Another Voice

23 May 2009

Sleeping with Agatha Christie and the ghosts of guests past in Syria’s Baron Hotel

A handful, however, of the most seriously top people don’t write in the book, though the Baron Hotel’s management have their names. Kemal Atatürk didn’t, and you would not expect the late President Hafez Assad of Syria to have done so. I couldn’t find Queen Ingrid of Denmark (Greek royalty, I suppose, ever-anxious to write their names in the book, were getting a bit desperate by then); but Charles Lindberg is there, as is Lady Louise Mountbatten, and the Princess Galizine.

I would be very surprised if this was the first Spectator report of this place — heavens, Patrick Leigh Fermor and Eric Newby have passed through. But in 2009 it’s worth reporting that though it has seen grander days, the Baron Hotel is by no means decrepit. The dark furniture in the implausibly high-ceilinged rooms are unchanged; the plumbing’s fine, the staff helpful, the tariff reasonable — and the air-conditioning works.

Tomorrow we set out by overnight train to Istanbul. Today I’ve explored Aleppo — a rich and historic city with careful regard for its past, its wonderful stone-arcaded souks and its awesome citadel, where tourists are understood and cared for but never amount to more than a sprinkling. This evening I shall sip arak on the terrace from which King Faisal addressed the cheering crowds; and tonight I shall think of Murder on the Orient Express as I sink into my Edwardian single bed, and hope it really was once Agatha Christie’s.