Europe and Beyond

We took it a little easier this morning before driving to Heraklion about an hour away.  After cruising around for a little while to get our bearings we found a carpark and headed to the Archeological museum.  The museum holds a lot of the antiquities that had been found in the Palace of Knossos and Phaistos  from the 3rd and 4th century BC.  We spent  around three hours in here brushing up on our Cretan history. (Probably not pronounced how it reads) and found it all pretty interesting. Teapots Sarcophagus  Having left the museum, we wandered the streets some more before stopping for lunch around 2:30.  We had a huge Gyros which kept us going until late into the night, then continued walking via a church and (another) Venetian Harbour before returning to our apartment. Another early morning as we needed to leave our apartment before 7:00 am so we could return the car at Heraklion airport and catch the bus to the port for a 9:00am ferry to Santorini.  The trip w

We awoke today at 5:30 so we could be in Chania - an hour away - to catch  the 7:45 bus to Samaria Gorge.  The bus trip took an hour and seemed to be going uphill for 75% of the trip.  Samaria Gorge is a 16km walk down to a beach.  The idea is that from the beach you get a boat around to another village, then the bus back to Chania. We didn't realise until we were about to start the walk that there is basically only one boat, at 5:30pm.  The walk is expected to take 6 hours, though we were hoping to do it in less and get back home relatively early.  The boat timetable put paid to that. The walk itself is well marked, but starts out quite steep and on slippery rocks.  We were very glad when we were past that section.  There were lots of rest stops, many with small water fountains, though we didn't risk drinking any of that water.  We were carrying 3 water bottles and some food. The track had several uphill sections, some river crossings but was mainly downhill.  The scenery wa

After a big few days in Jordan we decided to take it a little easy on our first day in Crete.  We slept in until almost 9:30 and after breakfast wandered into Rethymno towards the 'Old Town' via an ocean front walk.  We went into the Fort and learnt how this part of Greece had been invaded by the Turks several hundred years ago.  The Old Town consists of lots of little alley ways and shops, most of which we explored before walking past all the seafront restaurants and returning home to our AirBnB apartment.  Out for tea to a local restaurant where we each had a mixed grill with chicken, beef, bacon, lamb and gyros shavings - probably could have shared one! Laneway shops Inside Turkish mosque in Fort Day two  and it was time to get in the car.  First stop was a village up in the hills called Margarites.  This village is famous for its pottery and Trace managed to find a 'balloon' that holds essential oils. (see photo) It is very pretty and should smell lovel

Whilst in Amman we have had a driver, Hani, available to us.  He is normally a driver for the Australian Embassy and has been taking  our friend Neil to/from work most days as well as sight seeing.  He has been very handy to have around as he acted as a guide for parts of Jerash yesterday and has helped us with language and organised some discounts.  Today he took us to 8 different sites in the South of Jordan, along the River Jordan, Dead Sea and nearby towns. Jordan is proving to be a very hilly country, with some downhill  stretches of road lasting a good 20-30 minutes.  Today we descended to 400metres below sea level to the lowest place on earth, the area around the Dead Sea. Having travelled down the hill we first went to the site of Jesus' baptism.  This was identified only 5-10 years ago due to water levels falling, meaning the four pillars described in the Bible were able to be located.  After viewing this site we went to a place where they perform ceremonial baptism'

10 minutes drive from Petra is Little Petra, so we went there after getting home from Petra early.  Situated in a canyon, it has numerous cave tombs carved from the rock and a couple of facades that are nowhere as intricate as Petra itself, but still amazing. One of the caves has some paintings on the ceiling, which were beautifully detailed. We spent about an hour here climbing in and out of caves and admiring the stone work. Our bus back to Amman was due to leave at 5:00pm the next day, so we chose to take a day trip to Wadi Rum-a 1 1/2 hour drive away.  Wadi Rum is a huge desert expanse with some incredible scenery.  It was also the location of the Lawrence of Arabia movie and more recently The Martian.  We hopped into the tray area of a 4WD Ute (with seats) and very bumpily headed off.  The landscape was reminiscent of Central Australia in some ways with red sand, some sand dunes and lots of huge rocky outcrops. It also reminded us of Utah. We drove around

The main reason for our trip was to visit the ancient Nabataean city of Petra. We woke at 5:00am for the second day in a row, planning to be there when it opened at 6:00am.  The forecast was for 40 degrees so apart from beating the crowd we figured we would also beat the heat.  We had also read that the light on 'The Treasury' is best early in the morning. From the Petra Visitor centre there is a walk of about a kilometre past a few temples and other carvings before entering 'The Siq'.  The Siq is also just over a kilometre but is a natural chasm between rocks.  The Nabataens were ahead of their time having drains running down both sides of The Siq with clay drainage pipes and waterproof grout. They used these pipes to supply water for the whole Petra township and to alleviate flooding. You may remember The Treasury from one of the Indiana Jones movies.  It sits at the end of The Siq and reveals itself as you walk in. The Treasury is actually a tomb and