Baghdad airport turns out to be a pleasant surprise. Modern, very few passengers and the visa, immigration and customs process a breeze. Within 20 minutes of landing on our way to our city hotel. I always take first impressions of a new country seriously and this place is a low rise capitol city. Security is high with police and military very visible at intersections. There is an assortment of jeeps, armoured personnel carriers and even tanks on the footpath. The main roads are lined with thick high vertical concrete slabs to be able to withstand the impact of a car bomb. On arrival at our hotel the boom gate is raised and the taxi trunk is open to allow the sniffer Alsation dog to check our baggage for explosives.
It was late afternoon but I always like to spend my first few hours in any city pounding the pavement and myself and 4 others on our tour head out to see the Freedom monument about 15 minutes from our hotel. Walking downtown we were surprised to see police had cordoned off the main road and bridge across the Tigris River.
They happily waved us through and we only later found out that the lockdown was in response to the 9 rockets that had been launched against the government area, the “green zone” which is off limits to any one other than government officials.
From the freedom monument we swung around to walk along the historically famous Tigris river.
What a disappointment, smelly and unkempt it is really just an open sewer and rubbish dump. Nonetheless we walked along the banks. Spying an alcohol shop, yes a grog shop in Iraq!
We bought a couple of cans of beer and consumed it while waching the sun go down.
