Mid-Life crisis #eyesheavenwardsemoji

All good things must come to an end #ByebyeMoyals

Today we said goodbye to a very special family and our very dear friends, Kelley-Anne and Olivier, and Rose, Clara and baby Elliott.

I first met Kelley-Anne at her first visit to the playgroup in the Anglican church after arriving in Paris from Houston just a few days before. I'd only been in Paris a month or so by then myself, and we just clicked. She is a brillant, funny and insightful person and she has truly helped to make Paris feel like home for the past almost-6 years. 

She has been A Good Thing in my life and it's back to Houston that they will travel on Monday morning for the next few years, carrying parts of our hearts with them. Our three babies arrived in the same years, and so we've really adventured through the highs and lows of life together, and I will miss our kids not growing up together. 

Today when we went for lunch and then for a walk before saying goodbye, I marvelled at how the kids just get on with it, saying bye to each other like we'll see them again tomorrow. Goodbyes rarely encompass all the loss and feeling that they signify and it's not always easy as an adult to express how much someone means to you. But I reckon approaching it like a child is probably quite smart: accepting that this is the way things are and that we'll see each other again as soon as we can. The past decades are proof that goodbyes are part of life and good friends are forever.

Water of life #pavillondel'eau #goesgreatwithhomebaking!

It's the third time we've been to Paris's Pavillon de l'eau, and the first for an exhibition about street art, where graffiti artists in each of the arrondissements celebrated water, and in particular Parisian water (and what good quality it is apparently).

Some were mediocre, some were pretty cool, but we enjoyed the outing with Tante Margret, and yes, the free water on tap in the museum.

Most of all we enjoyed the permanent exhibition which reminds us how Paris has invested in water and from where our water is sourced  (different colours on the map of the city centre below).

I am so grateful I have to go to a museum to learn about this and that plenty of other people figure out water sourcing daily so that I don't have to.

Thank you Tante Margret! It was lovely having you to stay!

Class 101 #Mamita

There's nothing like someone turning 101 to keep things in perspective. 

Cumpleaños feliz Mamita! 

Priceless #TanteM #Allonday1!

It can only mean one thing, 

when this...

...becomes THIS!!! 

Tante Margret is here!

Won't last long round here!

Living with a 4 year old girl #occupationalhasard

In Loving Memory #Grandpa #byFingerling

Just winding down to the end of term #Iris&Elliott

Hard Rock Night #Newboiler

I find the water in Paris pretty hard, and it doesn't taste all that nice. And it makes my skin itch.

So we've always given our kids bottled water when they are young. And now I feel entirely justified.

Our boiler blew last weekend and it took 3 days to identify the problem, and when they did they had to scrape all the limestone build up on the inside of the boiler.

And here it is. Disssss-gusting.

I'm sticking to my water filter.

Baby No More #FirstToof

Salt of the Earth #Jordan #family

The Eighth Wonder of the World...

...or so you'd believe if you'd followed crevette around Jordan for the past week. They LOVE babies. And to be fair, there's not many babies backpacking their way around the country as ours has just done.

We came over to see Colly and his mama (and his dada too but you'll have to go here to find a photo of him for some reason...not sure how he escaped my camera so well), see where and how they live, and throw in a few historical spots for good measure, all in rip-roaring heat (for us, as autumn had truly arrived in Europe before we left).

We can't get over what an amazing time we had. I didn't really have a good idea of what Jordan was like in my head, which turned out well as it wouldn't have accurate. It was so much more interesting, adventurous, fascinating and fun than I had anticipated.

It was wonderful having so many Kellings (or former ones) together in one place again and such luck to learn about this place from those who have been in the region for so long and who are also invested in staying. 

For a summary of the early days I shall direct you here and here as they are already superbly written up.

Sisters? What sisters?

Although I will add these couple of photos that were taken while Jelo and Feex were back counting boxes.

This is it folks, the Promised Land.

After visiting the mosaics in Madaba with its Byzantine-era mosaic map of the Holy Land (pretty incredible really)...

proof crevette made it

...we drove on to Mount Nebo, a ridge about 710m above sea place, mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as the place where Moses was granted a view of the Promised Land. The view from the summit provides a panorama including the Jordan River valley, the West Bank city of Jericho, and Jerusalem on a clear day. 

According to Christian tradition, Moses was buried on the mountain. A serpentine cross sculpture (the Brazen Serpent Monument) is symbolic of the bronze serpent created by Moses in the wilderness and the cross on which Jesus died. I found this lot too:

At the top is a Moses Memorial that houses more Byzantine mosaics that are truly incredible and worthy of a visit, as well as the remains of a Byzantine church and monastery (late 4th century AD).

