Last Post from Egypt...

This will be our last post from Egypt!  It has been a remarkable trip, too big to get one’s head around this soon.  We arrived Cairo yesterday and are for the moment resting in the other Four Seasons.  The few days aboard the boat were exhausting.  Very little sleep as dinner wasn’t until 8 or 8:30 and then there was entertainment in the lounge after that, and we had 6 am calls every morning, so it was not what you could call restful.  I last left you at the temples at Philae I think.

The next day we went with our new friends Paul and Erika, also on Nubian Tours, to visit the west banks and east banks of the Nile at Luxor. They are really fun- Paul a psychiatrist in Beverly Hills and Erika formerly with the film industry and now a realtor.   The West bank has the enormous Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens and the temple of Hatshepsut.  It was unbelievably hot and crowded in all three places.  We started at the Valley of the Kings where all the early Kings are buried.  They were buried in holes in the hills there- essentially tunnels into the mountain with long sloping corridors, followed by a burial chamber and sarcophagus at the end.  The halls are white washed with gypsum, and then filled with glyphs of all different natural colors, still intact.  The sarcophagus at the end is made of Aswan pink granite.  All the tombs are the same, with the exception of different slopes and lengths of the entry ramp.  Once the kings are placed, the door area is filled in such that it isn’t visible, in hopes that the graves won’t be robbed.  The older the king when he died the longer and more ornate the tunnel, as his workers began work on the tomb at his birth.  The walls are interesting in that the glyphs are designed not to mean anything- you can’t read them.  They are covered in gypsum, then carved and painted, and then covered in bees wax.  In many places you can see the original color quite vividly, where the sun hasn’t been.

Hatshepsut was the only female pharaoh in Egyptian history.  Through a long series of family fights and intrigues she just assumed power, and after ruling 22 years was finally killed by the factions beneath her who didn’t like working for a woman.  Her temple is enormous, with long wide staircases leading to three different levels.  The Valley of the Queens is very similar to the Valley of the Kings- only smaller tombs.  Got tombed out rather quickly, since they are all the same.

We returned to the ship for lunch and a brief pause, and then headed out to the village of Luxor, with the Karnack Temple and the Luxor Temple.  Wowie Kazowie is in the middle of excavating a long wide path between the two temples, lined with row upon row of sphinxes with lion heads.  The Karnack temple is enormous, covers 65 acres and is really amazing.  A couple pics attached.  It was begun about 2000 BC and finished around 400 AD to honor the main God in the pantheon Amon Ra.  Apparently many of the pharaohs added touches to it to be able to write their names there.  The entire city of Luxor was dedicated to Amon Ra, known as Anu in the Sumerian for you Sitchin fans.  We stopped for a photo op at the colossus of Mennon, which apparently was quite the huge temple in its day as well.  Finally on to Luxor temple and another huge expanse.  Must have looked somewhat like Washington DC in its heyday.    We went to the ship for a last night aboard and an early airport call for Cairo.  On the way into Cairo we saw Sakara from the air, as well as the Giza pyramids!

We were invited last night to our guide Hosam’s house for dinner.  He lives in New Cairo, a huge development northwest of the old center of Cairo.  He says it looks just like Beverly Hills and I guess it does, if you don’t look too close!  There is building and rubble everywhere in the streets- don’t know if that will actually get cleaned up, but there it is.  We had a lovely home-cooked meal from his wife Gada, met their kids Omar (8) and Sara (12) and had general good fun.  We watched the Hajj on TV and some old movies depicting the life of the Prophet Mohammed- just like Christmas Eve, as the Hajj feast was the next day.  On the way there and back to the hotel we saw pick-up truck after pick-up truck with cows tied in the back for sacrificing for the feast.  The sacrifice begins after the dawn prayer.  As I lay in bed this am listening to the dawn call to prayer, I thought of all those goats, sheep and cows meeting their doom!  

Omar was so very cute and smart.  He is reading the Wizard of Oz in English.  He and I had a spirited discussion of all the characters.  He has seen a bit of the movie and I will send him a copy on my return.  He is apparently also reading Call of the Wild in English.  He loved looking at the pictures of our animals on my phone.  What a love.  Sara is also very pretty and smart but not so taken with American guests as Omar. 

