In Aleppo
Aleppo, Syria 2010
I could walk from my hotel to the old Barron’s hotel where Agatha Christie used to stay. Agatha used to accompany her husband Max Mallowan, who was an archeologist, to where he was digging in Syria and Iraq. She rode the Orient Express from London and at the end of her journey, took rooms at the Barron’s.
My husband and I are aficionados of Miss Christie. So we made a pilgrimage to the Barron’s Hotel which seemed not to have changed since Miss Christie lodged there. We waited in the bar sipping Coca Cola until we were shown to her room. The room was occupied, but no matter, by this time we had ingratiated ourselves with the hotel staff and no artifact of Miss Christie’s was missed on our impromptu tour.
On our way to the hotel, we met this man selling tamarind juice. I was taken by his Hercule Poirot mustache. Do you think Agatha might have crossed paths with his father or grandfather? I think the resemblance to the great detective is remarkable, don’t you?
Our Hercule Poirot look-alike enjoyed being photographed and posed this way and that always with a smile as if sharing a joke with me. I pray he and his family are safe.