And here are also a couple more photos from our stunning Dead Sea Panorama dinner:

Looking over the Dead Sea to Jerusalem

While Jelo and Feex got to unpacking boxes and Simina arrived in London after their epic adventures, we headed south in a hire car into the desert, with more desert, and again some, and with some desert on the side. There was not a lot and I have zero idea how the Bedouin eek out a living in such a harsh (and yet incredibly beautiful) landscape. There are a few shrubs around but also plenty of enormous escarpments, valleys and summits, and a load of towns that have grown up around the main Highways (Dead Sea, Desert and King's).

About halfway down the King's Highway is al-Karak that is home to one of the largest crusader castles in the Levant, probably built starting from 1140 AD. There's loads more to learn about it and it truly is stunning but it was a whistlestop tour as we were trying to get to Petra by dark. So here are some photies instead:

Yes, yes, you are also a great crusader

And so onward to Petra, a place that I just never thought I would get to see in my lifetime, and maybe for that reason alone I found it an absolutely incredible place. Actually, no, it's a stunning and evocative place in its own right.

Petra itself lies on the slope of a basin among the mountains that make up the eastern flank of the Arabah valley, which runs from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba (and actually on down to Mozambique, where it is known as the Great Rift Valley as it travels through Africa). Petra is believed to have been settled as early as 9,000 BC. It's old. And it was probably the capital of the Nabataean Kingdom in the 4th century BC. The Nabataeans were nomadic Arabs who invested in Petra's proximity to trade routes to establish a major regional trading hub. The name Petra was actually given by Greek merchants. Petra eventually fell to the Romans who annexed it, and eventually its importance declined as sea trade routes emerged and after a 363 earthquake destroyed many of its structures.

It remained unknown to the world until it was rediscovered in 1812 by Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, a Swiss adventurer who became Muslim and lived among the Bedouin in order to earn their trust so that they would take him to Petra.

We'd passed the ticket office about 2 metres back when we were first accosted by a local Bedouin guide who offered to take us up a 'baby-friendly' path to arrive overlooking the famous Petra icon, the Treasury. He started at 40 Jordanian dinar and we eventually bartered it down to half that, which all took about 500 metres. And then we veered off the main road and literally trotted across the mountains. I have NO idea why or how he kept up such a pace, but for me 6.30am is not my strongest time of the day, and El Puma had both the baby and all her supplies on his back (and the backpack alone weighs a ton). 

So we kept up as best we could, stopping only once to admire the view and the rocks:

Actually, we stopped again at a 'typical Bedouin tent' where we could 'drink tea with the local Bedouin' (and pay a little money for doing so). The experience was not all that authentic and the tea was tepid and sweet, but it didn't make us ill (bonus) and the walk was still incredible.

As a result of the trek, you actually hit Petra's most elaborate ruin, the Treasury, from above. It takes your breath away, and not just because of the heart-in-your-mouth cliff face descent you've just made to get to the edge of the escarpement. It is beautiful and incredible. 

One of the first things you notice though is that although it is remarkably preserved, the face of the Treasury is marked by hundreds of bullet holes made by the local Bedouin tribes that hoped to dislodge riches that were rumoured to be hidden with it. 

Actually, that's the second thing you notice. The first thing you notice is the number of female Asian tourists who are dressed to the NINES (full make-up, blow dried hair, long floaty dresses with multiple chiffon layers, and sometimes even platform shoes) taking selfies and pictures of their friends in various states of posing. Imagine, we're all standing in a queue waiting for the famed picture and 4 chinese girls are each taking their turn sitting on the stone overlooking the treasury, adjusting their skirts and tops and earrings and checking their makeup and hair in their mirrors, and then giving the nod to begin the photo session while they turn their heads, tilt their heads down but then look up! to catch the perfect angle..the profile, full on, back arched, chest turned, one leg bent....I mean, HONESTLY! It would have been funny to watch if it wasn't just so....sad. It was like an image of the selfie-generation...look at me NOT looking at the site I have come to see...instead, prove that I got here...and looked amazing while there. And they were all.over.the.place. It was completely ridiculous...loads had no bags (so as not to break those fabulous profiles) so no shade/hats/water etc etc

Anyway, if you're not idiotic tourists like us galloping over hills, then the city is normally accessed through a 1.2 km long gorge called the Siq (the shaft), a natural geological feature formed from a deep split in the sandstone rocks and serving as a waterway. It was the ability of the Nabataeans to control the water supply that led to the establishment of the desert city after they created an artificial oasis. The area still has flash floods, which were controlled through dams, cisterns and water conduits, which enabled the Nabataeans to store water for prolonged periods...and sell it.

