Greetings from Beirut - again there are no library pictures of Lebanon so will update when i return to the UK.

Well - the drive out of Damascus was quite peaceful - being a Friday morning - but we quickly found crowds & chaos at the border. Going through the Syrian border was reasonably straightforward - but there's a SP550 exit fee - bearing in mind i go back there on Sunday & leave again on Monday.....

Anyway, the Lebanese border was even more chaotic - i queued behind a guide who had 30 or 40 passports being processed - the immigration guy was working through them quite methodically but every now & again - to relieve the tedium, presumably - would take a couple of passports from colleagues & do them instead - when he had finally finished doing all the Italian passports (they have spirals) (why can't ours have spirals - wouldn't that make sense?) (trust the Italians to be stylish & practical) - he did a couple of extra passports for another colleague before attending to mine: 90 seconds. No questions.

Is it me? Do you find every time you queue that the person or persons in front take ages & when it's your turn - 90 seconds. Hmmm

Anyway - off to Aanjar - not on my itinerary but near the border & just off the main road - the ruins of a 1300 year-old Umayyad city. They ruled this part from around 660 to 750 AD - so not long - but you can see the restored remains of what was clearly a very orderly city - they've uncovered around 600 shops - that's about the same as Maidenhead and the other similarity is that most are closed as well....

Anyway, from there to Baalbek - an amazing set of ruins with a temple of Jupiter at the centre and built around 60 AD - there is also a temple to Venus here - there's a lot to see and some interesting museums/galleries on-site, too - well worth visiting - Baalbek is also known as "Heliopolis" - the "Sun City" of the ancient world....

After that it was the joyous 90km drive to Beirut - up over the Mount Lebanon range of hills and then down to Smogsville........

OK - that's the initial impression - i'm sure it is much nicer - it certainly has an image to live up to...