Sadly this morning we woke up to rain, not the best conditions for a day of sightseeing. Nevertheless we headed out to try and see some of the things that we had missed yesterday.
Starting at the Bab Antakiya gate we first visited the Al-Qaiqan Mosque, where we were shown round by a young lad, whose father was the Imam. He insisted that we stay, as the call to prayer was about to be performed. Expecting his father to come in and perform the call, we were very surprised when the lad stepped up to the microphone. Things took a turn for the peculiar when an old man entered the mosque, stared at us and immediately started remonstrating with the lad. In a slightly awkward situation, we couldn't decide whether we should stay or go. All the while the lad was singing, the old man was shouting at him. Eventually with the call over, the lad explained that the old man was his grandfather. Either he didn't like his grandson much or he was unimpressed with his performance. In the end we gave our thanks to the lad and continued on our way.
Back in the souk we stopped to look at several of the ancient Khans (traveller's rest areas) that line either side of the main streets. While looking at one, we were approached by a stall holder who wanted to give us some biscuits in celebration of the coming of Mohammed. Today is an important holiday throughout the Muslim world and apparently the giving of food is customary. This was backed up by the sight of people crowding round the hot milk stall that I had bought a drink from yesterday. With the help of a stall holder, I had another cup of the milk but this time for free. The holiday had certainly seemed to have put people in a good mood, although there was still a lot of arguing going on between two van drivers who both wanted to get past each other on a narrow street. Clearly the good cheer only spreads so far!
Following the streets through the souk, we stopped to look at another mosque, where Debs had to wear a cloak that made her look like a wizard! From there we carried on heading north and west towards Al-Jdeida, an area of narrow stone streets where the buildings all look in towards central courtyards. By now the rain was getting harder and finding ourselves close to the hotel, we decided to call it a day.
Later that evening Debs, Peter, Munther (a very interesting Tunisian guy who lives in Germany), Victor (from Spain) and I, went for a drink in the Baron Hotel. The Baron Hotel was once one of the premier hotels in the Middle East. Agatha Christie wrote the first part of 'Murder on the Orient Express' while staying there and other guests include Charles Lindburgh, Amy Johnson and T E Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia). Unfortunately you can't see the visitor's book as it is kept in the safe, but Lawrence of Arabia's bar tab is on display in the lounge. The hotel is now wonderfully dilapidated, and is rather trading on its history. Nevertheless having a drink in the bar had to be done, even if the beer did turn out, rather disappointingly, to be a can of Efes!
Leaving the Baron Hotel we stopped in a restaurant for some food and this time a Syrian beer. Debs rather wisely had the marginally more expensive Lebanese beer, where as I had a truly awful Syrian beer. Perhaps the Baron Hotel knew what they were doing when they only served Turkish beer!
Having grabbed a few more beers from the off-licence we headed back to the hotel and had a great deal of laughs as Mathias (one of the hotel staff members) gave a speech about all of us.
Rain is forecast for tomorrow, so we will spend one more day in Aleppo and then move on.
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