Travel Days - On to Israel

We had a few long travel days yesterday and today.  Yesterday we woke up in Aqaba, traveling back to Amman for our last night in Jordan.  On the way, we stopped for lunch at the Safi Kitchen, which is a non-profit organization that aims to preserve the local culture and natural resources to promote the southern region of the Jordan Valley (Ghawr) as a tourist destination throughout the year. The key beneficiaries of the kitchen are local women and youth who are short of financial opportunities in their communities. They participate in an authentic farm and meal experience to showcase their tradition and culture through food.  By engaging in tourism activities, community members receive a much-needed income from the kitchen. Women can now make their own financial decisions and youth are leading up conservation activities in their communities.  The community continues to value their environment and more businesses are being led by women. They are also sharing their culture authentically.  If you are in the area, I highly recommend stopping by, saying hello, and enjoying the local dishes.  Back in Amman, we had our last dinner with our tour guide, said goodby to several of our travelers, and tucked in for the night.

This morning we headed from Amman, across the Allenby Bridge, and into Israel.  Our first stop is in Tel Aviv.  After checking into the hotel, we headed out for a late lunch, followed by a stroll through the local art walk and Carmel Market.  Jll and the kids headed to the beach for a little before dinner with our new guide.  Alastair was excited to learn that the drinking age is 18, so he, Jll, and Adelaide are currently out at a local speakeasy-themed bar with a few of our fellow travelers.  As for Dagny, Maggie, and I, we strolled along the Mediterranean for an after-dinner ice cream at Golda and watched some night volleyball being played on the beach.  Touring starts again tomorrow.  Wish us luck.

Dave

Wadi Rum and Aqaba

      On the 27th we drove from our hotel in Petra to our campsite in the Wadi Rum desert. The drive took 3 hours and we stopped along the way at a gas station, a watermelon stand, several view points, and the 7 pillars of wisdom mountain. When we got to the campsite we had our lunch and then we sat in benches installed in the bed of a truck and we drove around the desert. We saw two different natural arches and the locations where The Martian and one of the Star Wars movies were filmed. We also stopped for tea at a Bedouin home and to take pictures of a rock that looks like a mushroom due to natural erosion. 

       When we got back to our camp we had dinner that was cooked in the ground in a traditional Bedouin way. After dinner we sat by our campfire and made s’mores and looked at the stars before we went to bed.

       The next day we woke up and had breakfast and then we packed up and drove a little over an hour to our hotel in Aqaba. We got ready and then we went on a yacht for a few hours to go snorkeling. We were in the Red Sea and we went snorkeling around the reefs and a shipwreck and we saw lots of fish and some scuba divers. We had lunch on the boat and relaxed and then we took our bus back to the hotel after we docked. 

       Once we got back to the hotel we changed and went to get ice cream. Then we rested before dinner.

       -Magnolia 

 

Every square inch of Petra

Alarms rang at 5am so we would be the first tourists in Petra this morning at 6am. I loved beating the heat and the crowds. We learned about how the river was moved hundreds of years ago to protect the city from flooding. We followed the aqueduct they constructed, saw their defensive lookouts, and found ancient carvings at the entrance of the valley. We spent an hour learning even before we got to the treasury, which is the most famous carving in Petra. Wow! 

We have all seen pictures of Petra but it is really something to stand in the sand and look up. I loved the camels, donkeys, dogs, and cats that litter the ground. They are all really quit funny. We got lots of good pictures.

As you walk through Petra you can see all the tombs of the wealthy on the right and the not so wealthy on the left side of the canyon. We explored and climbed and had the freedom to go anywhere we wanted. We love that about most of the sites we visit. No guard rails, restricted access, or roped off attractions. Petra is open for you to explore…and we did. 

We visited the theatre and church before we made the very uphill climb to the monastery. The climb up is about half of the Manitou Incline and all the way up the Bedouin have shops and stands. You negotiate very uneven steps while avoiding donkey poop. It was hot and we were tired when we hit the top.