So we are off at 11:30 this evening to our plane and home.  Will post again for a wrap up from America!

The Nile! The Temples!

 

We arrived into Aswan yesterday early afternoon where we were to meet our cruise boat.  We spent a few frantic hours with our guide going to visit the high Aswan dam, the low Aswan dam, the “unfinished” obelisk and the Temple of Isis on the island of Philae.  Very rushed, but good things to see.   Aswan is Nubian by heritage, and looks much like what you would expect Africa to look like.  The Nubian people are black, with very fine features and an exotic look. 

The Temple of Isis represents the root chakra according to some, and is a place where Aga Khan came to be buried in the sand to cure his arthritis!  You have to take a boat to get there- making an agreement with the local boatmen, and he ferries you across to Elephantine Island, or Philae.   The temple itself has been reconstructed by the UN, after they rescued it from the rising waters of the Nile.  The temple was built around 200 BC and then rebuilt in the 1960s.

The ”unfinished obelisk” is just that, and massive obelisk that was destined for a temple and then when it cracked, it was abandoned.  It was in place in a pink Aswan granite quarry, apparently owned by the Goddess Hathesput.   You could see where many others had been quarried.

Today has been a magnificent day cruising on the Nile!   Our boat Anteres has only 35 state rooms, so a small crowd, mostly Japanese.  Another couple from California, very fun people, is with our same tour company.  The Nile is a really busy river, with over 500 cruise boats and a number of feluccas sailing, and rowboats and such.  There is a belt of green on each side of the river, with farms and a wide assortment of animals, like Nubian goats, camels, water buffalo, horses, cows and donkeys.  Just as in Cairo, the Sahara starts suddenly right behind it.  The Nile Valley is part of that same rift zone, so as a consequence there are abrupt mountains on either side of the flood plain.   People would wave to us – that was fun.   

Gene took a felucca ride this am.  We stopped at Kom Ombo temple, the navel chakra, built from about 200 BC to 400 AD (with many political interruptions).  The temple was dedicated to the crocodile god, and to healing.  Apparently at one time you could swim with crocodiles there to conquer your fears.  We then sailed to Edfu to view another temple.  The Edfu Temple is the best preserved of all of the Egyptian temples, dedicated to the god Horus.  There is a small room in the temple that was the laboratory- it had recipes for perfumes and incenses written on the walls in hieroglyphics, and many raised reliefs of Isis, her husband Osiris and Horus, their son.  If you don’t know the story, Isis’s twin brother Seth, in a fit of jealous rage, dismembered Osiris into 42 pieces and spread him out all over Egypt.  Isis flew around finding the pieces, and put him back together again long enough to be artificially inseminated by him, resulting in Horus.  

We have just passed though the Esna locks after a lovely Egyptian dinner where everyone wore traditional dress, and are sailing to Luxor to berth tonight.   Tomorrow will be a long day- meeting our guide at 7 am to do the east and west banks of Luxor, for our last day of sailing.  We fly to Cairo early on Monday, and then home on Tuesday.   Hard to believe we are reaching the end of this journey- assuming it will take months to process it all.   

Today we expolored the east and west banks of Luxor, a really incredible place.  We fly to Cairo early am tomorrow, and then I will have a bit of time to catch you up on the temples of Luxor- suffice it say that in Luxor are 50% of all the world's monuments!  Going to sleep now- love to everyone!

Farewell to Cairo!

Hi all-

Here we are on our last night in Cairo.  It has gone so very fast.  This is a city that could take years to see, and we saw the high points in just two days!  Today we started at the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities.  The museum was built by a Brit from 1897-1901, and hasn't been upgraded since.  Imagine priceless pieces of man's ancient history, like the mummies of the Pharaohs and Tutankhamen's tomb contents, in gray airless rooms with peeling paint and beat up old cases, and you get the picture.  I understand the Egyptians are building a new museum, to be finished in four years, that will be the largest museum in the world.  It still won't house their collections, which are kept in wharehouses around the country, but it will be a big improvement.  Dr.Zahi  Hawass (dubbed Wowie Kazowie by Gene), Director of Egyptian Antiquities, estimates that only ten % of what is here has been found!

