Hello readers. Long time no write, not really got any reasonable explanation either... Anyway, better late than never (at least I hope that's true). We left Seattle after our Road Trip, flying to Jordan with a little bit of apprehension because of the troubles in the neighbouring country of Syria. Luckily, our slight concerns were unfounded and the country was peaceful and the people kind and friendly. It's strange to us that although you constantly read about troubles all over the world, every place we visit the people are kind, warmhearted and friendly. If only we could easily dispense with the 1% who seem to be the trouble makers, what a wonderful and diverse world it would be. Wishful thinking I know:)
We landed in Amman and picked up our hire car. It's a bustling town with poor road signs and as a result we saw a lot of the town before we even got to our hotel!! Having seen most of Amman on arrival we spent the second day in the spectacular old Roman town of Jerash where you can wander without being hassled and see artifacts and buildings dating back to the Bronze Age, Iron Age, Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods. Plazas, baths and colonnaded streets have been impressively restored.
We left Amman to do the trip to the Dead Sea, stopping in on Mount Nebu and the tomb of Moses. The drive from there down to the Dead Sea was gorgeous, with no turn-offs, so having found the road after a few false starts even we couldn't get lost. The Dead Sea is one of those places that should be on peoples bucket list. It's the lowest point on earth at 394m (1293ft) below sea level. It has no outlet and the constant salt content of 30% makes it impossible to sink. Great for non-swimmer Brian. The mud is healing so you just pick it up and slap it all over, as demonstrated to us by a group of rather large and very friendly Russian women.
Next stop was the Crusader Fort Oculus in Karak. For once we used a guide to make it easier to understand the complexities of the structure. Unfortuately he was a touchy/feelly arab, but he excluded Brian, who's job became standing between the guide and Dawn.... Fascinating buiding though, so advanced in kitchen, water flow and use of light.
Petra next. Wow, a historical site of carved structures built into the rock, including soaring temples, elaborate royal tombs, a carved Roman Theatre (seating 3000), large and small houses (some still lived in), burial chambers, banquet halls, water channels and paved streets. Impossble to see the whole site in one day, but well worth the sore feet....
Back to Amman the direct route, picking up a couple of Jordanian hitchhikers on the way. An expected thing to do if you see people at the side of the road. Lanquage was a bit of a problem, but we managed to understand they wanted us to come to their house for tea as a thankyou. Experiences like that you can't buy, an amazing couple who were proud to welcome us into their simple home and show us how to make tea and coffee the Jordanian way. A lovely end to a wonderful trip, Jordan is recommended (but maybe after the ever growing troubles in Syria are over).
A stop-over with Dick and Gitte in Munich for a couple of weeks when we got the opportunity to join family and friends in seeing their son Ben perform his final classical guitar piece at the University in Vienna to achieve his Honours Degree. We stayed a couple of days in the beautiful city of Vienna.
We arrived in UK to start the process of getting Dawn British Citizenship. Which means 9 months in UK and 3 months in NZ for the next three years. We're currently avoiding the British Winter and are luxuriating in the sunshine in NZ. Unfortunately, it means our world travel adventures have stopped for a while and it could be boring writing a blog purely about travelling direct between UK and NZ. Dawn will probably place particular highlights we have on Facebook or some other outlet. Meantime, I'll sign off for awhile and start again when we are free to once more travel extensively. If any of our readers want to take the opportunity to visit us (NZ during Jan/Feb/Mar and UK for the rest of the year) you would be most, most welcome. One last photo of us in the sunshine, ahhhhh.
Keep smiling and please remember to look at the other photos from the link above (if you want to that is....).
Brian and Dawn
