Petra day 1

After enjoying a nice breakfast of made-to-order omlets and hummus, we headed out to the highlight of our trip, Petra, the ancient capital of the Nabatean kingdom, hidden from the Western world until the mid-19th century.

We let ouselves be conned into the horseride from for ticket office to the entrance ("included" in the ticket), but it made for some happy kids.

Starting our adventure down the Siq

First glimpes of the treasury

Evaëlle was not excited about the anachronistic soldiers behind her

Street of facades

The Royal Tombs

After the Royal tombs we hiked up to the Monastary, to the derision of the donkey peddlers, who were convinced we wouldn't make it up by foot. But we proved them wrong.

We did break down and get the donkeys on the way down for the kids. What I call the "donkey ride of death". Daniel just laughed and took some pictures while I was led down the mountain by the preteen, just waiting for my donkey to dive off a cliff. I was glad that I didn't ask until the end if any of them actually go over the edge, to which the boy replied with a serious look, "Yes, and they die."

The collonaded street

A last look at the treasury before heading through the siq or the end of our day. It was a fantastic, exhausting day. It was really crazy how few people were there; we probably saw about 100 people on the beaten path throughout the entire day. Which was nice since it exceeded my expectations and I felt that we had Petra to ourselves, but in a melancholy way as the dead tourist industry is killing the livelihoods of the locals.

We treated ourselved to another hammam experience, this time in our own hotel. We had it to ourselves once again. What a treat!

En route to Jordan

So, nine months before Christmas this year we bought dirt cheap airplane tickets to Tel Aviv, Israel. We always knew it was going to be a risk, as you never know when stuff will flare up in the region, but I am totally fascintated by the place and have been wanting to make it over for awhile. Well, unfotunately, things did start flaring up around October, so to make a long story short, this trip became a thorn in my side and I ended up changing the itinerary (including hotel reservations) about five times. In the end we settled on a trip south and into Jordan, which has been on our bucket list anyway.

We arrived in Tel Aviv and immediately hit the road and drove the five hours south to the resort town of Eilat. So much for Israeli food on that night. We settled on sushi, so the kids were all happy at least.

Daniel took advantage of the paper towel roll behind us for his own.

Our hotel was kind of a dive, but okay for one night. The cats were the highlight.

We drove the short drive to the border crossing in the morning and dumped the Israeli car, which couldn't be taken into Jordan. We walked across the border, stopping to make all the appropriate payments and get all the appropriate stamps, which still took an hour with no other people making the trek.

After picking up a taxi to Aqaba, we snagged our new rental car and drove up to Wadi Musa, the village just outside of Petra.

We started with a delicious lunch, very glad to be back in the Arab world and enjoying familiar, though not identical, cuisine. We treated ourselved to an especially nice meal, particularly as I was confused with all the currencies we had been going through and was thinking that everythink I ordered was a third of the cost in CHF, rather than slightly more... What a steal! Oops...

Next we headed over the our Seven Wonders hotel

Couldn't be the view over Petra

We couldn't resist heading out for a little bit of shopping.

And, next to the hammam! We had the place to ourselves, which the kids loved. The took the liberty to do slides all over the place in the steamy rooms.

A relaxed crew

And next to dinner. Some hummus, soup and sage tea

And pizza, for the kids....