On the road to Damascus

Not quite on the road, more like on the plane to Damascus, or at least I will be later this year. I have now booked a trip to Syria and Lebanon with Voyages Jules Verne. We have travelled with them before and have been quite satisfied with their service.

A link to details about the holiday is: http://www.vjv.com/destinations/middle-east/syria/restoration-story/

JVJ call it Restoration Story. We had a shortlist of two for our December travels. The other was Nepal and India. We eventually opted for Syria and Lebanon. It will be my 5th trip to the Middle East. I did Egypt in 2003, 2004 and 2005 and Jordan in 2008. As you will expect, I'm rather looking forward to this trip.

Fresco

I was in London last week on business and went to a new Italian restaurant near my flat in Crystal Palace. Fresco on Westow Hill Road, in the Upper Norwood "Triangle", opened less than a month ago. There's nothing massiely different about the menu but watch out for the size of the starters. They were on the large size, approaching that of a main course. That in itself was an indication of value for money. Generally, service was good, food was good. We opted not to have a dessert. We were too full by then.

Tynemouth Book Fair

Tynemouth Station hosts a number of different fairs, such as farmers' markets. Once every two months it has a book fair on a Sunday which is worth a visit, especially if you are into local history. It is an Aladdin's cave of books written about the North East, though there are plenty of other types of books as well. I was there on Sunday just gone.



The video above was shot in 2006 - which goes to show how long I have been frequenting the book fair. The station is a grand Victorian suburban commuter station which has seen better days. It's worth a visit in its won right. Some restoration work has been carried out, some still needs to be done.

Il Forno Restaurant, Tynemouth

One of my favourite restaurants in the North East is Il Forno in Tynemouth. It is based in the old waiting room of the Victorian Tynemouth Station so not only is the food good, but the location has some historical interest as well. That suits me fine as I am an historian and I meet up regularly with a group of historians to have lunch in Il Forno.



The menu is competitively priced, indeed, I would go as far as saying that given the quality of the food, they are undercharging. You can get a good quality 2 course meal for under £10. The wine obviously comes as extra.



If you are on Tyneside, pay this restaurant a visit. It is remarkably easy to get to it as Tynemouth Station is on the Metro system.

Roman City of Jerash

I visited the Roman City of Jerash in Jordan in June 2008. Once one of the great cities of the Eastern Roman Empire, much work has now been done to restore it after centuries of earthquake damage. The hippodrome has been partly restored and for our benefit (and the benefit of all the other tourists) a display of chariot racing and gladiatorial fighting was laid on.



We were staying next to the Dead Sea and it was quite a drive for us to get there, though we had hired our tour guide for the day and he drove us there from the Movenpick Dead Sea Resort.

Take a hat and water. You will need them.


The Arch of Hadrian



Above and below - the Oval Forum




Chariot racing


Meet the locals


I'm the one with the sun glasses!

Inside a former secret, Soviet, submarine base

One of the more unusual places to visit is a former Soviet submarine base but in October 2006 I got the chance to do that whilst doing a cruise around the Black Sea. The base was in Balaklava, better known as the supply base for the British effort during the Crimean War (there are plenty of war memorials around but more about them on another day) and for having the famous headgear named after it. Balaklava is on the south of the Crimean peninsula which is part of the Ukraine. I also did a tour of the Crimea in October 2005 but at that time the submarine base had not opened for visitors. On my return visit the following year, I was in for more luck.


(The personnel entrance)

The base is unlikely to be like anything you have ever seen before. It was built to be safe against a direct nuclear hit. The only visible parts are the nuclear proof doors at the bottom of the cliffs in the bay. The base is inside the cliff. If you like James Bond and Indiana Jones film sets, you will love this place.


(The submarine entrace from the Bay of Balaklava)

The following has been taken from my diary written on my second visit to the Crimea:

Thursday 26th October 2006

I always knew this was going to be one of the highlights of the whole holiday - a visit to the former secret Soviet submarine base in the cliffs overlooking Balaklava. I visited the town last year [ie 2005] but the base was not then open to visitors though it has not been in military service since the 1990s. There was, however, no way I was going to miss the opportunity to see it this time!
The entrance to the base is on the opposite side of the bay to the town and from there all that can be seen is the gateway in the face of the cliff through which the subs sailed plus a personnel entrance. Each has nuclear bomb proof doors.


(The access tunnel into the base - note the curving corridor)

The base itself was dug out of the hillside in the late fifties and early sixties to house the subs of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet. The base itself is under 125 metres of solid marble. To get into it we had to enter via the personnel entrance which took us along a long, curving tunnel (curving to help deflect the blast of a nuclear explosion should the Americans have decided to nuke the place). This was like entering a Hollywood world of Indiana Jones and James Bond combined.


(Weapons of mass destruction)

We followed railway tracks to the nuclear bomb assembly area deep inside the base, and then followed more tunnels to the actual submarine bays, huge caverns with the waters of the Black Sea flowing through them, bringing no more submarines now, but only the local jellyfish that seem to exist in vast numbers. All we were missing were 007 fighting the baddies and stopping them from taking over the world! If you get the chance to visit this area (which was closed to the western world and even most Soviet citizens until 1995) this submarine base is a must see.


(One of the internal nuclear blast doors)


(one of the submarine pens)

Photos from the tropical island of Mayotte

In December 2007, I visited the island of Mayotte, in the Indian Ocean between Mozambique and Madagascar. The island is a dependency of France. Ours was a fleeting visit, just one day on a cruise between Zanzibar and Madagascar. These are some of the photos I took.



The biggest baobab tree in Mayotte and it was huge! David demonstrates the size of it. We were told it was about 700 years old.



Salt-making:



Salt was made by collecting the top soil in the lagoon pictured below which is flooded at high tide. The soil is mixed with water and then filtered through sand. The water is then boiled off to leave the salt.







Snorkelling at the turtle reserve

Definitely a highlight of the visit. The turtles are huge, aver a metre in length, and they feed on the sea vegetation at the shallow sea bed next to this beach which is also a turtle reserve. It is possible to go snorkelling in this area but you are not allowed to swim down and touch the turtles. To prevent this, we were all given life jackets to wear whilst snorkelling. That kept us on the surface!


The turtle reserve beach


Me with my life jacket and snorkelling gear. One thing to watch out for when snorkelling with a life jacket on as I was: your back and neck spend quite a bit of time in the direct sun. You will feel it later in the day.


The slightly more stripped down version of me!


Brown lemurs live wild on the island but some are quite tame and wait at the edge of the beach for food from passing visitors.


Lunch was on another beach and we have music provided by a local group. Face painting like this is common with women on the island.