To get from where we were to where this photo was taken, was the most nerve-wracking part of the day. There is only one way down into the bowl that holds the Treasury, and it involves steep rock steps, passages only wide enough for one person at a time, and plenty of help for El Puma from passing tourists to ensure that crevette didn't fly out the top of the backpack as he bent and stretched his way down the cliff. We were both knackered when we got down, mostly from nerves, but it was well worth it.

Further along the ancient road is a massive theatre, positions so as to bring the greatest number of tombs hewn into the rock face opposite into view. At the point where the valley opens onto the plain and the centre of the Roman civilisation there (with its markets, temples and cobbled roads) you start to get an idea of the scale of the site.

That's also about when the heat really hit us. There was no shade, the sun was fully up, and we were all cooking. So we started the 3km trek home, while tour group upon tour group trudged past, some in unbelievably impractical attire. Tourist numbers peaked at about 1 million in 2010 and I reckon at least half that were of Asian descent and waaaay more than that were total posers.

We returned to the main drag about 11h30 and I think what partly saved us (and little crevette especially) was the cloudy day. So although it was hot, I don't think it was as hot as it could have been.

We are all in agreement

And so that night we decided to do it again: Petra by Night it's called, where a few hundred of you all travel down the Siq by candle/torch light to the Treasury to hear a performance of local Bedouin music and drink more tea. It sounds nice, but in reality it was a bit of a touristy gimmick and most of the focus while there was on logistics (seating people, stopping camera flashes from going off during the performance etc.)

 

After all that walking, what we really needed was a nice little swim to relax. Hello Dead Sea. Which as it turned out, is neither swimmable nor relaxing. Not only that, but getting there was rather painful. I'd picked up a cold along the way and as you approach the Dead Sea you have to drop from around 1000m above sea level to around 300m below, in about 20 minutes of driving, and that hurt. It took a few hours for my ears to pop and they only really stabilised once we headed back up to Amman (at 1000m) that evening.

Anyway, at the Dead Sea, it was S.T.I.N.K.I.N.G. hot. Probably the hottest I have ever ever been in my life. We got out the car and just started sweating and did not stop until about 4 hours later once we were back in the car and the air con had finally brought us back down to liveable temperatures.

I was a bit worried for crevette at one point. Access to the beach is only via hotels, and we chose the Mövenpick, because it had some very cool infinity pools and a free lunch. But as know, there is no such thing as a free lunch. As it turned out, we were meant to use the facilities and Dead Sea access first, and then finish off the money left on our hotel cards at the buffet. We did it in reverse and came a cropper when it was time to access the Sea. While El Puma sorted it out (and sort it out he did), crevette and I sweltered beside the pool without actually being able to use it, which is surely the worst form of torture. 

But then finally we were given access and got to clamber all the way down from the hotel to the Dead Sea (argh, those legs!). The Dead Sea is bordered by Jordan to the east, and the West Bank and Israel to the west. Its surface and shores are 430 metres below sea level - Earth's lowest elevation on land. The Sea itself is another 304 metres deep - the deepest hyper saline lake in the world. Salinity is around 34,2%, making it almost 10 times saltier than the ocean.

It was one of the world's first health resorts (for Herod the Great) but is receding at around 1m per year due to the diversion of incoming water from the Jordan River to the north. So we floated around in it while it's still there and we still can. 

What a fantastic experience! You really feel your legs taken away from under you...and any cuts you didn't think you had really sting. After our little float, I dried out some of the Dead Sea mud, which is stinky, gloopy and utterly disgusting. But now I am gorgeous, so worth it.

And once the mud was off, we ironically headed back to the wonderful swimming pools for a refreshing dip that were part of our beach access package. No water shortages here ho ho!

 And then it was time to go back to Amman, leaving the sun to set over the Dead Sea behind us.

We finished up our incredible time in Jordan with some special cousin moments together...at Kindermusik and also at home.

We want to say a massive thank you to Jelo and Feex for hosting us and making us feel so welcome, and teaching us so much about the history of the area and their experiences there. And an absolutely enormous and heartfelt thank you to Oma who took care of Small Fry and Fingerling so that we could have this experience outside the school holidays (when cheaper) and with only crevette (again, cheaper). We came home to a ship-shape house and well-disciplined children, and we owe all these people a tremendous thank you from the bottom of our hearts. 

Vive the next trip right?!