Around the World With Uncle Moose: Days 17-19: Cable Cars, Caves, and Beirut

Saturday, November 2:

This morning we toured the ancient part of Byblos.

St. John the Baptist Church, from the 12th century

View of the church from the Crusader Castle Museum

Arrowheads from pre-12000 BC

Jewelry from about 5000 BC

Roman-era ruins and modern Byblos

Ruins from the original settlements, about 7000 BC

Roman-era columns

Small theater from 3rd century AD

Walking to the Crusader fort

St. John the Baptist Church

Inside the church

From Byblos, we headed to Harissa, a city just outside of Beirut.

On the road to Harissa

The main attractions in Harissa are the Our Lady of Lebanon shrine, and the Harissa Cathedral, which sit next to each other on a hill overlooking the city. To get there, you take a gondola, which provides some pretty impressive views.

Our guide, Pauline, and one of the gondola cars

Below are some shots of the area taken from the gondola.

Halfway up, we switched from the gondola to a cog-wheel train.

Our Lady of Lebanon

Harissa Cathedral

Another view of the Cathedral

On our way down the hill, we visited the Basilica of St. Paul, which is fairly modern (20th century), but has some impressive decor.

Basilica of St. Paul

Ceiling of the Basilica

Artwork on the walls

We then stopped for lunch. I don't know what I had, but it was good.

Our next stop was the Jeita Grotto, a series of spectacular caves near Beirut. I took one shot of the lower cave before I learned that photography was forbidden. So I have supplemented my picture with a couple stolen from the internet.

The picture I took, from the lower cave

From the caves, we returned to Beirut, and I spent some time walking around before dinner.

The Beirut Mall

All quiet at the demonstration site

A small protest

For dinner, I went back to the Neighbors bar, near the hotel. I had possibly the best cheeseburger of my life, but I did not order the Crazy Fries.

Cheeseburger in Paradise

Nightlife across from the hotel

Sunday, November 3: Beirut to London (or maybe not)

I got up at about 5:30 AM for my 8:15 flight to London and I found a message on my phone telling me that my flight from London to Philadelphia for later that day had been cancelled. I went to the airport and managed to get rebooked on a later flight to Philadelphia that would still get me back to RDU at the original time.

So, I went to the gate for my flight to London and at about 8:00 they cancelled that one! This was the only British Airways flight from Beirut to London that day, so I knew that I was stuck in Beirut for the day. Everyone on the flight mobbed the gate agent, so I went to one of the lounges (thank you, Priority Pass), called British Airways, and booked the same flights for the next day. I then went to Hotels.com and found a very nice hotel for $59.00 and booked that. A 15 minute taxi ride to the hotel, and I was back in Beirut while most of the people at the flight were standing in line at the airport.

At the Beirut airport before disaster struck

My $59 hotel (an excellent value)

I spent most of the day wandering around Beirut, particularly along the corniche, the road that runs along the shoreline.

Pigeon Rock (again)

I walked by the American University of Beirut, which was gated and locked up pretty tight.

From there, I headed back to the hotel, passing through some neighborhoods (not destroyed in the war) with some nice art deco architecture.

Monday, November 4: Beirut to London, and home (this time for sure!)

I returned to the airport for my 8:15 flight to London, which was thankfully not cancelled, and made it Philadelphia and RDU on time. While approaching Heathrow, I got some nice shots of London.