Handling in Larnaca is again very efficient and we are in the air 10 minutes earlier. A short flight across the sea and we land in Beirut early. Unfortunately the fuel truck is broken and we have to wait. After a while we decide that Captain Tom stays back and the rest drives into Beirut. The hotel is brand new and fantastic. Rooms are not ready yet but the upgrade us to suites - thank you very much Four Seasons. You are really the top hotel!! Tom is now stuck in the strike at the airport and we start the sightseeing tour without him. According to the guide books there is not much to see in Beirut and we drive outside with our nutty guide to the Jeita Grotto. On the way there we stop at a oriental version of Madame Tussaut’s; a real strange place! The Jeita Grotto is one of Lebanon’s greatest natural wonders and biggest tourist attraction. They say it is the biggest cave system in the world - and it is impressive! Unfortunately taking pictures is not allowed - sorry folks.
Back in the hotel there is the usual standard lunch „club sandwich and Diet Coke“, a short stay at the wonderful roof pool, updating the webpage and a short stroll through downtown Beirut. Beautiful and nice people in a clean city. The wounds of the civil wars still can be seen in many buildings. And there are still many soldiers with automatic guns in the street; obviously not 100% back to normal. A real great city with a lot happening; it is a shame this country has such an unfortunate past!

After World War I, France was given a League of Nations mandate over Lebanon and its neighbor Syria, which together had previously been a single political unit in the Ottoman Empire. France divided them in 1920 into separate colonial administrations, drawing a border that separated mostly Muslim Syria from the kaleidoscope of religious communities in Lebanon, where Maronite Christians were then dominant. After 20 years of the French mandate regime, Lebanon's independence was proclaimed on Nov. 26, 1941, but full independence came in stages. The evacuation of French troops was completed in 1946.
Clan warfare between various religious groups in Lebanon goes back centuries. The combatants include Maronite Christians, who, since independence, have dominated the government; Sunni Muslims, who have prospered in business and shared political power; the Druze, who have a faith incorporating aspects of Islam and Gnosticism; and Shiite Muslims.
A new—and bloodier—Lebanese civil war that broke out in 1975 resulted in the addition of still another ingredient in the brew, the Syrians. In the fighting between Lebanese factions, 40,000 Lebanese were estimated to have been killed and 100,000 wounded between March 1975 and Nov. 1976. At that point, Syrian troops intervened at the request of the Lebanese and brought large-scale fighting to a halt. In 1977, the civil war again flared and continued until 1990, decimating the country.
Palestinian guerrillas staging raids on Israel from Lebanese territory drew punitive Israeli raids on Lebanon and two large scale Israeli invasions, in 1978 and again in 1982. In the first invasion, the Israelis entered the country in March 1978 and withdrew that June, after the UN Security Council created a 6,000-man peacekeeping force for the area called UNIFIL. As the UN departed, the Israelis turned their strongholds over to a Christian militia that they had organized, instead of to the UN force.