CAIRO TO PETRA

Cairo to Petra:

We were up early and ready to get going. We were handed a big box breakfast and stowed most of the items away for later. At the airport and all checked in when I was stopped at the first security check and asked if I had a knife in my bag, “well yes I do and it is checked luggage”. They have to see my little dollar store 2” blade and a supervisor come over and asks if it is in my checked bag. Well yes it is, LOL, he responds no problem let to go through.  

We flew Royal Jordanian to Amman and it was a nice flight on a regional jet. At the airport the group was delayed as one bag was being held by security. After a good bit of time it was learned one can not bring binoculars into Jordan. So there are some binoculars still at the airport. The security guy said “we have told Viking several times to tell people not to bring binoculars”. I can neither confirm nor deny it was either Lynn or I. 

We got on the bus and made our way to Mt. Nebo. I was amazed how close we are to Israel and many famous well known biblical locations. Here is the valley location where Moses struck the rock and produced water. In the valley are twelve springs, one for each tribe of Israel. 

We did stop at a local restaurant for lunch. The location was a house converted into a restaurant. Here the menu was set with a traditional Jordanian Meal of Upside Down. This is a one pot meal of Chicken and vegetables and potatoes and rice. Final cooking is done in a pressure cooker and then the whole pot is turned upside down on a serving platter. The spices of cinnamon, cardamon, and coriander made this a wonderful meal. A quick google search will revel a recipe or two. 

It is a rather stark 8 hour drive to Petra from Amman. We did break up this drive with a stop at Shobak Castle. This is one of the  castles during the Crusades built along the King’s Highway. This castle was built in 1115. Given the late hour we were unable to explore inside.

We arrived at the Marriott Hotel after dark and grabbed dinner and crashed. 

Dead Sea Looking towards Israel