After our afternoon in Aleppo, we are heading towards Crac des Chevaliers. Hamas and the dead Cities we leave for what they are. It would have been nice to visit them but for the moment it is better just to skip those parts.
It will take us about three hours to get to Crac Des Chevaliers, a highlight of Syria. As we will almost be all the time on the highway, we should not have a lot of passport controls. So far we must have been checked about 3 times, each time we were back on the road after a couple of minutes. This morning however the story is a bit longer… Five minutes into our driving trip we miss the street that leads to the highway. Kosta slows down and makes a u-turn… 50 meter away from a checkpoint and in full view of a bunch of soldiers. Yes, that might seem a bit suspicious and so yes, we are asked to pull over. The guys don’t look very official but they are. It really doesn’t give you a feeling of security when you are pulled over and have to give your passports to somebody that wears a gun but looks like he could be doing it just to rip people of. But there are no options here, you play their game.
The car is checked and of course so are the passports. I think there were about 6 guys in total. The leader calls in on his radio to whomever that may be. After ten minutes he’s called back. We have to say our names (I guess they’re having problems with the different alphabet), you hear the guy saying where we’re from and then it’s all waiting time again.In the meantime one of the guys has already welcomed me to Syria, so that kind of gives me the idea we’ll be cleared, but as it is taking a really long time, I do start to hesitate a bit. Kosta is trying to explain them with the map in his hands that we have slept in Aleppo and that we are on our way to the highway direction Damascus. We give them the card of the campground, Kosta explains again… All of this is happening in a quite relaxed atmosphere. We do not feel threatened or anything like that. The thing is, you just don’t understand what they’re saying and what the problem might be. About half an hour later we are able to go. Is it to help us find the highway, or is it to be sure we are heading towards Damascus, we will never know, but we are escorted by a guy on his motorbike until we arrive at the highway. Am I glad that is done! For obvious reasons I have no pictures of this. 
After three hours we arrive at our destination for the day, Crac des Chevaliers, a lovely castle were once the Crusaders had a home. Can you imagine, I am literally walking in Lion Heart’s footsteps!
Lion King zeker? :o))
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