20180606 Petra: Today is was all about Petra. Left here at 7:45 and Yael drove us to the Itzak Rabin Crossing into Jordan. Lots of paperwork on both sides coming and going. And I think we had to put our stuff through scanners and walk through metal detectors at least six or eight times during the day not only at borders, but also at Petra Archeological Park, the hotel for lunch, etc. Also showed our passports lots of times including some profiling on the Israeli side (e.g., tell me your name).
We walked across into Jordan and waited for a bit for our Jordanian guide to come, do the paperwork and visas. Into the van with Max the driver and our Guide, Raed Salim. It’s a two-hour drive over not-so-good paved roads. First it’s the Desert Highway. Then Kings Way. We passed various parts of the mountains climbing from sea level to 5,000 feet and over to the other side. With a major fault line running down the Jordan Valley, lots of wonderful rocks and colors.
Got to Petra. Going into the bottom of the valley where the Treasury is really is two parts. There is a path leading past some tombs and carvings and then you get to the entrance of the valley with rock formations of all sorts and colors all around. The round trip from entrance to Treasury and back is about 3.5 miles. All downhill going in. All uphill (obviously) coming back.
Raed stopped and explained things as we went along. He has a trick when you get near the Treasury which I will not reveal. And the Treasury is as wonderful as I imagined it would be. We found out it’s really a royal tomb and never was a treasury, but that name has stuck.
Walking back was uphill, as I mentioned, and seemed steep at times. At the halfway point, the Spellers did the rest of the journey on horseback. The older generation walked. Marian is to be praised for another day of soldering on outside her comfort zone.
Back in Petra - Wadi Musa (Moses Valley), we had a humongous lunch at the Movenpick hotel. We were the only ones in a huge dining room to eat a set lunch. Then the two-hour bumpy ride back to the borders, scans, passports, checks, etc. and finally back in Israel around 5:00 with Yael waiting for us.
Rested until 7:30 then went out to La Cuccina on the promenade near the marina for a lovely dinner with Yael. Early night. Only 9:30 now and we don’t leave here until 10:15 tomorrow.
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