Wittenberg and Berlin

We are just back from another great trip to Germany. We visited the birth place of Protestantism and one of Europe's most troubled cities. Berlin is very fascinating simply because it has so much recent history. Wittenberg also has quite recent history relative to some of the places we've been.

We started our trip with an overnight in Wittenberg where we visited the Lutherhaus where Luther lived with his family as well as having room for a number of his students. It had been turned into a museum which featured a number of his writings as well as the history of his life. We also visited the Castle Church which is where the reformation was formally sparked with the nailing of the 95 theses. Inside is were Luther is now buried. The town itself was a really quiet little town but we really enjoyed our time there and even smoked a little hookah!

We went from there to Berlin where the highlight was definitely the walking tour. We walked through the former East Berlin which is its historical center, visiting the major sites and receiving detailed history from a man who was living in Berlin in 1989. I'll avoid regurgitating the entire walk and just mention some of the sites (although it really was fascinating). We saw museum island which is a nature split in the River Spree that now houses most of the city's museums. Much of it has been restored due to bombing during WWII but they have left some of the lesser damaged structures (mostly riddled with bullet holes) as a reminder of its history. We also saw where the Nazis burned all the books they didn't like from the National Library which is now marked by a plaque with a quote from a 17th century Jewish play write that says approximately, "Once they start burning books, it isn't long until they begin burning people." A bit prophetic. It also has an underground empty book shelf as a memorial. We stood in front of the Brandenberg Gate which was originally commissioned by King Frederick of Prussia but has become the gathering point for every major event in Berlin's history. We saw the Memorial to Murdered Jews of Europe, a maze of rectangular blocks of varying heights that you can walk through and even become a little disorientated. We stood over the spot of Hitler's bunker where he and his mistress committed suicide on April 30, 1945. We walked to the former Nazi Air Force building which was remarkably untouched by the war and became the headquarters for the Communist Soviet government in East Berlin. It even features a big mural showing the "joys" of communism. It is located right next to the remnants of the Wall. For the vast majority of the area where the wall was and is no longer, there is a brick line tracing where the wall once stood. We ended the tour at Checkpoint Charlie which was the checkpoint between the American Soviet sectors and the point at which the Americans and Soviets had a 3 day tank stand off that nearly started WWIII! It was all over an ambassador that wanted to attend the opera in the East and wasn't allowed in. Crazy huh?

The one story that I will relay is of how the wall eventually came down. The Southern Communist states, Hungary in particular started to allow free travel to the Western countries. The East Germans began taking holidays in Hungary and then slipping across into the West. The Soviets copt on to this and locked in all the East Germans. The people became agitated so the Soviets held a news conference with an ill prepared spokesman who said that the Soviet government would "soon" be allowing people to freely cross into the West. This was done to placate the people. However when asked when??? his reply was..."effective immediately." The people began to gather at the checkpoints and the confused boarder guards began allowing a few people through. Eventually the guards were over-run and within 48 hours 2 million people had crossed into the West and that was the beginning of the end of the Cold War.

Jordan 2.0

Once we left Petra we continued up the King's Highway to Amman. On the way we stopped at a castle from the Crusades called Karak which was originally built by the Crusaders in the 1140's and then was lost to Saladin in 1189. The castle has been mostly destroyed but you are allowed to walk through any of it with out restriction. There are some pretty cool areas with tunnels and rooms under ground.

From there we continued on to Amman. We stopped at Mt. Nebo where Moses looked over the promised land before he died. Unfortunately it was a bit hazy so we couldn't see all that far. The next morning we went to an ancient Roman city called Jerash. It is very similar to many Roman cities around the world with its city gates, temples and commerce areas. There are a number of structures still standing and the two amphitheaters are still used. It was impressive to walk down the column lined streets.

We left Jerash and went to the lowest place on Earth, the Dead Sea. As we descended the weight of the atmosphere really had an affect on us making us feel tired and sluggish. When we got down to the shore we were warned not to get any of the water in our eyes. The feeling in the water can not be accurately described but to say that you really can't sink. I went out to a deep enough spot and put my feet straight down and was bobbing with my shoulders out of the water. There is so much salt that your skin feels greasy. We covered ourselves in this black mud which is of course supposed to have healing powers and then continued to float in the sea some more. It was a very strange experience. We could even see the towers of Jerusalem across the sea on the mountain top.

That night we went into town with our guide Abdullah and had authentic dinner (which is way cheaper then tourist dinner) and found a cafe for the hookah. Their hookah is way stronger than any I've tried before. It was difficult to smoke! The next morning we were on our flight back home. It is hard to determine which of the two countries I enjoyed more. I would like to see some of Southern Egypt and travel along the Nile. Our trip was an incredible experience and won't easily be topped.

Wadi Rum and Petra

I had to split up my Jordan pictures as there are just too many! This first slide show is of our 4X4 trek through the Wadi Rum desert and Petra. I was surprised at how much I liked the Wadi Rum. Wadi means valley and Rum is the name of that valley. Petra is called Wadi Mosa, or Moses Valley. I would put the afternoon that we spent in the desert as one of my top 3 things we did, no joke! It is sand...all sand. The "mountains" if you can call them that, are huge sandstone rocks that have been eaten away over time by the sand storms that continually blow through. The sand is like powder and the rock looks like melting ice cream. The colors of the sand stone are the most impressive. Apparently the bedouins used to use the different colors as makeup. It really does paint your skin. We stopped a few times to climb various rock formations and even saw what they claim is T.E. Lawrence's cave. We stopped at a bedouin tent and had tea where Dana dressed up in and bought an authentic Jordanian head scarf. There is a castle in the middle of the desert that the French built in order to film movies but the Jordanian government shut it down. The whole thing is shrouded in mystery but the French were probably doing something "immoral."

