Syria was the best kept secret on the Shell expat list. We loved (almost) every minute of it - maybe due to the great job I had and G getting involved in the "housing" preparation to an almost full-time extent.

The sunny ruins are Palmyra - the sheer area of the place is amazing, let alone the ruins. It is on the old silk road, and in the middle of the "desert" on the way to the east from Damascus towards the oil-fields. Unfortunately ISIS took a dislike to the ruins and blew a lot of them up. Unbelievable..

The little altar was in the church in Malaoula - a small Chrstian village near Damascus. They spoke aramaic, the language supposedly spoken by Christ. God knows what has happened to Christian communities like theirs.

The snowy place is BaalBek in Lebanon (northern part of the Bekaa valley). Quite simply the most stunning place I have ever seen - and we hit it on a snowy day when there was absolutely no-one around. Three foundation stones at one point are the size of railway carriages and fit together seamlessly. We couldn´t even think of replicating it now, even with our technology.

The classic knight´s fort is the Craq de Chevalier north of Damascus near Aleppo. Partially restored by the French, but still in fantastic condition (despite that?). The kitchens and storage rooms were immense - and point to the numbers garrisoned there.

The rocky village is Saidnaya - a convent near Damascus where everyone went to bless their cars!

The guy with Gill is Issam - our Palestinian friend