We cooled off and snacked while watching a cat and her very tiny three kittens. We know we can’t touch them, but some are just too precious. I think Alastair loves them the most, then Dagny, Magnolia, and me. Adelaide and Dave do not love them and give us stern looks if we get to close. 

The hike down from the monastery was easier and Dave, Alastair, and I decided to take the hike to the overhead view of the treasury while the girls spent more time rock climbing near the ground. They boys and I hiked straight up again for a grueling 20 minutes before we hit the top of the canyon for the much needed last 10 minutes to the overlook. You enter a Bedouin’s house to reach the edge and the view of the treasury. Yikes! Great view. Unbelievably exhausting. Alastair and I sat on the edge and enjoyed a Sprite and Diet Coke. Before we made the full hour hike down and out of Petra we left a McLains on the Road sticker at the top on the wall of that Bedouin’s hut along with so many others.

We left Petra at 3pm. We saw it all. We hiked 30,000 steps and 13 miles. Exhausting!

Jll

Mini Petra

 [For Sunday, June 25th]

Readers,

Our second full day in Jordan started with a commodity that is readily welcomed, a well put together continental breakfast. Compared to those in Morocco and Egypt, the spread of breakfast foods available, and the hotels themselves in Jordan are much nicer. So after a couple glasses of mango orange juice and some pastries, we set off from Amman to work through a variety of stops to get to Petra. The first stop on our drive was at Mount Neab, where Moses once stood and looked out over the promised land, which albeit peppered with some olive trees, remains fairly barren. 

From there, we continued on in our mini bus to a mosaic shop where the majority of the pieces were handmade by people with disabilities, which was nice to see. The drive then descended back into a city, which I can’t remember the name of, to see a church which houses an ancient mosaic of the mapped out holy land, along with other mosaic pieces. From there, we came down through the suk to stop in for some snacks and to get some water, before we took a short drive to get some falafel sandwiches for lunch. 

The day concludes with a visit to the site aptly named “Mini Petra” as the sandstone canyon was covered in carved out dwellings and slippery stairs cut into the rock walls. After about an hour of scurrying up the stone and ducking into the ancient temples and restaurants, we sent back for the hotel. Back at our hotel we were greeted by a sunset view on the roof and a traditional Jordanian meal in the hotel restaurant. It was a long travel day but the sightseeing and food made it all worth it. 

Alastair

Possessed Pigs

Yesterday was a long travel day for the McLain clan, starting the day with an early trip to the airport in Luxor, a short flight to Cairo, a bit of a layover, and another short flight to Amman, Jordan.  Jll and I have not been here since the beginning of the pandemic, when we almost found ourselves stuck in Jordan when it closed the borders.  Luckily, we made it out on the last flight (to Dubai) 2 minutes after the airport closed, but we were never able to see ancient Petra.  It was mainly for this reason that Jordan found itself on the itinerary for this sabbatical.  In any event, after waiting to get through customs and collecting our baggage, we made it to our hotel in Amman, met the new travelers and our new tour guide, and had a team dinner.  

This morning we traveled from Amman to Jerash, a city north of Amman by about an hour or an hour and a half.  Inhabited since the Bronze Age, it is known for the ruins of the walled Greco-Roman settlement of Gerasa just outside the modern city. These include the 2nd-century Hadrian’s Arch, the Corinthian columns of the Temple of Artemis, and the huge Forum’s oval colonnade. We spent a few hours walking with our guide, Montaser, through the ancient settlement.  At the time, approximately 20,000 to 25,000 people lived in Gerasa.  When we visited the Northern Theater, we saw local men playing bagpipes and drums.  I always assumed that bagpipes originated in Scotland, and I found myself this many days old when I learned that they did not.  This was the site of Jesus healed the demon-possessed man, allowing the demons to enter into a nearby heard of pigs, which promptly drowned themselves.  

