Check Out Beirut

Probably not unlike many of you, when I thought of Beirut, I thought of a poor/bombed out city that often came across our US news broadcasts in the 1980’s. Then I traveled there for the first time in February of this year & again in July. Although Beirut was a focal point of the bloody Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), resulting in the estimated 130,000 to 250,000 civilian fatalities, today’s Beirut is a city still under a massive rebuilding & modernization effort.

In my limited foot & bicycle travels around the downtown / waterfront area, I found that although there are definitely still remains of bombed out / gunned down buildings, some 80-90% of the area is beautifully reconstructed & full of life.

It was however quite haunting to see buildings covered with bullet / mortar holes & no windows, left standing among the shiny new high rise structures just around the corner. Just seeing the evidence & knowing that many lives were lost within my lifetime, right where I stand, left me speechless!

The view outside my 11th floor hotel room.

View out the other side of the hotel :)
Just down the street is the old Holiday Inn building, where some of the major battles of the Lebanese Civil War took place. Left standing today to remind everyone of the cost the wars have inflicted.
Along the waterfront.

The architecture & location of this building jumped out at me. I’m sure it was once a prized location, as it’s on a bluff that overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the west.

Rouche Sea Rock.

The Rouche Sea Rock behind me is so big that people were riding wave runners through the arch at the base!

Beirut was named the top place to visit in 2009 by The New York Time. It was also listed as one of the ten liveliest cities in the world by Lonely Planet in 2009.

If you are interested in reading more on the Lebanese Civil War, visit Wikipedia.com

Milan in the Summer

This 5 day trip offered me 3 whole days on the ground to get out on my bike & see the city in the great weather we are having. In Feb I posted some pics of Milan, so some of these may be repeats of the same sites in a different season.

This giant cathedral is one of the largest Gothic churches in the world. Its construction began in the 14th century, but wasn't completed until 500 years later. It boasts 135 spires around the roof & has many intricate carvings & statues both inside & out.

Behind me here is the Castle Sforzesco. The entire castle is surrounded by a very deep & wide mote that is now only filled with neatly cut grass & occupied by many stray cats :)

Behind me here, you can just see the old mechanism to raise & lower the massive draw bridge that I'm standing on. To my left & in the up position is a narrow draw bridge used for foot traffic.

Outside Castle Sforzesco, many of the buildings across the streets from the castle are built on a curve like seen here. This part of the city affectively encircles the castle.

Looks like this guy parked in a no parking zone near the corner of a busy/narrow side street. I thought this was a rather unique way of solving the problem, as a police officer looked on beyond the lift (tow) truck. I made sure to keep the truck between me & the officer, just in case he took issue with me photographing the lifted vehicle's license plate :)

Behind me is Sempione Park & in the far background you can again see Sforzesco Castle. The park with its 116 acres was a beautiful place to ride, walk or just hang out. One morning I jogged around the border of the park & castle & found it to be just over 2 miles around. The park was originally laid out in the 15th century & then covered 740 acres. During WWII the grounds of the park were used to grow wheat, but were later restored to their present layout.

Day trip to Amman, Jordan

Thursday was a day trip to Amman, Jordan & because of Israeli airspace security, we have to fly east out of Cairo until we clear the southern tip of Israel, then make an almost 90 degree left turn to head north along the Israel/Jordan border.

In this pic you can see Elat, Israel on the left & Aqaba, Jordan on the right. Both lie at the north tip of the Gulf of Aqaba.

In these next 3 pics you can see the Dead Sea as viewed from 39,000' on our flight north. On the other side of the Dead Sea from our position is Israel.

The river valley here lies to the east of the Dead Sea & is labled as the W. Mujib on my current map. However, on the map in my Bible, it is the Arnon River.

Here are a few pics of Amman as seen from our shuttle van that took us to lunch & back. Like I said, day trip, so not much chance to get out & see the sights :( Maybe next time!

A day on the golf course

I can not deny that I do usually get fair amount of down time in Cairo. And, although I usually leave the posts about life in Cairo to Wendy, I thought I'd throw out a couple pics of golf in Cairo. I have had several chances now to hit the course with my buddy John.

