Triumph Outside Beirut, Lebanon

Monday, June 4, 2007

We are in a luxury yacht club in Jounieh, Lebanon (a suburb of Beirut). All the rich and famous of Beirut come here to swim in the fabulous, Olympic sized swimming pool, play tennis, and dine on fine French food. Lots of French speaking yuppies with kids and nannies.

We enjoyed a wonderful tour of Byblos today. Phoenicians developed syllabic writing (an improvement over hieroglyphics, which was one symbol per word) in Byblos in about 1000 B.C. We also saw a Crusader castle, Egyptian temples, a Roman amphitheater and a Phoenician royal necropolis. Incredible.

Tomorrow we will enjoy a quiet day aboard, catching up on boat work and rest. We set sail for Haifa, Israel on Wednesday.