Day 16 Aleppo

Sunday 22 July (Day 16) Ambassador Hotel, Aleppo, Syria, 0/5496 km
The boys stayed in the hotel room till 16:30 playing games and watching TV. Anton is still not feeling well, although it may also be a reaction to all the traveling and not being able to do what he wants. Jamaliah and I went first in the morning to the National museum. (Not that spectacular but still good to see some statues etc from other, older, cultures than the Roman). After that it was searching for an internet café where we spent an hour getting the last 2 days out. We hope you still enjoy our stories. Your reactions at least indicate that you do. Thereafter it was back to the Hotel and a bit of sleep for Jamaliah because she is also not feeling well. She caught a cold from Anton. At 16:30 we gathered up the whole family and set out to find the Citadel and the souk. To prevent getting lost and to catch up on lost time we took a Taxi to the Citadel, which was a good choice since we arrived at 17:15 and it closes at 18:00. Already at 17:30 the guard was blowing the whistle to chase us out. Still we got a good impression of the citadel. The surroundings were very much cleaned up when I compare it to my last visit in 1973. There were no more writers with typing machines on the street writing petition for the illiterate people. Also there was a plaza where we later had a nice meal with a view of the Citadel. Before that, we went out walking around the hill trying to find the entrance of the souk. We managed to find several entrance gates and wandered a bit through the medieval covered streets. One of the highlights was walking through the smith’s area where they were hammering away on hot iron pins. Jamaliah also managed to buy some more fruit magnets for her collection. It was dark by the time we set out to walk back to the hotel after the meal. Jamaliah had the route worked out from the map and we more or less followed that. We wandered through narrow sparsely lit streets back. Despite the dark we actually did not feel scared or anything. Try doing this in any city in the US and you will be mugged. We did have to ask the way once or twice but arrived at the hotel without too many detours. The kids went in and JJ and I went to the Baron Hotel next door for a beer (Amstel) on the terrace overlooking the street. It was the first beer after several days and it tasted fantastic. I wish I had one now while I type this in Turkey.