photograph on our return.

After a good walk back up to the hotel and a stop off for a late Lebanese lunch, it's time for a little down time before venturing out to the Bagatelle Restaurant for dinner.

A Cyprus Sandwich with a Lebanon filling. Sun/Mon 30/1

Sunday, the day of rest, so we did. There were a few things we had to do however. The swimming pool needed testing and I noticed that a couple of the sun loungers badly wanted lying on. It was also the climax of the Ryder Cup golf so that had to be attended to as well.
David and Anne needed to go out and I had a blog backlog as usual. All in all it was beginning to look like a pretty busy day going nowhere.
Fortunately everything went swimmingly, about 40 lengths actually. The sun loungers stood up to the strain well and we all know what happened in the Ryder Cup. The blogs got published.
We need to get dressed up a bit because we are going out to eat in the 867 bedroom 5 star plus Elexus Hotel and Spa. The place is massive with enough marble to refill the Carrera quarry. There are lots of restaurant options but we had opted for Chinese.
The table d'hote menu consisted of 4 courses, with several dishes to represent each course. Fine quality alcoholic drinks were included in the price of about £25 per head. Basically you got as much to eat and drink as you liked. The quality of the Chinese food was the best that I have ever tasted. We went for a postprandial walk to look out the back at the aquatic facilities.

This is the beach area.

Looking back at two of the wings of the building.

More of the beach area.

The biggest swimming pool I have seen.

Now we're back in Kyrenia and having a wander around some of the sites. First of all we are exploring the castle which guards the harbour entrance.
The castle probably has its feet in Roman origins which the Byzantine conquers extended ready for Richard I to take the island whilst on one of his crusading holidays. He passed it on to the Crusader Lusignans. They held sway for the next 300 years until the Venetians arrived in force. In 1570 the Otterman Empire took all before them including Cyprus. There was a British period between 1918 and 1960 when the castle was used as a police barracks and prison.

 It's a fine walk around the top of the walls with great sea and town vistas and scant regard given to health and safety.

The view over the old harbour. Our restaurant of two nights ago is the large white building across the centre of the harbour.

 Within the castle is the shipwreck museum. You will have heard of the Mary Rose and maybe the Vasa in Stockholm, well this is similar, a time capsule from 2300 years ago. It was a Greek trading vessel about 14 meters long and 4 meters across. She had a crew of 4 sailors. The route can be calculated from the contents of the hold. She visited Rhodes, Samos and Kos before floundering 1.5 kms off shore in 30 meters of water. The crew seem to have survived. This is the oldest ship recovered from the seabed in the world.

The picture above is the original ship enclosed within a glass box for preservation. You can see some of the nearly 300 amphorae of wine from Rhodes in the picture below. There were also 29 millstones from Samos.

 Thousands of almond nuts were found that are thought to be food for the crew. Some of these have been successfully germinated.

South east and up the hills from Kyrenia is the village and Abbey of Bellapais. This is a very beautiful location which was occupied in Roman times but the Abbey itself was started by Augustinian monks early in the C13. Later they were joined by a group of Norbertinians, who have Spaldonian connections.

"The mellow beauty of the abbey was not the natural bedfellow of asceticism" as an early visitor observed. The monks took not just one wife but two or three, and would only accept their own sons as novises. By the time the Genoese arrived in 1373, the abbey was ripe for pillaging and much of the treasure was abducted. The Otterman invasion destroyed more of the abbey but they did leave the church for the Greeks to use. They continued to do so until 1974.

The whole area now is a mixture of archeological site, art exhibition space, concert hall, upmarket restaurant and place of worship and celebration. The whole mix works very well the varied activities complimenting each other rather than causing distraction.

This is the old refectory, whose superb acoustics are now exploited as a concert hall. You might notice that the piano tuners are in. Spot the old pulpit so the monks could not have a meal without the word of God. Pretty good rose window as well.

 Here's the view from the outside

Finally, you know that I like to end on a sunset. This is the sun going down over Kyrenia. In the foreground is the Stone Castle Restaurant where we ate last night.

A Cyprus sandwich with a Lebanon filling Sat 29th

Today will be mountains, castles, whirling in Nicosia and a foodie harbour.

Mountains first. This is the back or south side of the Kyrenia Range. The mountain above is called Besparmac which means five fingers and from the north side looks like a clenched fist showing five knuckles.

There is a tragic story behind the TRNC flag laid out in stone on the mountain above. It is to commemorate the men of Tashkent village, all of whom were killed in the massacres leading up to 1974. The women left without their breadwinning menfolk, went into egg production to gain a livelihood. The area is still famous for its eggs.

 A massive 3000 kneeler capacity mosque on the outskirts of Nicosia. Erdogan was present at the opening ceremony, but many see the building of schools and hospitals a bigger priority for Turkish money.

Here we are inside the restored Buyuk Han or Great Inn. Built in 1572 the year after the Otterman Empire took Cyprus, it was the Hilton of its day.  Now you can buy souvenirs and have a drink, if you are prepared to wait long enough.

 Next some reflections of the British presence, who vacated the island (well nearly) in 1960. Above the attractive colonial style Court House, still fulfilling its judicial function. Spot the lion and unicorn. Below is the Post Office.

And a Post Office is no good without some letterboxes.

Now here's a mystery. What's a Peruvian woman doing standing in the middle of a gothic Christian Cathedral that is masquerading as a Mosque? Well the answer is that it's Helen in mosque mufti. The Cathedral was Catholic and dedicated to St Sophia in 1209. The magnificent west window is behind Helen and the whitewash enhances the beauty of the building. It became the main mosque for Nicosia after the invasion of 1571. A purpose it still fulfills today over 400 years later. The carpet pattern which is not square with the building is orientated towards Mecca. It has a particularly fine triple portico that is reminiscent of Peterborough Cathedral.

You will all have heard of them, now you can see them. This is the real McWhirl, by which I mean a pair of whirling dervishes actually whirling. Part prayer, part trance but not a performance or dance. I found the experience fascinating and somewhat mesmerizing. They gave at least four different turns, as it were, and the whole thing lasted about half an hour.

The same activity captured in bronze.

In a lighter spirit I pictured these to illustrate how important packaging is in the drinks and perfumery industries.

More seriously here we can see the buffer zone that still exists on the border through Nicosia.

After a little discussion with the local police about traffic management in the city, we head off north to Kyrenia. We recross the mountain chain a little further west and drive up the highest prominence. Where else would you build your castle? This is St Hilarion Castle, built originally in the C11 by the Byzantines. The castle has seen constant use through the centuries, indeed the Turkish army has only recently stopped using it and they are very active around it.

The view of Kyrenia from the top is spectacular.

And zooming in a little you can pick out the details. Kyrenia castle and old harbour are in the middle of this picture, and this is where we are heading for next.

On the way down I took this photo of the soldiers guarding the entrance to their camp.


















This is the old harbour of Kyrenia. Once a very important trading port, now more of a marina and base for the day tripping boats. What were once warehouses for the carob beans are now rather splendid restaurants.

 By the time we had finished our meal, the sun had set and we enjoyed this final view of the harbour.