We went next to a perfume store.  The Egyptians make 100 % pure essential oils.  You go into the shop and sit on counches that line the perimeter.  A  perfume expert then comes to see if you want some Turkish coffee or Hisbiscus juice while he explains how the oils are extracted.  He then begins to put different oils on your hand for you to smell to see which you like.  The list includes pure flower essences, such as papyrus and hibiscus; there are blends, such as Queen of the Desert and Ramses, and then there are medicinals such as bergamot, sandalwood and mint.  We bought several oils and beautfiful bottles to bring home.

We went for a fine traditional oriental lunch to a famous Cairo restaurant called Neguib Mahfouz located in the largest baazar in the Middle East, the Khan El-Khalili Bazaar. The bazaar was founded as a watering stop for caravans in the 14th century.

A funny story- between the perfume store and the bazaar, we were stuck in the inevitable Cairo traffic.  It is hands down the worst traffic I have ever experienced, worse than LA and Moscow.  Lanes are a mere suggestion, and all kinds of traffic,donkeys pulling carts, bicycles, little Vespa taxis, giant tour busses and goats and sheep are vying for room.  Time passing and a big lunch and I had a bad bladder incident.  Our inventive guide had a brilliant idea, jumping out of our van and flagging down a tour bus for me to board and pee in.  It was a "Two Weeks Notice" moment for sure!

We then passed by the Mohamed Ali Mosque (not the fighter) and the Citidel.  Originally built by Salah El-Din in 1176 to fortify against the crusades, it has been rebuilt and re-used over the years and now houses three mosques and four museums.  We stopped to visit the side-by-side Sultan Hassan and Refaie mosques, both huge and built in the 1300s and both incredible examples of Islamic architecture. 

We leave tomorrow for Aswan to board our boat for the Nile Cruise.  We will be on board for three nights, and then back to Cairo on Monday, leaving on Tuesday.  We became friends with our guide and he has invited us to his home for dinner with his family on Monday night- really looking forward to that.  We cruise from Aswan to Luxor, stopping to along the way to see various temples and tombs of old Egypt. 

I am off to sleep as we have an early start tomorrow.  Our best and blessings to all.

Pyramids, Sphinxes and such!

Holy Sphinx, Batman!  Today found us touring Cairo.  We got in quite late last night, landing softly at the Four Seasons Giza which is quite a nice place to land!  We started with our wonderful guide Hosam (Sam) at 8 AM.  Cairo is a huge city, very expansive, and so unique.  We are in Giza now, will be in Cairo when we return from out boat trip at the end of the week.

We started in Sakara, with the first Egyptian pyramid built for King Zoser, a step pyramid.  Our guide is an archeologist who helped to unearth the site- he took us in tombs which are not open to the public and oh my.  The artwork- only 2400 BC, base reliefs and carved reliefs showing everyday life in Egypt.  These tombs were for a pair of royal hairdressers, which says they were brothers, but the base reliefs show some very close brothers.  Another tomb was for a whole fleet of butchers, buried below the Zoser level but above the common worker bees.  On the way to Sakara, you drive down the Nile flood plain- so amazing.  It is lush green farmland, with water buffalo and donkeys and horses and carts and farmers and all the accouterments.  When you get to the end of the road, the lush green stops and the Sahara desert begins as if drawn by a line.  The Nile flood plain is as fertile as they say!

Next we stopped at a rug making school to watch young boys and girls learning how to make oriental rugs and tapestries.  We bought a Bedouin style rug with turquoise and orange and dark blue- very beautiful, and benefiting the poor children from the area. Always happy to help out!  Next we had lunch at a hunting palace built by the royal family in the early 1800s.  The palace is a hotel now, has been  home to dignitaries like Charlie Chaplin and Winston Churchill.  Our guide told us that two weeks ago he was a guide for Harvey Keitel and family and Robert De Niro and family who were there for a wedding.  He says Harvey Keitel drinks all the time. He was amazed.  The most impressive thing is that the Great pyramid is visible from the window!  Stunning art work and metal work in the dining room. 

After lunch it was time for the Giza pyramids.  We turned a corner and there they were!  Too much really, when you have wanted to see something all your life and suddenly there it is.  We went up to the plateau for a camel ride, and then down through the complex to wander over to the sphinx.  Really mind blowing and frankly impossible to get your brain around.  The pyramids are made of millions of blocks, each weighing between a tone and fifteen tons.  We went to the solar boat museum, which is a boat made of cedar found near the base of the Great pyramid and rebuilt.  It was placed next to the tomb for the Pharaoh's use on his trip to heaven, made of 100 foot long planks of cedar. 

We rested for a few hours, and have just returned from having dinner with an Egyptian family here in Cairo.  The tour offers it as a cultural exchange and we went for it.  Really lovely time and great food.  The agency matched us with a couple our age. Turns out the lady of the house is also a needle worker- she does crochet, and I had brought her some hand knit washies, so we had much to discuss.  Really fun, until we found out from our guide that the Egyptian tourist police were outside in their van guaranteeing our safety. It seems that Egypt wants to avoid terrorism problems with Americans at all costs, so the tourist police make certain we are safe- can't complain, but it was bit sobering.......

A donkey cart taking veggies to market

So, that's the thrills and chills for today.  A big wow from a really busy, chaotic,crowded, opulent, dirty and wonderful city!  Until tomorrow.....

Lazy Day

Hello loyal readers! Yesterday was a lazy day, slathered with Dead Sea Mud. You wander down to the beach and there is a pot of warm black muck which you rub all over yourself, with the assistance of some young man with his family who obliges putting it on your back. You wait 20 minutes and then hobble into the sea, which has a very rocky slippery base, and wash the stuff off. I have to say my skin felt very smooth after, but I think there was just a layer of clay on it! Taking a bath later left the water kind of ashy......

The view across the Dead Sea is really something. Very tall mountains (the western side of the fault) and then Jericho clinging to the sea. You can see the lights of Jerurselum beyond the first mountain range. There are a number of high-end hotels running along the coast here- seems to be a playground for Eastern Europeans. I always get such a hoot out of some Russian men. You see it in Russia too, old men with young women on their arm who look like "hooker Barbie." It's a Russian thing.

So we are off to Egypt this evening around 7 PM, with a full day of sight-seeing tomorrow. Tomorrow night we dine with an Egyptian family in their home. I have been hauling Godiva chocolates from home as a gift- hope they aren't a mass of molten chocolate by now.

So off to breakie.  More tomorrow!

Mafi Mushkila- No worries

"The River Jordan is chilly and cold, chills your body and warms your soul"



Tonight finds us at the Ishtar Dead Sea Resort, after a very long and bumpy ride up the Desert Highway. The Desert Highway has a long history- it was built by the Turks in 1600 AD, and then rebuilt as a 4 lane highway by Saddam Hussein during the first gulf war to provide a direct route from the southern and only Jordanian port of Aqaba (where El Lawrence stormed with Sheik Ali to finish off the Arab revolt- remember, to Aqaba across the “anvil of the sun”) to Iraq. It used to be a very dangerous road, with many people being killed daily by bad driving. Our guide said that before it was rebuilt, when you were driving from Petra to Amman you told your whole family goodbye. Now it is called in Arabic the Tareq Al Bent, meaning the “girls highway” because it is so safe. Hmmm. Along the highway are 700 yr old Atlantic Pistachio trees- really cool gnarled looking things- I wondered what they had seen in 700 years.

This is the season of the Hajj, which comes 70 days after Ramadan. The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca required by Islam to be made once during a good Muslim's lifetime. There was a bus on the road from Turkey going to Mecca for the Hajj. What is really interesting is that there are sheep and goats in pens everywhere that were shipped in for the Hajj festival. They have problems raising the needed livestock in Jordan because of the plastic litter everywhere. The animals eat it and die- apparently 70,000 of them last year. Along the main roads there is plastic everywhere- I cringe. Hence the goats and sheep are shipped in to Aqaba. If you have the money you are supposed to kill a goat or sheep for the feast and share it with your friends and neighbors.

Our first stop was Shobak, where a crusader castle is located. Like so many other sites, the castle is built on the remains of Edomite temples from the first millennium BC, followed by the Byzantines. You can see the difference in building styles- the crusader castles where thrown up in a hurry using stone already there and the workmanship shows it, while the Edomites and Byzantines took great care. There are four Crusader castles in Jordan, all of which were taken by Saladin during the crusades. Apparently he didn’t kill anyone- just starved them out and let them go home, so he was and is a very popular fellow among Christians and Muslims. As this was a very rural area, we saw quite a few Bedo camps and camels on the road- but schedules to keep and our guide wouldn’t stop for pictures! Dave, the Bedo camps look like the reservations!

From Shobak we trekked up the Desert Highway toward the baptismal site of Jesus. Along the way we passed Al-Qatranah, which is a little town where T.E. Lawrence, Prince Faisal and General Allenby launched the Arab Revolt from the red-roofed train station, which is still there by the way. Al-Qatranah means “the station” in Arabic. Along the way we saw a pick-up truck with a donkey in the back- guess they were headed for a Hajj feast and took the whole family.

We reached the baptismal site at last. For some reason I thought John the Baptist had a temple there, but no. What’s there is a platform into the Jordan River. The Jordan River is not wide, as the Highwaymen song says, but merely eight meters at its widest. Near the platform, it's about fifteen feet wide. Here is the kicker- the Jordan River is the dividing line between Jordan and Israel. There is a similar platform on the Israeli side where there are other visitors also putting their feet into the River. On both sides are military guards armed with AK 47s and Kalashnikovs. So there I sat wiggling my feet in the Jordan River while some Israelis on the other side sang the Israeli national anthem. News of the weird. By the way, the water is very very cold. Must be spring fed. The River Jordan is located in the rift valley that runs from Turkey through Jordan into Kenya. For the geologists among you (Deirdre), the Jordan valley is a grabon. It feeds into the Dead Sea, which is the lowest point in the world, at 430 below sea level!

So here we are at the luxurious Dead Sea Ishtar, after bidding farewell to our erstwhile guide and driver. This is the nicest hotel I’ve ever stayed in, and I have stayed in many, many hotels. Good place to kick back for a day and a half before the whirlwind that will be Egypt. The hotel has many Russians guests, and most signs are in Russian and English. Hmmm. Tomorrow, Insha’Allah, we are going to hang at the beach and get a mud bath, where in they rub Dead Sea mud all over you and then you go into the sea to wash it off. We had a lovely dinner by the Sea, looking out at the lights of Jerusalem and Jericho, which is about to celebrate its 10,000 birthday! So nighty night one and all- tomorrow is another day. Let's hope for enough band width in Egypt for pics!

El Lawrence

“The moral freshness of the world-to-be intoxicated us. We were wrought up in ideas inexpressible and vaporous but to be fought for. We lived many lives in those whirling campaigns, never sparing ourselves, yet when we achieved and the new world dawned, the old men came out again and took our victory to remake in the likeness of the former world they knew. Youth could win, but had learned to keep; and was piteously weak against age. We stammered that we had worked for a new heaven, and they thanked us kindly and made their peace”.

T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom



Good evening from Petra. Had a great day today- went to Wadi Rum where Lawrence of Arabia was filmed. We traveled south on the Kings Highway, and then turned southwest on the Desert Highway to go to Wadi Rum. The Kings Highway, as I mentioned yesterday, has been paved for 3000 years. In Arabic, it is the Al Rssef, meaning paved road. Along the highest point on the Kings Highway in this area are 1000 year old Phoenician junipers, lavender, worm word, sage and thyme. The herbs are used by the locals for medicine and for goat, sheep and camel forage.
We passed several Bedo encampments. There are still 45,000 nomad Bedo in Jordan. You can see their goats and camels grazing near the tents. Often the camels are hobbled out near the road, and still provide a ready means of transport.
Wadi Rum is really amazing geology- Precambrian granite overlain by the same sandstone as Petra and huge basalt dikes. I told our guide I would find out the geology for him and send it to him, as he is really interested and knows a bit about it himself. We went around Wadi Rum by jeep with a Bedouin guide, stopping at several spots. First was Seven Pillars Jabal, (mountain) which inspired El Lawrence to name his book. Next was a vista stop. The third was a petroglyph site, with camels and the like on the rock, similar to what you see in the US southwest. The next was a Bedo camp, where you can camp all night if you wish. We had tea spiced with herbs, served everywhere, and I bought some amber and incense and soap made by the Bedo, plus their herbs for tea. Next we stopped further on at another Bedo camp for lunch- the typical mezza, with hummus, salads of different kinds, pita, and then barbecued meats like lamb, chicken and sausage. Good stuff. Then the trip home to Petra.

During the drive back we stopped at a way station where workers were eating their lunch- a large brass platter full of Arabic pasta and veggies that they were dipping their pita and right hands into. They offered me some but I am allergic to wheat- so sad. This place has the best bread in the world (yes Laura I cheated some). The Jordanians are endlessly and genuinely polite and welcoming- a very heart- based people who are glad to meet you and anxious to help you.

We hauled it home then, passing one Bedo encampment with a satellite dish! The picture problem continues, as there isn’t enough band width here to upload pics. Too bad but I will catch up when I can.

Tomorrow we leave for the Dead Sea with a couple stops in between, including the site where Christ was baptized by John the Baptist. We have a couple days of R and R at the Dead Sea Ishtar resort to unwind a bit and do some laundry!! Best to all!

Hey Guys!

Well, it seems that internet service is somewhat unreliable- after all, we are in North Africa...

I have a lot to catch up on here. An amazing few days.

Wednesday:

We left Amman after listening to the US election results and wiping our tears, and headed with our guide Ahmad and driver David (Daoad) to Jerash. It's a small city billed as having an unbroken chain of occupation for 6500 years. We were expecting a couple of ruins like what you might find in the US, and what we got was an entire city. First occupied by neolithic, the site was built by the Romans, followed by the Greeks, followed by The Moabites, (descendants of Abraham's daughters), followed by the Umayyads who were the first to follow Islam, and then followed by the Byzantines before it fell into ruin. Very hard to get your brain around! Here's a pic of the main - way too many pics to include. Ok, pics aren't uploading tonite, sigh.

At Jerash, there was a guy, previous Jordanian military man, in military dress playing "Yankee Doodle Dandy" on the bagpipes. Talk about multi-cultural.

After Jerash, we headed back to Amman to the Citidel region near the old city. The area has the Umayyad Palace complex, dating to 720 AD, the Temple of Hercules, building during the rein of Marcus Arelius (180 AD) and a Byzantine church built from the rock from the other two. Hmmm. There is a small, old and ratty museum on site. The museum has the oldest known statue of a human being (about 10,000 yrs old). Our guide said look around and "don't miss the side room where they keep the Dead Sea Scrolls". I said "Huh? The actual Dead Sea Scrolls"? and he said "Oh yes, they are there. The others are in Jerusalem which used to belong to us." And sure enough, there they were! If pics were uploading tonite............

Thursday:

First we went to Mt. Nebo where Moses saw the promised land and struck the rock which sprang the spring! There's a pic of Gene standing where Moses stood. Then we went to the city of Madaba to look at a Byzantine church that had a mosaic map of the middle east on the floor. Madaba is the famous area for mosaics. Next, we went through the mountains, including the Wadi Mujib (Wadi means "wash" in Arabic), which is the Grand Canyon of Jordan. We traveled on the Kings Highway, which has been paved from 3000 BC. I bought rocks (of course) from a cheerful fellow named Hany, who was operating a road side stand at the top of the canyon. Arrived late at Petra find that the Petra by night tour had been canceled due to high winds. Staying in Wadi Musa, which means valley or wash of Moses!

Friday:

Wow, one of the best days I've had in years! We went with Ahmad to Petra, ancient Nabataean site where Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was filmed. Ahmad, a Bedouin from Petra, used to be the Director of Antiquities for Petra. The Bedo who used to live there were moved up the hill to a development just before the site was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Just mind blowing. You enter the site through a slot canyon called a Siq. All told the trip is about 5 km walking. About 1/2 hour in, you come around the corner and voila, there is what is called the Treasury building. Giant red temple carved directly into the sand stone. Ahmad said it would take us 2 weeks to see the whole site. Ahmad told us a story of his youth. He lived and played in Petra as a child. At 4 years old out walking one day, he met two Americans. Not knowing much English, when they said "hi," he said "400 meters" thinking they were asking about height. You see, his dad was sheik of the local tribe and was the former director of antiquities.

The way through the Siq is a sacred journey, designed to emulate traveling from life to death, and there are many "god spots" where the traveler stops to pray to various gods. The geology was amazing. There is a necropolis for the dead, and an acropolis for the living, houses carved in the rock. Along the way in the Siq are Bedo boys and men with horses and carts for hire. Near the Treasury building you can rent a camel. And there was a great restaurant at the bottom where we ate lunch. Just a wonderful day.

We came back to the hotel for a nap, and then went for a Turkish Bath- a first for both of us. Wild in the streets- Gene wasn't too pleased but I had a really good time, and now I'm so clean!!

So, I promise to try to fix the picture problem, since I am sure that's what you tune in for! On to Wadi Rum tomorrow, where Lawrence of Arabia was filmed, and where it actually happened! Can't wait! Until then....

The day started with a 4:15 am call to worship from the Grand King Hussein Mosque which is right outside our window. Lovely really, especially when you can go back to sleep............Today was out first day out of the hotel- thanks be to someone- we had some fresh air! Went on over to the El Meridian Hotel to register for our conference, stayed a minute or two, and then took a walk. Walking is an adventure here- no side walks, no cross walks, no lights to cross with and wacky traffic. Crossing the street to hail a cab was a life defying feat, but we made it. It says in all the guide books to cross with a Jordanian until you get the hang of it, but there wasn't one to be found.

I have decided that the hotel staff are not allowed to speak Arabic- if you speak Arabic to them they reply in English, unless you ask them something specific about an Arabic phrase, and then they will tell you in Arabic. Our lovely waiter last night told us of an authentic Arabic restaurant in the old city, where we will venture tonight. It's called Hashem, and is the oldest restaurant in the city, which is saying something for Amman. Gene is wary- a block long line and eating with your hands. I believe it will be his first adult experience at eating with his hands. Oh my.(I can see Tom, Sean and Kitty laughing from here)

Tomorrow our tour starts, inshah-allah, with Jesrah, a Roman ruin city about 40 kl away from Amman, lunch at El Lebanese restaurant, which is on Lonely PLanet's top ten list, and then back to Amman to visit the Citidel and Citidel Museum. The Citidel contains the Umayyad Palace complex built in 750 AD, the Roman Temple of Hercules from 180 AD and the Byzantine Church from the 7th century AD. Also nearby are the restored Roman Theater, the Roman Forum and the Nymphaeum, gardens that are apparently always located near a theater complex. No pics from today, but tomorrow should be rife with them. Blessings to you until we meet again!

Howdy do from Amman

Well hello from Amman!

Long trip, now ensconced in the lovely Four Seasons Amman which has not much trace of being in Amman.  Nice though.  We are lazing about today, eating and sleeping and some swimming later.  The drive from the airport to the hotel was interesting- first Bedouin tents and their herds of goats and camels near by- I was kind of shocked- didn't expect that right out of the gate as I not seen that in Doha or Kuwait.  Coming into the city we were confronted first with McDonalds, then Kentucky Fried Chicken, then Popeyes, Pizza Hut, Arby's- yes we have transported our bad food here!  Our driver said his two teenage boys beg for burgers on the weekends!  Gene wants you to know that they also drive on the right here, making us feel right at home.  Everyone is very welcoming- the phrase is Ahlan wa Sahlan, meaning "be as one of the family and at your ease."

The breakfast buffet had all the middle eastern food we love- hummus and local cheeses and yogurt and halva and pears preserved in honey- big yum.  Here's a pic out the hotel window.  Will see more tomorrow, as we will attend our conference for a little while at least.  Our actual tour starts Wednesday morning- can't wait!