We headed from Jerash back by Amman, stopping at a local roadside shawarma and felafel stand for lunch on the road on our way to the Dead Sea.  We floated in the Dead Sea for a few hours, covering ourselves in mud, and doing everything we could to keep the water out of our eyes and mouths, with some limited success.  On our way back to Amman, Montaser stopped us at a local bakery so that we could try knafeh, is a popular traditional dessert of Arab Fatimid origin, made with spun pastry called kataifi, soaked in a sweet, sugar-based syrup called attar, and typically layered with cheese, or with other ingredients such as clotted cream, pistachio or nuts, depending on the region.  Ours had pistachio and was delicious.  

Back at the hotel, Jll, Magnolia, and I jumped into an Uber to head to Rainbow Street for dinner.  Rainbow Street is a vibrant street near the center of downtown Amman, known for its restaurants, galleries, and bars.  Walking around, the three of us were struck by how nice it was not to be hassled by vendors trying to get us to visit their shops, buy their trinkets, or take rides in their Egyptian Ferraris/horse carriages.  It was a very long day, and we are looking forward to visiting more of Jordan over the next week.

- Dave  

Karnak Temple

       Today we woke up and had breakfast in our hotel before driving to the Karnak temple which our guide described as a complex of temples because several kings had added to it. There were gates facing every direction connected by a mud-brick wall surrounding the complex. There was a room of columns with probably 20 columns in each row and there was scaffolding set up around about half of them where people were restoring them. We saw the lake where priests would be purified before giving blessings in the complex and we saw several smaller temples inside dedicated to different kings and gods. We also saw very impressive obelisks and a statue of a beetle where we watched tourists walking around it in circles because their tour guides had told them that it brings good luck. I thought the whole complex was very cool impressive but I was glad we saw it before the huge amount of tourists filled the whole thing. 

       Then we got falafel sandwiches for lunch before resting at our hotel for a little while. I then walked around with my dad and we found the grocery store where we got some snacks as well as wandering around a department store before we walked back through the market to our hotel. 

       Later tonight we will meet with our group for our farewell dinner before we fly to Israel tomorrow. The majority of the people in our group will remain but we will have a new guide. 

⁃ Magnolia

Valley of the Kings

We had a lot to go see yesterday so we made sure to start our day early. We woke up at 5:30 and left the hotel around 6:30. We visited an after school program called Fantasia that is partners with our tour program. This program helps students who struggle with reading and writing to learn using art. Art is not taught us many of the schools in Egypt. This program also teaches leadership and other life skill. One of the ways they do this is by having some of their kids lead a group on bikes to their foundation. We took a boat to the West Bank of the Nile and then hopped on these bikes and road for a bit before stopping at Fantasia and learning about their project. The next thing we did was visit the temple of Hatshepsut. Hatshepsuts story was different from all the other rulers. When the king before her Tutmosis the second died his successor Tutmosis the third was too young to lead. The solution was to have him serve as king side by side with his step mom Hatshepsut. Hatshepsut was one of the most profound builders in ancient Egypt. Even once her step son Tutmosis was old enough to rule she still did not hand over the throne. She was very powerful and had gained the respect of her followers. In her temple she was depicted as a male pharaoh with male features and a false beard. When she died her stepson defaced her temple. Ruining her statues and erasing every mention of her in the temple. This makes the site quite unique. After we saw the temple we drove ten minutes to the valley of the kings. When the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids they were very obvious and were targets for grave robbing. Thutmosis the first was the first to have the idea to not have a pyramid for us tomb but to instead carve it into the mountain in order for it be well hidden. In the valley there are sixty two tombs, we visited five. We saw the tombs of Rameses the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and ninth. Along with king Tut. The first 4 tombs were very large with long Corredor‘s that lead to pillared halls and burial chambers. The walls were decorated with different scenes from the ancient religion. Once a new king took the throne they would begin working in their tombs. King Tut was 10 when he took the throne and 19 when he died. His tomb is made of 5 rooms and is the smallest in the valley. His tomb is also the only tomb in the valley that still has the mummy inside. We left the valley and drove to the ruins of an old temple where only two large statues are left. On our way to lunch we stopped at an alabaster co-cp where we saw people making hand made bowls and statues. We ate lunch at a local home. We had soup, bread, rice, chicken, pita and vegetables, potatoes and beans. When we finished we talked to the owner of the house about his family. In the house there was five levels. The first is a common living space. The second for the father and mother. And then each floor above that is for their sons and their family’s. After we ate we left the West Bank of the Nile on a boat and headed back to our hotel we we took naps and hung out by the pool. We went to dinner at a local restaurant. Alastair ordered a milk shake the was wildly disappointing so after dinner we went to McDonald’s for some McFlurries. We headed back and settled in for the night. That’s about all.

