Glorious sunrises don't always mean sunny days! We are learning that quickly here!!! But even on a grey day you can have a pleasant walk around the city. The photos aren’t so great though so sorry about that! At the moment all of the city parks seem to be closed for maintenance. That’s a real shame but the municipality have put boards up to prevent you going in, and on those boards are photos of how the city used to look. It’s better than nothing. We jumped off the bus at Azneft Square and crossed the busy road. Then we skirted the old city walls, although you can’t always see them. When you do get a view you see that they are in a fairly good condition. Nearby are lots of lovely buildings. The architecture left ... read more

Mark Elliot’s “Trailblazer” guide to Azerbaijan has proved an excellent purchase. How this man managed to travel so extensively around the country beggars belief. I wonder if he knows how grateful people like us are! Between Quba and Xinaliq is what he names the “Cloudcatcher” canyon. Presumably it has another name but we didn’t discover it! We left Quba on Monday morning courtesy of a 4 wheel drive jeep arranged for us by Xeyraddin. The journey took a little over two hours as the road is now tarmac all the way. The weather was pretty dire and we heard it was snowing in Xinaliq. We raced through the wooded areas where many people from Baku have their dacha summer residences. All along the route the scenery would no doubt have been spectacular had we been ab ... read more

It’s a sad fact that in any country which has suffered oppression at the hands of another you will find memorials and reminders of the past. Here in Azerbaijan it has perhaps more resonance as these events happened so recently that we remember them ourselves. We took a trip up to Martyrs’ Alley to see how the events of the early 1990s have been commemorated. That involved a short and exceptionally cheap trip up the city’s funicular railway. The looks we got suggested that not too many foreign visitors make it up there! At the top of the hill is a beautiful mosque and the peaceful memorial known as Martyrs’ Alley. We strolled along the emotive row of graves where the victims of the Soviet oppression on 20 January 1990 are buried. Each bears an engraved ... read more

Well, we made it. We are finally in Baku. “Where’s Baku?” we’ve been asked by several friends. “Azerbaijan” we reply. “Azer-by-WHAT?” most of them comment. So, here goes, Azerbaijan is a former Soviet Republic located East of Georgia and Armenia, Norht of Iran, South of the Dagestan region of Russia, and on the West coast of the Caspian Sea. It is a muslim country although it’s not really noticeable on the surface. The Azeri people speak a curious blend of Russian and Azeri (similar to Turkish) which we are finding a bit tough. Trish is enjoying the challenge of remembering her Russian from years ago but you never know which of the two languages to use until you actually speak to someone. With a 50/50 choice we are usually wrong!! We’ll get there in the end. ... read more

With time running out we have been trying to finish off what’s left of Syria’s ancient history for us to see. That’s involved going to some familiar places as well as exploring some new areas of the city for us. Returning to the National Museum of Damascus was strange. Our guide book recommended visiting when you first arrive and then once again before leaving, once you have seen the original sites of the collection. We feel this is good advice as we really enjoyed both of our visits. This time we got a bit more time to see the detail inside the Synagogue from Doura Europos, although the frescoes have clearly faded more since our guide book was written. We also managed to go down to the Tomb of Yarhai. This had been closed on our ... read more