Andre and Wendy: Castles and Dead Sea

Did pretty well with our sleep. I woke up about 10PM to music in the hall, I guess there was a wedding here last night. Andre made it pretty much through the night. Buffet breakfast pretty much is the same as dinner buffet, so we are happy again.

Pick up at 8AM this morning by bus. There are 33 of us on the bus, not a crazy amount and all Canadian and Americans. We start off today by visiting 3 castles.

Before reaching the castles we stop for a quick photo op at a junction that you must turn left or right, to Saudi Arabia or Iraq, I knew we were in the Middle East, but this really hit home, we are less than 2 hours from either border.

The first visit is to a castle named Amra a UNESCO World Heritage site with amazing fresco paintings. The castle was originally used by the King or royalty as a hunting lodge, though there are really no wild animals left around here. No more water means no more animals. This castle had been used by travelers this century and fires in the castle for cooking and heat had turned everything black. The Spanish came and cleaned up the frescos in the 1970's. Because so many of the frescos are out of reach there is little damage except for from the smoke. The lower paintings are quite scratched. This castle was from around 700AD.

Next castle visit is Azraq, a roman castle from around 300AD. This castle had the most amazing 1 ton stone doors, we have never seen anything like this before. Much of this 3 level Castle is gone, thanks to the French bombing in the early 1900's. This castle is where Lawrence of Arabia made his desert headquarters.

Our final castle, Kharanah, is our last visit of the day was once an Inn used by travelers caravans. This castle is also from the 700 AD's and had over 60 rooms.

Our tour includes breakfast and dinner, but lunch is on our own. We are now moving on to visit the Dead Sea, but our tour guide has found a place that he can call in and order us lunch takeout which we will eat on the bus. 3 people have preordered the lunches that the tour company pushes at a crazy price when you book this tour, we opt for the take out that our driver picks up for us, which was delicious. Lunch was chicken shawarma wrap, french fries, a yogourt dip and a bunch of pickles.

Off to the Dead Sea. We are taken to a hotel that has change rooms, showers and a nice pool and an entrance to the Dead Sea. The entrance to the Dead Sea involves climbing down 150 steps from the lobby, 150 not very stable steps in some places. At the bottom you are met by a rocky entrance into the water. Not the easiest entry we have ever done, plus you can't just jump in because you just float, and you are warned not to get any water in your eyes or mouth. Home the ocean is about 4% salt, here it is 40% salt. They think by the 2050's the Dead Sea will have no more water, it is shrinking by 4 feet a year, at least this is what our guide told us. I was really looking forward to this, but it turns out it was not one of the favourite things I have done. Yes, you really float, but you float so much I found it uncomfortable. I even had a hard time getting by legs under me to stand up! Plus the water entry was not fun, so I'm glad we did it, but I passed on the mud bath as I knew I would have to get into the water again to get the mud off.

As we are leaving to return to Amman an ambulance pulls into the parking lot of the hotel where we visited the Dead Sea. We have since found out a lady injured her leg from one of the other busses. First day of a tour, the poor woman.

Our first of I hope only 1 obligatory shopping stop on our tour is next. This one is for Dead Sea stuff. Stuff meaning lotions, potions, soaps, etc all promising to remove wrinkles, cure skin ailments, etc. Nothing bought here by us, not sure about the others. We all did see the sales pitch on the salts, the only person that looked really impressed was the woman that got chosen to have the salts rubbed on her hand and arm.

Back at our hotel, clean up and ready for dinner. Pretty much the same as last night, we're expecting this for the next 2 weeks, but we are good with this kind of food. Not sure what all we are eating, but lamb and chicken seem to be the staples here. After dinner back across the street to a mall where Andre had seen last night we could get ice cream. Calling it an early night again, a full day tomorrow and a change of hotels and cities. We will be staying in Petra the next 2 nights, very excited!