From the Road - March 24th

As I didn't take any photos on the drive back to Beirut, where we again drove around and around (trying to find a mall we had passed on the way to and from Byblos) until finally dropping off our bags at the hotel and the car at the rental office, I would like to share instead a few photos from our week on the road taken at different spots along the way.
The above photo was taken outside our hotel in Tyre before heading into the mountains which eventually defeated us and sent us back on our way towards Beirut and Byblos.
Windmills! If I ever go to Lebanon again, I will skip MacDonald's and KFC and head instead to the Wooden Bakery, which is apprently Leabnon's only local franchise. Bakeries in the past in Lebanon all ground their flour with windmills!
Just before getting turned back to Beirut, we came across the Beaufort Castle, a castle or fort used by the Crusaders in the 12th Century, but well off the beaten tourist trail. We couldn't even find this site in the Lonely Planet! According to Wikipedia, during the Lebanese civil war this castle was held by the PLO, which used the castle to fire rockets into northern Israel.

I wasn't sure if I should post the photo of the offensive wall illustration below(sighted near to the Israeli border), but I don't want to give the impression that Lebanon is free from troubles. Noting racist and extremist ideas that exist here in the more remote and less affluent parts of Lebanon make it clear why the soldiers at one of the checkpoints in this region didn't want us to continue traveling on the road close to Israel (and subsequently told us we had to go back to Beirut and approach Baalbek from there). Truly it seemed this region, unlike Beirut and most of the other lovely and somewhat liberal cities and towns we visited, was supported by and supportive of the Hezbollah... Yellow Hezbollah flags and pictures of bearded men and even one of the Ayatollah Khomeni were displayed everywhere here... stark contrast to the lush green hills and beautiful valleys.
And finally, a visual description of the kinds of meals we ate while on the roads... somewhat different from the Lebanese mezze and seafood delights we enjoyed in the towns. While Kurdistan hasn't yet been infiltrated by American fast food franchises (only fakes - a Ma Donal's in Sulemaniya and perhaps soon the K [for Kurdistan] FC my colleagues are thinking of starting in Erbil), I realized that truly the fakes can't be much worse than "the real thing". Unfortunately for J who kept telling us to look out for Hardee's, we didn't have time or the opportunity to stop at one.