Farewell luxury, hello faded glamour

by Layla

Roz left us relaxing on the massive bed of the Albergo Hotel's lovely suite, using their laptop provided to us to update this blog. From there we have come far. But first a final piece of luxury: dinner in Al Dente, one of Beirut's fanciest restaurants. With some risotto to die for, and an amazing chocolate dessert, accompanied by much wine, we soaked up the decadence of the holiday.

Next morning bright and early found us lugging our suitcases down the hill from posh Achrafiye to less posh but more quirky Gemmayzeh, the neighbourhood of our rather less posh hotel, the Port View Hotel. En route I managed to slip down the hill and twist my ankle. Quite badly, it turns out. But it seems to be on the mend, thanks to Roz's conviction that it needs elevation and ice (as a doctor, I never have a clue about such things). So we found the Port View Hotel, dropped off our suitcases, grabbed some breakfast (accidentally in a pub that looked like a cafe) and hopped in a taxi to the Cola roundabout, transport hub to all places in Lebanon, it seemed. I spent the ride convulsed in silent backseat laughter as poor Roz, in the front seat, was subjected to a barrage of declarations of love and hand kissing from the driver until finally Roz,rather severely, started enquiring after his wife and children...

At the Cola roundabout, after a false start where the drivers misinterpreted our request to go to Zahle as being somewhere entirely different, they sent us to the right side of the road where our cry of 'Zahle' found us on a little minibus with a range of other passengers including police, tourists, and mountain dwellers. Off we went slowly out of the city (traffic in Beirut is shocking) and finally onto the open road of the Chouf Mountains. Great to see some mountain scenery, with snow in the distance and the air becoming fresher (and all Lebanese occupants of the minibus glaring at me for keeping the window open). Eventually we made it to Zahle, a Christian mountain town in the Bekaa Valley, hopped off the bus, and caught a taxi to our hotel.

Having checked in, and been too scared to comment on our single beds, we walked up the side of the river to Zahle's main draw, the Birdawni Cafes, riverside cafes known to have the best mezze in Lebanon. We rounded the corner to find that they were all closed with builders doing significant works to the place. Oh dear. Ah, but wait: one of them was open after all! Okay, so they may not have been expecting to have to cater, but they met our pleas and before we knew it, waiters were rushing from inside to set out a beautifully laid table by the river, with the clanging of workmen above us. The sun shone and we helped ourselves to some fantastic hoummous, vine leaves and Lebanese cheese, washed down with some local wine. And only felt a little bit odd in this otherwise deserted riverside area...

After lunch, we caught a taxi to the Ksara Winery, one of Bekaa Valley's biggest wine exporters. Ksara wines had featured on every wine list we'd seen in Lebanon so we were intrigued. We were directed to a video about the 150 year history of wine making in Ksara, followed by a wine tasting at an odd little bar. We favoured the Blanc de Blanc. After the tasting came a tour of the wine caves, huge lengths of cool caves lined by barrels full of wine. And piped Elton John muzak... Fun. After the tour, and walking past the 'Sauvignon blanc garden' etc, we caught a shared service taxi back into town. The other passenger, a local boutique owner, recommended a rather random cafe for us to drink mint lemonade (my new favourite drink) and read our books.

Later, I went back to rest in the Hotel AKL room, which was basic and pleasant, with a river view, but had become rather chilly... while Roz went to find a pharmacy to buy me an ankle support bandage. Mission accomplished and bandage in situ, we gazed around and eventually returned to the same restaurant that we had been in for lunch. Again we were the only guests, though in the chilly evening we settled ourselves inside with a nice bottle of Ksara Blanc de Blanc and a large pile of excellent mezze. As the evening wore on, the power cuts started, and as there were clearly to be no other guests, the waiters plied us with random food (including strawberries: mmm) and supplied a giant bag of ice for my ankle. I sat with my foot on a dining room chair covered with ice and we all watched part of a Meg Ryan film before we decided it was time to head home to bed.

The lovely woman at Hotel AKL told us smilingly that she had put on the heater in our room. 'Thank goodness!' we thought, until we entered the room... With no sense of smell, I sat down in happy oblivion, while Roz incomprehensibly flung open all the windows. Apparently our heater had filled the whole room with gas! We turned it off and I spent the night in my single bed, waking up regularly to make sure we were both still alive.

This morning,after breakfasting in a nice Lebanese bakery, we hopped on another minibus, this time to Baalbeck, a site of ruins dating back to the 3rd millenium BC and one of the most important ruins of the middle east. Rather misguidedly, we checked into a mad hotel called the Palmyra, which exudes faded glamour (Lonely Planet says 'One of the most wonderful colonial era relics dotting the Middle East')and is in fact rather run down. A bit like the Addams Family, complete with a Lurch-esque butler who checked us in for quite a large sum of money. The curse of the twin beds again... We debated checking in elsewhere but lost our nerve and went out to find lunch.

Baalbeck is a small town with limited lunch options. We found a random little garden where people seemed to be eating, and stationed ourselves at a table. Eventually a man came and offered to bring us food. It did seem to be a restaurant, and certainly we did receive the food, which was delicious. But we couldn't help fearing we were sitting in somebody's garden! Nevertheless, the sun shone, and we basked with our books.

Now it is off to the ruins for us...