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...