Installment 5: Visitors to Lebanon

I've recently had visitors to Lebanon in the shape of my brother, Stephen:

My sister-in-law, Syliva:

And of our close friend, Caitlin:

Left behind with the grandparents were David, my 15 month old nephew...

and his half-brother/unwieldy lap dog, Hugo.

For me work has been a great way to see Lebanon. Now with five days off and visitors I was faced with becoming a tourist. So what does a tourist do in Lebanon? Our first response...booze it up, but all classy like....ie, wine tasting!

Lebanon is the oldest site of wine production in the world, evidently. There are a number of wine producers. We went to three.

The wine production happens mostly in the Bekka Valley, a spot i knew only from Robert Ludlum books as a location for Hezbollah terrorist training camps.

Terrorists: "Don't call us, we'll call you."

My favorite moment came when Sylvia was asked by the owner of the world renowned Chateau Mussar to characterize what she was tasting...

her response - "yummy."

So the winner of the least pretentious award goes to Sylvia Morales (that's right she kept her last name! She's bad ass my sister-in-law).

Wish i could say the same for the rest of us:

Chateua Kefraya in the Bekka Valley

Acting alternately very adult and very silly.


Puccini was never in Lebanon


My brother and our cab driver Tony


Sylvia laughing at posers.

Of course, there were other culturally significant actives to attend to in Lebanon. For example, the first thing most Lebanese will tell you to visit when in their country is Baalabeck, the site of Roman ruins rivaling any in the world.

We skipped it.

But there were other things to be seen.

There is an ongoing world wide campaign to select the new 7 wonders of the world: http://www.new7wonders.com
We visited one of the candidates, the Jeita Grotto.

It was certainly a stunning place.
However, at the moment not enough people seem to think it a wonder as it's sitting 8th in the voting. Well the Eighth wonder of the world ain't bad. Although, somehow i thought the position was already filled: