Black stone Bosra

Over the border into Syria which is in archaeological terms not too different, Bosra, like Jerash is largely Roman ruins over earlier levels. However it is in the basalt area so its all black not the limestone white of Jerash and others. The town still impinges on the ruins and they are scattered into the modern town proper. Many eucalyptus trees in this area legacy of the French. The theatre is particularly interesting because it is so well preserved, even the backstage area. I shudder to think how hot it must have been. We saw it in the morning but it was 30 or so by lunch time and that is autumn. They built a fort around the theatre or rather used the theatre as the heart of a fort in later times

Jerash

Jerash suffers badly from Petra. Without Petra it would be a major site but since nothing can ever be as dramatic the visiters are relatively few, so the triumhpal arch, colonaded streets, pinkish temple of Aphrodite and oval forum are peaceful. The theatre is full of Arab bagpipes whom you pay to stop so peaceful it is not.

Petra

You see plenty of pictures of the tombs and associated funerary stuff but less of what remains of the town. Walking in each day was very hot and took a little over an hour and a half, possibly less if you didn't look at anything. I briefly considered the little horse drawn carts that gallop over the Roman cobles but in the end preferred to be stirred by Petra not shaken.

Syria was not very internet friendly tho otherwise fine and being sick the last few days has made mr really behind so I will tell my tale in retrospect.

Aleppo, Ebla, Apamea

Yesterday I was pretty sick with travellers tummy and missed seeing the church of St Simeon Stylites but did manage to crawl out for the citadel and the Souk, also missed the fancy diner in the old Khan but it was definately not to be. Today we started with the Aleppo museum, no photos unfortunately. The stuff there from Mari and Ugarit and Ebla was very fine, lots of evidence of trade, Mycenean, Cypriot and Egyptian pottery as well as some very nice Phoenician ivory. A pot of Rameses, a lid of Pepi and a sphinx of what looked like Amenhotep III. We then travelled to Ebla which is a working site as the Italian team were still in residence. We travelled on to Apamea, a two kilometre long colonaded street but pics will have to wait till I get to london as they are somehow blocked here.

I am uploading photos but nothing seems to be happening. I am denied the sight of the blog so its hard to know. After Jerash we went over the border into Syria where we are now. We visited black stone Bosra and then on to very pretty Palmyra. We are by the Euphrates having seen desert castles and Dura Europos. Averil Cameron has joined our caravan which quite blows me away as she is a very well known historian whom I did not expect to meet.

Possibly there

The blog appears to have some problems and I can't see it here, I have no idea if this message will be displayed. We spent another day at Petra which was worth every sweaty moment. The walk from the basin back to the hotel takes one and a half hours and is all up hill but it is lined with incredible tombs, a theatre and many shops which continue Petra's trading tradition. The hotel was very pleasannt and had good facilities. I am trying to upload pictures but may not be able to. The next day we drove to Jerash, a beautiful Greaco- Roman city with a temple to Aphrodite and a main street colonaded to an oval forum.

Petra

Huge crowds at the entrance. In the more distant corners there is greater peace although the hawkers are everywhere. Its hard to describe the site and give a flavour of the contrasts, its huge and scattered, the bedouin give it a medieval air with their goats and gorgeously appointed camels but the crowd is modern and international, the Nabatean monuments can also have a curiously modern flavourm a sort odd art deco look as they copied fairly cheerfully all the civilizations around them, as traders they knew them all. Its clearly worn with the ages and the Roman bits in the middle can be rather at odds with the rest, The rest houses and stalls selling all kinds of junk blend in fairly well. I saw some nice cats but I might save those for a more co operative machine. We have a lecture and then dinner still to go, I hope to stay awake for both.

Petra

The very old fashioned computors at this expensive hotel will drive me nuts. I tried to upload to facebook with no success, perhaps blogspot will work. Anyway Petra today was beyound staggering which is what I was doing by the end because it is so hot here. It feels like about 28/30 although there is a breeze through the site. The tombs by themselves would be monumental but the colour of the rock and the often science fiction quality of the landscape certainly heighten the effect. The temple and the theatre seem almost ordinary by comparison. The site is a thronging mass of tourists, bedouin, camels, donkeys,

Below is most of our group who were rather intimidating at first, all confident accents and commanding vowels, but who seem very friendly and ready to chat.

Jordan

Day 2 in Jordan and we are at Petra for the night and visit there tomorrow. Yesterday was the fairly lengthy business of getting here with the night spent in a very squishy hotel in Amman, pity we got in so late. I had about 4 hours in a bed that was larger than my room in London. Today we went to where Moses saw the promised land, he had a rather clearer day than us if he could see much, and we visited the famous Mosaics at Magdaba and generally drove down almost the length of the country. Its a funny mix of frantic building and bedouin tents, every modern convenience with herds of sheep and goats. We visited Kerak, a huge castle but much damaged by earthquakes over time. Saw a dam in the desert

Brompton Cemetary

Lots of wildlife at Brompton, if I had had any food I would have been mobbed. Its a gorgeous day, blue skys about 17 degrees. Walked around the graves for a while then headed on past the Natural History Museum to the V and A. The William Morris Cafe was just astounding and the rest has improved out of sight since I was last here over 20 years ago, perhaps not entirely surprising. Wandered at random a real blast.

To Birmingham

More photos will have to wait, its far too black and wet tonight to venture down to Denmark Street where the internet place is. But Birmingham, where the Staffordshire Hoard is on display, thanks Chris for the info, was the target today. I arrived by 11.30, another hour and I wouldn't have got in as it was a four hour queue. It is a real looters hoard, many of the unutterly exquisite pieces have been wrenched from their settings and are quite twisted and broken. The workmanship is, however, quite unbelievably beautiful. There is something about the combination of gold and garnets that really works. Much of it is so fine you cannot imagine how they made it in that time.

Courtauld Collection very wonderful, not a huge number of paintings but so many so familiar. A fine collection and a good cafe, not like some places I could mention which didn't even have a loo. Third pic down is a ringin, it is India House.

Today was another day of wet wandering, along High Holborn, past the Old Bailey, hearing the sounds of Bow Bell, actually had a snack in the crypt, lots of Wren churches to Leadhall Markets. ts not very busy which is sad because the building is a victorian wonder, perhaps it picks up at lunch. Worth seeing tho. Then went to the Sir John Soane's Museum which I hated. Its not a museum its a magpie's nest, an assault not an education. An object lesson in not leting half baked loons collect anything. Wonderful vases, dusty and dark, unseeable on high shelves, everything muddled together, no label, no provenance, argh. I soothed myself with more walking down to Somerset House.

Today

Below you can see a sponge cake in the shape of a teapot, saltless chips, British birds, a classic crescent, and a chocolate shop. All on the way to and fro the Wallace Collection which has the most staggering collection of armour, finely wrought death, beautful and yet quite deadly. That and a mass of French art, much of it pinkly frivolous. I am early rococco myself. I celebrated this advance in self knowledge by having a peach syrup and champagne cocktail in the elegant courtyard. The girl on the swing is there, she has a crazed look and possibly no underwear. A great painting. A day of much wandering.

yesterday

not very good at keeping up this time, its been surprisingly hard to find a place to do pics. Everyone on their i things I guess.

Surrealist nightmares

I am not sure why they let Dali design international travel to Europe but it wasn't a good idea. A thousand hours of darkness punctuated by demented hosties force feeding you mediocre meals with a smile. Progressively disintegrating infrastructure accompanied by increasingly cheery thisisyourcaptain babble. Two hours delayed on the tarmac at Abu Dahbi fixing the airconditioning, midnight and it was 30 degrees, where did they order their weather from? An hour in a line at Heathrow to get through immigration and then the tube was not functioning. I was really happy to get to the hotel where, because I was some 4 hours later than expected, I got my room straight away, bonus! Someone put up a monument to the inventor of the hot shower, humanity has too few benefactors of that stature.

Go, go , go

Nervous last few hours of intense preparation, you wouldn't really think it was a holiday at this stage.