SHERLEX.COM

Most of the churches, mosques and other buildings damaged during Lebanon’s 15 year civil war have been repaired and given a new lease on life. But while it’s great that the Lebanese are moving forward (most of the time) from that terrible period, perhaps some of the evidence of the awful destruction, religious intolerance and tragic waste should be preserved as a reminder of how bad things got.

For now, there’s still ample evidence of Lebanon’s history of conflict, such as the St. Vincent de Paul church in downtown Beirut, pictured here. I don’t know the history of this church, except that it’s perhaps the closest to the old Green Line and is one of the few unrestored places of worship in downtown (the other is the Maghen-Abraham synagogue, which is a similar shell of a building).

Mitchell and daddy horsing around in Faraya.

Lebanon’s ski season might be reasonably short, but the snow’s good and as you can see, there’s hardly anyone there!

Three different perspectives of the natural arch at Faqra

Since Christmas eve the weather’s been cold and grey in Beirut, with lots of rain, wind and scudding clouds. Miserable for us, but great for snow in the mountains! Yesterday we took a little drive up to Faqra to check it out.

First off was some yummy lunch at our favourite restaurant overlooking the Faqra rock bridge. Then We spent a few hours mucking about in the snow. Needless to say, Mitchie enjoyed it a lot more than last time we went to the snow 12 months ago!

Here’s a few pics of our adventures.