The second half of the show is of Petra, made famous by Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Petra is a city entirely built into the rock. There are caves cut into the stone for personal residences (some still used by the bedouins) as well as temples and tombs. The most recognizable is the Treasury which is staggering. The entrance to the city is through a narrow canyon (almost 3/4 mile) that is almost like a fault line through the rock that towers over 100 feet above you. At the end of this crevasse is the Treasury. We rode camels through part of of Petra between the Treasury and the amphitheater. The colors of the sand stone were again a site to see as well as the amazing detail they carved into the rock. There were donkeys everywhere and bedouin kids trying to sell you a ride on one. We spent the whole day there and it was one of the most impressive places I've ever seen.

I'll post more about Jordan later including our trip up the King's Highway to Amman and floating in the Dead Sea. Hope you enjoy.

Egypt

We are back from our trip and after visiting 2 continents and being on the go nonstop we need a vacation from our vacation. Egypt and Jordan were awesome! We had so many pictures it was hard to pick but I tried to give just an overview of what it was like there. This one is just Egypt.

We arrived into Cairo 3 hours late and thankfully our guide was there to meet us. He transferred us to hour hotel which was a converted palace that the former king of Egypt had used for hosting dignitaries. Needless to say it was beautiful and our room had a view of the Great Pyramid off the balcony. We spent the first full day there on what turned out to be a private tour. We had an Egyptologist who walked us through the Pyramid area giving us the facts and history of the mighty structures. His name was Muhammad (as was our driver and bodyguard for the drive to Sinai) and was very knowledgeable and friendly. After seeing the Pyramids and the Sphinx we zipped into town to visit the Egyptian museum. Muhammad took us through the museum giving us the history of the most important pieces on display. The museum holds the items found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun, who was unimportant and died very young, but was the only king of Egypt to be found with his tomb intact. The museum was so much better because we had a guide who gave us all the highlights, otherwise it would have been quite overwhelming.

We left Cairo the next day for Dahab which is on the Eastern part of the Red Sea known as the Gulf of Aqaba. The drive in Northern Sinai was flat desert with nothing (really NOTHING) but rock and dirt. As we got further South the landscape became more mountainous and we started coming across Bedouins in their camps or out with their goats and camels. We cut through the mountains on a valley road and came out at the Red Sea which is spectacular. The Red Sea is clear aqua blue water lined with reefs. We settled into our hotel in Dahab and took a 2 hour nap before departing for Mt. Sinai at around midnight. The climb up Mt. Sinai takes about 2.5 hours (after a 2hr drive) and we, along with hundreds of others, watched the sunrise from the top. The trail up is the camel trail where people often rent camels to take them most of the way up (which is exactly what I would do should I ever hike it again!). The hike was exhausting and a little dangerous. It is pitch black and there are camels going up and down the mountain and they stop for no man! We had a Bedouin guide who kept us out of the camels' path fortunately. It was a beautiful sight to see the sun coming up over the desert mountains. We went back down a different way called the "3000 steps to the monastery." It was equally exhausting but took half as long and was significantly less crowded. That afternoon we went snorkeling at a place called the Blue Hole. The sea life was amazing. Unfortunately a lot of the coral in the hole had been killed by people but as you went out it was even more colorful and impressive.

The next day we made a run for the boarder. We drove up to Taba and crossed into Israel (which was not easy) where we drove through the resort town of Eilat and crossed the boarder into Jordan (significantly easier!).

Pyramids and Petra

Tomorrow before the crack of dawn we will start our grand tour of Egypt and Jordan. I have to admit there is an element of fear involved but we will be seeing things that make the Roman ruins look modern. Below is a short itinerary from the website that should give a basic idea of where we're going and what we are going to see. The hotels all look very nice -
Cairo - Oberoi Mena House
Dahab - Le Meridien Hotel
Petra - Petra Marriott
Amman - Amman Marriott

Short Itinerary

Day 1 Arrive in Cairo. Transfer from airport to hotel
Day 2 Cairo - Pyramids, Sphinx & Egyptian Museum tour
Day 3 Drive to the Red Sea at Dahab (option to climb Mt. Sinai)
Day 4 Dahab - Free time (option for snorkeling at the Blue Hole)
Day 5 Cross into Jordan. Wadi Rum jeep safari. Drive to Petra
Day 6 Petra - tour
Day 7 Petra. Drive up the King's Highway to Amman via Kerak, Madaba, Mt. Nebo
Day 8 Amman. Tour to the Dead Sea and Jerash
Day 9 Amman. Free time. Transfer to airport for flight home

We'll have slide shows galore when we get back so be ready!

Happy Anniversary

Two years ago on September 6th we arrived in Dublin to start this phase of our lives. In some ways it has flown by and at the same time it seems like an eternity ago that we packed up our lives and boarded the jet plane. We wanted to travel and travel we have done. This past year took us to Edinburgh, Manchester, Athens, La Rochelle, Bordeaux, Venice, Florence, Prague, Vienna, Bruges, Brussels, Oslo and Bergen. Mix that in with a few (or several) trips back home and you get the picture of what we do here. We're starting this 3rd year with a trip to Egypt and Jordan and then we're hoping to follow it up with a week in Israel and few more short trips to Italy, France and maybe Spain before we hopefully move back home early in the new year.

On a lighter note

Last weekend we had some decent weather so we took the cats out in the back garden to run around, eat some grass and have fun hiding in the bushes. There was some excitement over birds of course and plenty of new smells. Indi especially likes to just sprint from one end of the yard to the other. We should get them out more often because they love outside time.

No You Can't!

I have to admit that after the crushing victory Obama had in the election last year I thought that America was ready for socialism. It turns out that America was just naive. I couldn't have predicted there would be such a backlash to Obama himself but it looks like it has begun.