This club at Katamaya is one of the few that I know of around Cairo & when you are on the course, you'd think you were at a course in Arizona. Katamaya is one of the new modern developments in the area & I ocassionally get to visit when our flight schedules have John & I in town at the same time. John's boss owns the development :)

Sorry the picture quality isn't the best. I forgot the camera & had to utilize the one on my company phone.

To Athens we go!

This trip to Athens got off to an interesting start once we reached our hotel (setup by the company travel agent) on Thur late afternoon. We found the hotel to be quite dirty & in poor condition, located in a rather bad area near downtown Athens. When we went out for a late lunch, we observed drug deals & hookers on the street just outside the hotel. Needless to say, after reporting this to our home office in Cairo, the boss’ Assistant worked quickly before leaving work for the evening, to get us moved to a better location. We now find ourselves located out near the sea coast & just across the street from a city tram location…life is better & we overcome yet another hurdle in this exciting life of travel :)

On our departure out of Cairo, I was able to snap this pic of the definitive line between the desert to the west & the green of the Nile Oasis in which we live. Cairo is located at the far southern tip of this “V” shaped oasis. The Libyan border is about 350 mile to the west, across this vast desert.

Riding the tram into downtown Athens from our hotel took about 45 min with all the stops.

Here, we are just north of the Acropolis & if you click on this pic to enlarge, you can better make out the Pantheon at the top.

Ah, the beauty of the Lord's creation is again seen as the sun sets over Saronikós Bay, looking to the southwest off the Athenian coast.

Looking back to the northeast toward Athens, from a pier out in the bay.

Got tired of being limited to foot & public transportation, so I bought this Dahon folding bike that I can carry in our plane.

First evening with my new toy, I took a long ride along the coast through Athens. The coastal walkway reminds me a bit of the one in Chicago, along Lake Michigan, except that the skyline is absent of the massive high rise buildings of Chicago & the walkway is not nearly as bike friendly :)

Mikonos, Greece

Last weekend found us on a 3 day trip to Mikonos, Greece. As of lately, we fly every weekend...good that my family is home during the week when I am :)

Mikonos is a beautiful/hilly island southeast of Athens. There are many waterside resorts scattered about the island. Like most of Greece (especially the resort areas), the days are spent on the beach & the nightlife at clubs & restaurants gets hopping at about dark & continues until around 2am or so...long after I'm in bed asleep :)

Much of Greece is made up of islands scattered off the mainland, in the Mediterranean Sea. As we arrive from Egypt to the south, we begin our descent about over Crete. Here are a couple sunset pics from about 7,000' over some of the islands north of Crete.

Here's one of the locals I met while walking along the rocky coast outside our hotel. This little guy was only about 7" long, but trying to look tough in an effort to scare me off.

Took this video with my digital camera while snorkeling in the Mediterranean.

Early morning by the our resort pool that overlooks a secluded bay about 200' below.

Relaxing by the pool in the evening with my iPod & a glass of wine. I felt like I was watching a movie as the sun set over the bay below & I observed the crewmembers of several yachts, going about their evening duties to secure their ships for the night.

It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it :)

Another glimpse into Pisa

Since we visit Pisa quite regularly & I've posted on it before, I only took a couple pics this time. Had to show Pisa in the spring & needed to post one of the NetJets hat in Pisa :)

Since the weather was GREAT there this time, we got out of the hotel a lot more. I actually found during my morning run, that the perimeter around the ancient city wall on the north side of the river, is a little less than 4 miles. I've jogged around airports larger than that! It's truly amazing how much they crammed within the walls of these old cities in Europe.

We also found (as expected), that as the weather gets nicer, the crowds get larger, prices rise & hotel availability drops!

Was another great trip to the Tuscan region of Italy & I always look forward to returning!

Here's a shot of what's left of one of the ancient Roman bath houses. In the background, you can see a part of the Ancient city wall. Surprisingly, much of the old city wall around Pisa is still stand & much of that is north of the River Arno, which bisects the city.