I have written so far about travelling through Syria, from Damascus to Aleppo via Crac de Chevaliers, then off to the Iraqi border via the Bastion of St Simeon Stylites on the Turkish border. The next stage of our trip was to continue from the Iraqi border., and we planned to get to the ancient…
I have been writing recently about travelling through Syria, from Damascus to Aleppo via Crac de Chevaliers, and off from Aleppo to the Bastion of St Simeon on the Turkish border. Once we left Aleppo, we headed East, towards the border with Iraq, although made a few stops on the way. Our first stop was…
I have commented recently about travelling through Syria, from Damascus to Aleppo via Crac de Chevaliers. We made some trips from Aleppo, for example, up the Bastion of St Simeon Stylites on the Turkish border, one of the very many historic sites in the area. The Bastion, however, finds itself in the curious position of…
I have commented recently on visiting both Damascus and Crac de Chevaliers in Syria, and I mentioned in both that I was on my way to Aleppo at the time. Aleppo, or Haleb in Arabic, is the largest city in Syria, and like Damascus, is one of the oldest constantly inhabited places on the planet,…
I wrote yesterday about a trip to Crac de Chevaliers in Syria, and mentioned that I visited it on my way from Damascus to Aleppo. Sadly, both cities are in the news at the moment for the wrong reasons, as coverage of the conflict there is reported around the world. I was lucky enough to…
When I was a child, the name Crac des Chevaliers conjured up an image of knights and chivalry that embodied the little figures of men in chainmail with white tunics that I had at the time. As I got older, I learned more about the remarkably more complex world of the Crusades, and how the…
My recent posts have been mainly about Formula One with the new season starting soon, so I thought I should blog about something related to travel again. This may not be quite about travel but at least it is something positively odd. The story of Singapore Star Wars and St Patrick. One of the wonderful…
Ten years ago, I went to the Malaysian Grand Prix on a bit of a whim. It was the same weekend as my wife’s birthday, and a couple of weeks before that, we thought it might be fun to go to Kuala Lumpur (KL) for the weekend and go to the Grand Prix. It was…
This is about cultural differences. I should start this little installment by explaining a little about my physical frame. I am, I think it’s fair to say, of the larger size. I am a few inches over six foot, and of an equally robust mass. I do stand out more in some parts of the…
I mentioned recently about the MV Princess Victoria ferry disaster, and commented at the time on how I am reminded of it each time I sail to or from Larne, and it made me think about some of the other ferry crossings that I have had the pleasure to experience. A couple of the more…
I blogged yesterday about some of the more interesting food items that I’ve had the pleasure of sampling – and some where I have declined the opportunity – in various parts of the world, and I made reference to staying with some Bedouin in the Syrian Desert a few years ago. I have had a…
One of the interesting opportunities that travelling provides is the varying cuisines of the world to which you are exposed. Some are wonderful and lead you to wonder why they are not popular around the world, and with others, it is quite obvious as to why some food types are considered to be an acquired…