Summer Photos Finally Posted
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Well I finally got around to posting our pictures from our summer trip to the Middle East (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Turkey). They can be found by clicking on the Photographs Link at the top of this page. The individual links for each area are listed below:
Hope you enjoy them as much as we do.
Geo & Noel
Last Days in Istanbul
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We have been having a great time in Istanbul. We have gone back to the Blue Mosque, visited the mosaics that have been excavated under the mosque, and finally seen the underground water cisterns for the ancient city of Constantinople. Who knew they would be full of fish these days? It still amazes us that the ancients could channel water from over 30 different rivers, build aqueducts and bridges to allow it to flow properly… for thousands of years, yet modern plumbing seems to elude the entire Middle East.
From Syria to Turkey…
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Hello friends!
Sorry it’s taken so long to get another update on the blog, but there are some pretty serious internet censorship issues in Syria that made it impossible to put anything online.
Since our last post we have been to Aleppo in Syria where we stayed in a fantastic old riad in the middle of the souks in the old walled city – it was a fantastic place hung with beautiful brass lamps, antique carpets and grape vines. We visited the old city, and the very impressive Citadel – an incredible fort that we could not help but compare to Crac de Chevaliers in Syria. Crac was an imposing Crusader fortress built on top of a mountain, overlooking vallies in all directions. It had a double moat, and facilities to house 4000 horses and knights and all their food, equipment and supplies for 45 days in times of siege. Best of all, it had a real round table for the knights on the uppermost floor of the inner fortification (Kelly – you would have loved it.) The Citadel in Aleppo actually housed a town population, had a massive dry moat, a king, a church and a mosque, and had all of the city gates brilliantly situated around corners to disallow the use of battering rams to break dowm the doors in times of siege. The views of old Aleppo from the top of the Citadel were stunning – it was looking out over an old Biblical town (which is ironic, as it was a Roman town reknowned for its partying and debauchery).
Summer Trip Finalized
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Well we changed our original plans again and are now flying to Cairo, Egypt and exploring Egypt for a week before picking up a tour that will take us through the Middle East. The tour is with Intrepid Travel out of Melbourne, Australia and will take us from Cairo to Istanbul, Turkey.
Visa Requirements
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I have started gathering data for our planned trip this summer. We have added Jordon to the list of destinations, so we can visit Petra and possibly Cyprus. First off I started searching Canada’s External Affairs for visa requirements for the various countries we plan to travel to, as well as transit countries (not visiting but will travel through).
