We arrived in Beirut mid afternoon and after a small disaster with the taxi (one taxi van for 6 adults and a baby but NO space for luggage..... we ended up needing 2 taxi's in the end) we arrived at our accomodation "Seaside furnished apartments" right at the Corniche near the Hard Rock Cafe. We quickly unloaded the luggage, set up the porta cot and met the others for a wander along the Corniche all the way to Pidgeon Rock, about a 40 minute walk. We ate dinner at a lovely cafe right next to Pidgeon Rock as the sun set over the water. We then wandered back (as it was getting late by this stage) and got settled for the night. Patrick went to sleep okay, but within 90 minutes was awake and crying (we think he was cold) and as soon as I picked him up for a cuddle (as he was in cot next to our bed) he settled so he ended up sleeping in with us for THE FIRST TIME EVER!!! We all woke a few times during the night but woke bright and early the next morning ready to explore.
We ordered 2 taxis to take us into the city centre to try and buy Paul & Cameron jackets (as it was cold and they didn't have a jacket) but everything was closed. We had breakfast at Costa Coffee before walking to the bus station to catch the bus to Byblos. It was raining once we got off the bus at Byblos and none of us knew where to go, so we ended up walking along the side of the highway for about 15 minutes in the cold and rain (Patrick was warm and dry in his pram as we had the plastic cover) only to discover we needed to go back to where we started from! We ended up catching 2 taxi's to where we wanted to be and Cameron & Paul found some jackets. We had lunch before wandering through the Souk and then taking a guided tour through the Crusader Castle (ruins). We then caught 2 taxis to Jounieh and wandered around there for a while (the others all had a beer) before getting taxis back to the apartments. Patrick went to bed, I read books while Cameron, Paul, Jason & Jude went out for dinner and drinks and Tiff went to bed! Patrick slept all night in his own cot however woke VERY early (Beirut were 2 hours behind Dubai time) but happily played and watched TV till a more reasonable hour.
Jason decided, after the night before, to stay in the apartment on Saturday while we all got a bus to Baalbeck. He had been there before and decided not to go again, but the rest of us set off to breakfast at McDonalds, then taxis to the bus station (a different one to yesterday) and then the bus to Baalbeck. All was fine until we started winding through the roads, up hills and stuff and Paul, feeling quite ill, was sick in the back of the bus (Patrick & I were sitting next to him, fortunately Patrick was sleeping) so we had a stop for Paul to get out and get some fresh air. Another 15 minutes down the road he was sick - again - twice!!! (Alcohol the night before or something dodgy he ate, who knows!) We swapped buses at some point and then the bus ran out of petrol, fortunately we were close to petrol station and a few guys were able to push the bus back to get fuel. We continued on to Ballbeck and were all relieved when we arrived. We wandered around the ruins before going to get a drink and getting the bus back to Beirut. Once back in Beirut we made plans to go to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner, however once we arrived there Patrick was grisling so we took him home to bed. No dinner for us!
We woke Sunday keen and eager to go back to Jounieh to get the cable car 600m up the mountain to where Harissa - The Lady Of Lebanon stood at the top of the mountain with her arms outstretched. Plenty of photos later we wnt back down the mountain and grabbed some lunch before getting the taxi (we hired one for the entire day big enough to fit us all) to Jeita caves. Patrick had only slept 10 minutes all day and was extremely tired and cranky and fell asleep on me in the car so I said to the others to go and see the caves but I was staying in the taxi with Patrick. Cameron said he would stay so I could go so I handed Patrick to him and off I went. Another cable car to the Upper Grotto where we had to put all our belongings in a locker. I was devastated as the caves were beautiful and would loved to have taken photos. We walked down to the Lower Grotto (again locking our belongings away) and had a nice suprise - this cave had water in it and we all got in the little boat and sailed along seeing the cave. We finished in the caves and walked back to the taxi where Patrick had not long woken up. The taxi driver drove us back to the apartments and left. We had a little time to kill so split up - Jude and Tiff went one way and Cameron, Patrick, Paul, Jason & I went down to the corniche for a wander. I went to the Hard Rock Cafe to grab a few souveniers and then we got some fresh juices before wandering back to the apartment (seeing a monkey on a leash on the way) to get our bags and get to the airport. A relatively uneventful trip home, landing in Dubai about 11:15pm. We got our luggage, picked the car up from the short term parking lot, dropped Paul home and went home to bed!
A great weekend away but good to be home :)
