From the Dead Sea to the Red Sea...

Living in Europe affords us the unique opportunity to travel to places that we might not get to if we were based in the U.S.  For many of the places we choose, the plane ride from the U.S. would be more than the entire trip costs us.  But plane fare in Europe, in general, is much more affordable than it is in the U.S. and if you are already based here, even better.  Add in all of the long weekends, Fall Break, Christmas Break, Ski Week and a full two weeks for Spring Break it may seem to everyone that we are always on vacation somewhere.  It seems that way to us too sometimes.  But while we are based abroad, we will continue to take advantage of our location to explore parts of the world we may never get to see otherwise.  Which is how we ended up in Jordan this past week.

Each year the family plans one BIG trip.  I know it seems like they are all BIG trips, but in reality, many of our trips are no farther away than traveling a few hours by car and they are essentially weekend jaunts.  Ridiculously awesome weekend jaunts but quick getaways nonetheless.  Usually, we go on our long trip during summer vacation but this year we already have a huge family trip planned with Nana and Grampa for their anniversary so Spring Break seemed the best choice as it gives us the most time.

We ping-ponged on locations.  When we started planning our year of travel (yes, we make a list of locations we want to see and slot them into the days we have off) we were dead set on visiting the Imperial Capitals of China and Japan.  But then we realized that if we moved back to the U.S. this still might be a trip that we would take if we had to travel from that base.  So we started talking about places that we might have missed a little closer to home but we may not want to pay thousands of dollars on airfare just to get to. That gave us several locations but ultimately we decided that Jordan fit the bill perfectly.  And did it ever!

I am not sure what I expected from our week-long tour of the country but I can say, now that we are home, that it exceeded everything I could have imagined.  It was so incredible I am not sure I have the words yet to explain all we saw, experienced and learned.  I will try to do best in the posts that follow but I assure you that nothing I write will ever come close to what it was like being there.

We arrived at our hotel in Amman at 4 am.  Sleepy but excited.  We had chosen to sleep late on the first day and just wander around the city on foot before starting our journey the next morning.  I didn't even take the big camera out of its bag that afternoon so all I have is some snapshots from my cell phone.  Which is fine, as you will be inundated with photos for the next several posts.  I give you Day 1...

After midnight at the Bucharest airport.  Tired but so excited to be there.

Our lunch spot.  It overlooked the city and was perfect in every way.

 Snickers milkshakes - yes, please.

 My fatteh.  Fatteh is a base of stale, crispy flatbread covered with other ingredients. In this case, chickpeas, yoghurt, garlic, spices and almonds.  I may or may not have overeaten at lunch this day...

 Pepsi products took me back to my childhood with these pull tabs.

   Our hotel view of the King Abdullah Mosque (the blue dome).

Also from our hotel room, something you will find in all of the windows - the arrow points the way to Mecca and allows Muslims to know which way to pray.

 Afternoon pool time.

 Dinner overlooking the city.