The real Aleppo

At the end of my short trip to Syria in 2009, I hoped that I would return to visit Aleppo and Palmyra. Of course, if I actually follow through with this project, I will also visit north-eastern Syria to find Chagar Bazar and Tell Brak.

Aleppo was important to Mrs Mallowan. She clearly loved to visit with her husband. She thought of it as a place to regain comfort and composure. According to the notes, it was the location for the start of the novel 'Murder on the Orient Express' (note - ought to read this and shouldn't let the movies put me off).

The current news bulletins show Aleppo as a place of death and destruction. It wasn't always. I had hoped to stay at the Baron Hotel as part of the revisiting project. I wonder if it still stands.

The link below is an informal report from a variety of travellers to Aleppo. Notice the note at the start of the website explaining that things may be very different now. What a terrible tragedy.

travellers' tales from Aleppo

The following link is a report from 2007 in the UK newspaper The Independent. The writer makes Aleppo sound very inviting and gives rates to stay at The Baron (very reasonable too).

Travels with Agatha Christie

How much longer with the people of Syria have to suffer?

Lost motivation

Oh dear. Very, very bad. How can I possibly hope for anyone to support my project if I don't DO anything. After such a lot of work was done last summer, I lost heart after sending the letter to Mrs Mallowan's grandson and receiving no reply whatsoever. No excuse.

My punishment is that the Google Blogger website has completely changed since my last post in October 2011. I hate Google these days. The man in charge seems to have no idea of the original soul of the company and it's clear that all revisions and 'great ideas' have been designed by IT MEN who have no idea that most of us, particularly women of a certain age, feel our way through online tools, rather than using logic. Yuck, I hate logic too.

The outcome is that I have no idea how to write new posts. I have always hoped to do something more dynamic with the blog area, but that's not going to happen given that the current screen is confusing to say the least. That will teach me. At least I have some time now before starting back to work on 26 August.

What has spurred me to resume writing is watching BBC World's bulletins about the continuing murder, nay massacres, of the Syrian people by the country's government. Tonight it's all about the destruction of Aleppo. It made me think of Mrs Mallowan's relief to travel to Alep from Tell Brak in order to have a shampoo and set. It makes me more determined that I WILL retrace her steps and that I will use this time to do more research and find a way to revisit Chagar Bazar and this delightful side of Agatha Christie. Come on girl, you can do it!

BBC reports conflict in Aleppo