Petra, Jordan

We have been city hopping, and now country hopping for the last part of our trip.  We went across the Arava Border into Jordan where we met our Jordanian guide and headed towards the Red-Rose City of Petra.  Our tour guide kept calling the Prince of Jordan "Harry Potter" because he is so young, and I thought it was pretty funny-you can see Harry on the lower right.

Before we got to the sandstone city of Petra we had to get into Jordanian fashion.  We stopped at a local Bazaar.

 Jordan is lookin pretty good!

 The person behind the camera had never taken a picture before, I thought he did a good job...?

 We are all ready to go!

We stopped to see the street that leads into Petra.

The spectacular city of Petra was build in the 3rd century BC by the Nabataeans who carved palaces, temples, tombs, storerooms and stables from the sandstone cliffs.  Brace yourself, this is only the entrance...

The Nabateans controlled the trade routes from Damascus to Araba by having the only sources of water, and the spice, silk and slave caravans passing through had to pay taxes and protection money to the Nabateans-basically, they were super wealthy!  We went into a store that sold the local trades of that time.

 We smelt frankincense, it was much more floral and fruity smelling than I imagined.  They used to burn frankincense throughout the city, and I am sure the smell was wonderful perforating through the canyons.

The Nabateans mastered hydraulic engineering. They devised water systems and networks to adapt to the harsh desert environment and control the arid areas through which they moved.  You can still see how the water system once worked.

Water systems on the right and left of Jordan

As we walked through the narrow canyons there were sculptures still carved in the sandstone. Check out these animals...

Dolphin? Whale?

Turn this fish to the side and it is an...

Elephant!

The geology of Petra is absolutely exceptional; several rock layers that are reflected in an amalgam of naturally colored rock.

This is called the Camel Caravan Reliefs, and they depict an actual caravan in procession.  It consists of a group of camels and drivers entering Petra, and symbolize the endless procession of people and goods entering and leaving Petra. 

More amazing artifacts as we canyoneer

I spy with my little eye, something amazing about to come out of the canyon...

The most impressive of Petra's sights, the Treasury, known locally as Al-Khazneh!  It is actually a tomb, but has gotten its misguided name by the local belief that an Egyptian pharaoh hid his treasure in the top urn.  It was carved out of sandstone, from the top down which is very impressive.

The city is riddled with tombs, which were inhabited by Bedouins until the 1980's.  

Tombs galore!

They are really cool to explore, but best done with a guide, because some of them are dangerous to enter or are off limits.

Jordan's getting ready to check them out

We summited a mountain that overlooked the 7,000+ seat theater that was carved out of solid rock. 

What a cool place to feel like you're on top of the world!

Check out more of the amazing caves we explored, the rock is pretty much marbleized.

 We had some time to explore on our own, and walked around some of the city

 We came upon this cool looking structure and climbed to the top, because we saw someone up there...

Look who it was! Mohamed of the Mountains! He loved having his picture taken because he wants to be famous on "The Facebook"!

When it was time to leave Petra there were lots of different modes of transportation...but we used what we were blessed with, our feet:)

We stopped for a yummy lunch of stews, rice, and baba ganoush before ending our wonderful trip.  

Our last 11 days have been amazing! The Middle East is such a great place to visit, we met so many wonderful people, saw such amazing historical things, and I am already looking forward to coming back again soon!

Eilat, Israel

Eilat is a great place to come and relax, and I am glad we got to do a little relaxing on our trip here! The turqouise-tinted waters of the Red Sea are so gorgeous! We stayed at the Hilton Queen of Sheba Hotel which had beautiful views of both the ocean and the desert scenery across the boarder in Jordan.

One of my favorite things about the hotels in Israel that we have stayed at is their buffet breakfasts...The endless supply of Halava has been hard to resist, and I will need to go on a strict diet once we get back to burn of all the carbs!

We spent the mornings warming up by the pool.  The weather was so nice and warm compared to the 40 degrees in Germany-75 and sunny makes this girl happy!

...and in the afternoon we walked around the boardwalk and to the Red Sea

Take a look at the gorgeous water, how could you resist going in?

 The water was a bit cold, but very refreshing!

We enjoyed the water and the views as the sun went down

He is so photogenic, not fair!

 Eilat is a great place to get some good R&R.  We got some, and now ready to hit the ground running!

Kfar Hanokdim Negev, Israel

We traveled by car a few hours to Kfar Hanokdim in the Negev desert to have an authentic Bedouin experience. We spent the night in an Bedouin camp called Kfar Hanokdim.

I remember going to a Bedouin camp when I went on Birthright years ago, where we had to sleep in a tent on the floor, so I was planning on the experience being very similar.

We found peacocks right outside our door to great us

Vuala, this was a little different than Birthright. Luckily, for us, with age comes privilege, and we actually got to sleep in a hut with 21st century comfort!

After settling in we met with the local transportation...

Trying to get close without them licking or spitting on us

We hopped on a camel for a ride in the desert overlooking the mountains and local Bedouin settlements.   It's a nice way to see the layout of desert life from a camel's viewpoint. 

We were invited to experience Bedouin hospitality which was very interesting.   We went into a tent to relax around a fire and enjoy some wonderful herbal rose tea (with lots of sugar).  The Bedouins performed an ancient coffee making ceremony and played drums while the coffee beans roasted around the fire. They taught us about their culture, and we asked them lots of questions. They take their hospitality very seriously, any stranger that came into a Bedouin camp was guaranteed three days of food lodging and protection.  They also asked us a few questions too-mostly about politics.

There was really great sunlight outside of the tent with a beautiful view of Masada in the distance.

If you're hungry with Bedouin hospitality you won't leave the table with an empty stomach.  We started off with different salads: Arabic vegetable salad, thick tahini salad, cabbage salad, homemade pickles and a thick Pourna Pita with Za'atar (hyssop herb) and olive oil.  They then brought out Magluba- a rice and vegetable dish served on a thin pita bread, and shortly afterwards we were served grilled meats.  These dishes were lavish and delicious, the food kept on coming!

We were so full we fell right into food comas after dinner.  Luckily for us since we went to bed early we were able to get up and watch the sunrise over Masada before heading south to Eilat.

The colors just got better and better

 Rise and Shine!

It was a cool experience visiting the Bedouin's and riding the camels will be something we will remember forever, now it's time to travel further south and see what Eilat has to offer us!