The Baron Hotel in Aleppo was the famed terminal point of interest on the old Orient Express route. T. E. Lawrence stayed here, Agatha Christie began writing "Murder on the Orient Express" here, and in seventy something years, little has changed. The decor is wondrously faded, the antique maps and advertisements plaster the walls, and the hotel bar is apparently a must for first time visitors. I had a couple of glasses of arak and was impressed at Mr Lawrence's formidable bar tab, framed on the wall and pointed out to me with a bit of pride by the bartender. Aleppo is a time capsule for sure, but the Baron is a capsule within a capsule. Marvelous.
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