I have a few hundred photographs, on film – travelling was analogue then. No email, no internet, let alone a mobile phone, and no digital camera. As usual, I traveled without a guide book, except for Mayer’s History of the Crusades, so I could visit crusader castles. I wish I had more scans of photos from that journey! Here’s a very small selection of 6 months travelling in what was an optimistic region then. 

I had been to Israel before, in 1992, my only tour-group experience. Many trips to the region would follow, though never again to Syria. This is unfortunate, for Syria was one of the best countries I’ve ever traveled in my life: the friendliest people you can imagine, few tourists if any, inexpensive – in short: fantastic! I traveled Turkey a few more times (1998, 2004, 2010), as well as Israel/Palestine, Jordan and Egypt (1996, 2000, 2008). Here are some of the journeys: