Jordan

...we flew from Luxor to Amman, via Cairo, it took us nearly an entire day...and then we had a 3 hour drive from Amman to Petra.  The benefits of doing a tour is that we had a lovely driver and car to take us there :-)

Jordan is amazing - westernized (cars drive in their own lanes and signals are used to change lanes) - very different from Egypt.

There's a VW commercial in the UK, it's for the Golf, the entire ad is about people showing you cars and saying 'see - just like a golf' but of course it's not actually a golf they were showing you.  This is what Glen and I think of Petra, don't get me wrong the scenery is amazing and climbing the mountains was tirinng but worth it.  However, on the way up the mountain on the second day our guide kept saying -- see just like stairs, let me be clear, they were not stairs but slopes or rock faces!  Here's an example...

Does this look like stairs to you???

That said the climbs were totally worth it -- here's us on the top of the mountain on day one, behind us is the monastary.  You could of course hire a donkey to take you up the mountain, but I felt sorry for them so there was no way I was getting on one...

To enter Petra, you have to walk through the Siq, which is a crack in a giant rock -- about 20 ft wide or so -- and very long (at least 1km if not more) but when you get to the end of the Siq you come upon the treasury, which is a facade carved into the rocks over 3500 years ago, these are essentially tombs and chambers to have an annual party to remember the dea.  Here's a pic as you get to the end of the Siq...

The people in the front give you an idea of size.  On the second day we climbed over the Siq to look down on the treasury from above, we got an amazing picture of Glen and I, considering we climbed for 2 hours and started at 6:30am! Unfortunately after a long day of climbing and exploring we sat down on a bench to rest and recover and lefts Glen's camera there when we moved on...so those pictures are now with the dishonest person who took the camera -- they could have at least left the memory card!  Will try to re-create with photoshop!

After 2 days in Petra we drove took the scenic route to the dead sea, exploring the Jordanian country side and amazing views as we went.  The dead sea is the lowest place on earth as a result, you drive down into this 'valley'.  It's weird because there's no mountain, kind of like near the Niagara Escarpment in Ontario, all of a sudden the height of the land drops.

The dead sea was neat, Glen who can't float anywhere had no trouble floating in the dead sea.  And of course we applied the mud from the sea floor which is supposed to be amazing for your skin. 

From the dead sea we drove to Madaba, which is a town near the airport (we had an 8:30am flight back to London!).  On the way we stopped at Mount Nebo -- which is where Moses received the 10 comandments.  Glen took this picture of me -- he's going to add me carrying a stone and would like your input into what the commandments should be for me!  Creativity please :-)

My last thoughts -- go to Jordan -- it's amazing, Petra was the best part of the trip.  Don't get me wrong, Egypt was good, but I'd go back to Jordan in a heartbeat to continue exploring the country.  It's absolutely beautiful.

Our next trip is Paris for the weekend at the end of April...

Egypt and Jordan -- Easter 2010

Well - just finishing up my 2 weeks of holidays.  Sadly will have to go back to work tomorrow morning :-(
But I can't really complain - Glen and I had a fabulous 10 days in Egypt and Jordan.  So -- to the trip...

Cairo
I think if I did the trip again, I would skip Cairo.  Don't get me wrong, seeing the great pyramid close up was amazing -- it doesn't look that big and then you get up close and the you realize one layer of the stones is taller than you.  We had an amazing photo taken straight up the pyramid with Glen standing on one of the stones, unfortunately, it was on Glen's camera, which we accidentally left on a bench outside Petra and had vanished when we remembered and treid to fetch it.

But back to Cairo, we saw the step pyramid, the great pyramids and the egyptian museum and coptic Cairo (which is the Christian area) and also the mosque of Mohammad Ali.  But the overriding impression I'm left with for Cairo, is the 28 million people that live and work there, and everyone of them has a car.  It's just sooooo many people, add to that that I was sick (combination of dehydration and something I ate) on the last day really made me think I could have skipped the city.

Luxor
What a refreshing change from Cairo, a 10 minute drive takes 10 minutes instead of an hour.  While this was the worst 'hotel' of the trip it did have one amazing redeeming feature, the roof top view of the nile.

We took a sleeper train from Cairo to Luxor, which took 11 hours, my first sleeper train and the experience was much better than I expected.  Very comfortable beds :-)  After arriving in Luxor at 7:30am, a quick shower and change and we were off out to see Karnak Temple, an amazing complex which was built from the inside out by a million different Kings and Queens.  From there it was back to the hotel for a nap and a dip in the pool, which was absolutely freezing! It genuinely was just a quick dip!

Later that evening we went to visit Luxor temple, we waited until evening because it's all lit up...

After a good nights sleep we left the hotel early the next morning to visit the Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens and the temple of Queen Hapshetsut.  We paid the extra money to visit the tomb of Tut Ank Hamun, we missed the mummy room at the Egyptian museum in Cairo because I was sick so this was our last opportunity to see a mymmy! The colours and pictures in the tomb were amazing, especially when you realize they're 3500 years old - crazy!  No cameras allowed in the Valley's though...

That's it for Egypt, the next morning we flew to Jordan, which I tell you all about tomorrow...

Pitmunie

This evening I find myself sitting in the kitchen of my grandmothers house.  Flew up to Aberdeen this morning and came to check on the house -- luckily everything worked and there are no mice! Seems a bit strange to be in the house without her though.  This afternoon we drove to Ellon to visit her in the home she's in....Ythanvale...everyone seems really nice, and once she's gotten over telling you how annoyed she is at being there she's actually pretty content.

We went for a drive to Peterhead, which is just up the coast and purchased Mother's Day cards, have to get them now otherwise we won't have them for may.  Then back to the home to drop Grandmother off in time for tea.  The weather has been sun showers all day, have seen some fantastic complete enormous rainbows, but didn't get my camera out in time.

I did managed to take this though...

Going to try and find somewhere to eat tonight -- not sure where though -- the few pubs there are around here will be busy!  We'll see where we end up -- talk to you all soon :-)

And now for a rant...

Public transportation -- even when it's good it's bad.

In early 2009 TfL (Transport for London) announced that they were going to make a change to the circle line, it wasn't going to go in a circle anymore and it was going to enable more frequent trains on both the circle line and the Hammersmith and city (shitty) line.  This all sounded great.

Fast forward to present day...

New lines have been implemented, and apparently 1 train every 10 minutes is considered good service.  This morning I got to Earls Court station, where I normally change for a different branch of the district line, to hear an announcement saying there would be a long delay for my train and they recommended continuing on to the next station to catch a circle line train which was running good service.  So I dutifully listened to the announcer and got back on the train I'd just gotten off and proceeded to the next station...

Upon arrival at Glouchester Road, I hear an announcement that the next train will arrive at 8:20am, time now, 8:10 -- how was I any further ahead going to this station.  I still ended up standing on a train platform for 10mins and now I'm further from work rather than closer to it...

So the lesson here...ignore all announcements made at tube stations unless they indicate life threatening circumstances.  The so called 'control centres' have no better idea than you or I when a train will actually arrive, it's all a bit of a surprise.

The one thing I would say about a small transport vs a large transport network -- if there's 3 lines and they say it's running -- a train will come -- if there's 15 lines and they say it's running -- you've got a 50/50 chance that anyone has any idea what they're talking about.

Rant end.

2010!

It's been pointed out to me by several people (you know who you are) that I am crap at keeping my blog updated. So I will endeavor to improve.

So what's been going on recently you ask?

Glen and I were in Australia for just shy of 3 weeks. We did a bit of travelling around and then to Canberra for Xmas with Glen's family.

First off -- having been back in London for 3 weeks, I'm ready to go back to the warmth (so we've booked a short trip to Dubai next month :-))

Flights were okay - we flew via Singapore (nice airport) and Darwin (surprise!) didn't know about this stop... But finally arrived in Cairns 2 days later. Of course the first thing I insisted on was a dip in the hotel pool to try and stretch out the muscles... then down for a 'short nap'... Glen doesn't understand what a 'short nap' is and I forgot to set an alarm... so 3 hours later we started our explorations...

Jetlag ensured early morning starts - we toured the Atherton table lands - I peered in vain through a platpus viewing platform for at least 5 min before I realized we'd have to sit there for a day before we saw anything! Went to the crater lakes national park, these are lakes that have formed in the craters of 2 extinct volcanoes. The water was crystal clear and they were only about 20ft deep. I should have gone swimming...

We explored Cairns and G showed me his old school and the house he lived in... and of course a bit more swimming in the hotel pool (and napping on the loungers).

Another day we took a steam train from Cairns up to Kuranda, a quaint village with markets... gorgeous scenery and really cool being on a rickety old train :-)  In Kuranda we went to a butterfly observatory, which was absolutely full to the roof with butterflies! And the kept swooping and diving very close -- I was not a happy camper :-s

After Cairns we flew in a 14 seater plane to Dunk Island, one of the barrier reef islands.  The resort was lovely, and as we'll likely never do it again so worth the money :-)  Here's picture of the lovely pool... Of course we had to do a few other things other than lie by the pool...

So we tried archery...which was fun -- but not something I'm likely to try again.  We went jet skiing all the way round the island, the ocean side has massive swells which I wasn't too worried about until the guide mentioned that we were in a bull and tiger shark breeding ground!  But we survived to head out to the great barrier reef and snorkeling -- what an amazing experience.  I've never seen anything like it in my life, will definitely have to go back!

After Dunk Island we flew to Sydney, explored the city and went to the zoo.  Here's a view of the city from the zoo.

And finally to Canberra and Glen's family for Xmas.  Which was lovely, Glen's family celebrate on xmas eve as it's a German tradition.  And on xmas day we went to see Glen's Grandma and have a nice xmas lunch with her....

I hope everyone had a lovely xmas and New Years and we'll see you all in 2010!

2008?!?

The last time I posted a comment! :-0

Before the move...

Ok - let's start with some highlights. The last few weeks have to been eventful to say the least. In the middle of September we started to flat hunt in earnest - after a few days of looking at flats we found what looked to be the ideal place for us. Close to work (only 7 stops on the tube!) 2 bedrooms; 2 bathrooms (1 en-suite); outdoor terrace; big kitchen and lounge and within budget! We gave notice to our current landlord and then I started whirlwind travel for work!

2 days in Stockholm, which I managed to line up with a Friday so Glen came out to meet me. It was the NHL season opener there that weekend, but unfortunatly we couldn't get tickets as they had been sold out long before my plans to travel to Stockholm. Instead we explored the city and went to the original Absolute Ice bar...
We also picked up the worlds biggest coin....and of course wandered round the city.

Then as the weekend of the move approached. I had to go to Lisbon for work - that's was hard - sunny and warm (I hardly remember what's that's like what with living in London). Lovely pool, sadly I didn't get to see much more than the airport; the hotel and glimpse a couple of major landmarks. A copy of the golden gate bridge and a statue in Brazil. Unfortunately this is the best shot I took...


Essentially, Glen was on his own for packing - although I did loads the night before! :-)

To be continued...