Blogs from Palmyra, East, Syria, Middle East - page 2

DAY 47 This morning is a free day in Damascus. We take our time and then head off for Francine to pay and collect her jewellery. Love it and bought another ring as a gift. We head off in taxis for the public intercity bus station. We have booked seats and are off to Palmyra in the northern desert. 3 ½ hours later we arrive in the centre of the Syrian desert. We stay at a quaint hotel and would have been beautiful in the 1950's when first built. You can still see a lot of the art deco finishes. We take a wander along the main street and Angie buys a pair of earrings made from camel bone. The shopkeeper tells her he has given special price as he is having a closing down going ... read more

Dag 245. I dag skulle vi til Palmyra, ca. 130 km ost for Hama. Vi spiste ikke frokost paa hotellet, men kjopte med oss kjeks og vann som vi hadde underveis. Bytte av sjaafor og bil idag - en forholdsvis ny Hundai. Vi var tilsammen 5 i bilen - sjaaforen, en koreaner (husker ikke navn), en australier (Jamie) og oss to. Forste stopp var Shamamis-fortet. Fortet var bygd av en arabisk familie, Shamis Gram fra Homs - det 1. aarhundre f.Kr. Det ble lagt i ruin av et jordskjelv i 618 e.Kr. Kongen av Homs bygget det opp igjen i 1229, for det igjen ble lagt i ruiner av mongolene (i 1260) og tartarene (i 1401). Det var et kort men bratt stykke aa gaa opp til fortet. vi gikk til det som saa ut som ... read more

Today was the tour of Syria's "star" attraction, the desert city of Palmyra (Tadmor) which had a rather lengthy classical history and then faded away after the second century AD. Situated on an a water supply in eastern Syria, the "palm' bit of the modern name comes from the palm trees growing nearby. Original huh? It was fairly chilly when we started at 8am with a guided tour of the central areas of the site. The long processional route had been restored quite a bit, but this simply helped to give an idea of how impressive it would have been for the 3000-camel caravans entering the city from the desert. Occupying a central position between the western and eastern worlds it had a mix of archaeological features, although to the untrained eye it just looked 'Roman'. ... read more

Summer School 2 was over so we had the opportunity to get away for a few nights before Summer School 3 began. That meant a late evening bus from Damascus to the desert city of Palmyra. We arrived at 1130pm and were soon drinking refreshing tea in our hotel before settling down for a good night’s sleep. The following morning we set out to climb up to the citadel in the morning sun, before the heat of the day became too much to bear. It was a tough climb on rough tracks but the views over the extensive Roman ruins were worth it. Unfortunately our guidebook proved to be wrong (again!) and the castle was closed, not opening until midday!! We were not the only frustrated tourists up there though and we were given a lift ... read more

So I left you about two weeks ago as having got to Jordan I discovered that the internet was pretty hopeless in fact I would go as far to say it was crap as none of my emails have sent and so on! Anyhow following on from my last entry I went out for food and had a really chilled out evening at Casa Mia which is newly opened and despite it's name served typical touristic 'bedouin' food. I had some zucchini stuffed with rice and lamb pretty yummy really! Woke up early as I was meeting my French tour group to go to the tombs. Went and bought my tickets for the tombs and hoped that I hadn't missed the group just as I was beginning to despair the car turned up and in I ... read more