Beiteddine and Deir al-Qamar

Over Easter weekend Jeff and I took a trip into Lebanon's Chouf mountains to get away from the noise of the city for a little bit. It's amazing how much cooler the air feels in the mountains. It felt like we were vast distances away from Beirut, but we could still see the sea from the terrace of our hotel, so we weren't really that far inland.

We visited Beiteddine palace, built in the early 1800s for an emir, or Ottoman-era governor, and still used at times in the summer by important Lebanese officials. There were some really ornate rooms inside.

Most of the rooms were locked, so we had to get a guide to take us around and unlock them. He also doubled as a photographer.

There is a second palace up the hill from Beiteddine, where the Emir's son lived. It has now been turned into a hotel, and that's where we stayed. It wasn't as fancy as you're probably imagining, (think drafty old stone building with 1960s-era plumbing) but it did have a nice view and a fountain in which one could cool one's toes after a day of sightseeing.

The nearby village of Deir al-Qamar is down the hill from Beiteddine.

It's a lovely little town, and we had a good time just wandering down the streets, getting a good falafel sandwich, and watching workers decorate the Church of Saidet at-Talle for Easter. They were filling it with huge white roses, and one of the workers gave me one...or rather he gave it to Jeff to give to me. The church was built on the foundation of a seventh-century temple to the goddess Astarte, and then repurposed for Christianity. I love thinking about the pagan foundations of so many churches here; what a sense of history.

All in all it was a lovely trip, and well worth the hair-raising hour-long taxi ride down windy mountain roads to get back to Beirut!