-dagny

Felucca fun!

 This mornings agenda called for a 4 hour felucca float on the Nile. We all loved it. We hid out on the giant, cushioned deck and had a really lovely sail. The felucca’s have a built in shade top and the breeze off of the water was great. Not hot at all. A few in our group splashed around in the Nile, but not the McLains. The Nile isn’t a spring fed, pristine, body of water so we made the decision to skip in favor of heath for the next 7 weeks. We were served a very yummy lunch on the boat to include, bread, vegetable soup, tagine potatoes, noodles, and chicken. Delicious!

Our next stop was Kom Ombo temple built for Sobek and Horus the Elder. It is very unusual to have 2 gods honored in a single temple. Our guide showed us many examples of these two gods being worshipped in the hieroglyphics. They even incorporated images of each other on their own sides of the temple which showed their respect for one another. 

Sobek was most interesting to me and Dagny because he believed his power could be channeled through the crocodiles which lived on an island near by. He would keep a crocodile in his temple and feed and care for it, believing it provided divine inspiration. When the honored crock would die it was mummified and a new croc would take its place as most special croc. The little museum housed about 20 of these mummified crocodiles.Very cool.

We are in Luxor tonight and will spend two days touring here before we fly to Amman Jordan. We are seeing really cool things and learning a bunch. Egypt has a very different feel than Morocco, so this does feel a lot like 2 different experiences. So pleased to be here and enjoying time as a family.

Jll

Abu Simbel and the Alice Network

We had an early start this morning in order to see the Abu Simbel temples before dry heat took hold of southern Egypt. Magnolia and I had our alarms set for 3:45 am because our group left the hotel at 4:15 am. We boarded a large touristy bus with A/C and reclining chairs. Most of us slept through the 3 hour drive south to the Abu Simbel temples. The temples were constructed by order of the Egyptian king Ramses II. He hoped to demonstrate his power at the newly established southern border. The second, smaller temple was dedicated to his favorite wife. When the second dam in Aswan was constructed, rising water levels of the Nile threatened these temples. In the 1960s, various countries teamed up to relocate the temples so that they now reside on a nearby site, high enough in altitude to avoid the water.

After our visit to the temples, we drove 3 hours back to Aswan. I devoured the last half of a book called the Alice Network. Super interesting, highly recommend. We stopped at a co-op for essential oils. Along with perfumes and lotions, they also offered oils with medicinal purposes. As a pre-med student, I was highly suspicious. Our tour guide provided us with deliocious sandwiches for lunch. We had pita filled with french fries and smashed falafel. Yum. 

We had some downtime in our hotel which I spent reading until Dagny continuously prank called my hotel room and forced me to play Rook. Our tour group went out for dinner at a restaurant along the Nile and we celebrated a couple on our tour who are celebrating their honeymoon. I’m looking forward to sailing on the Nile tomorrow!

Adelaide

Philae Temple and the Nubian Community

       Today we woke up on the train and we were served breakfast consisting of 3 forms of bread and some mango juice and coffee. Our dinner and breakfast on the train were better than I expected and I liked my juice and coffee this morning a lot. Then we got ready and walked to our bus.

       We drove to the boat docks and then had a quick boat ride to the Philea temple which had been reconstructed on an island after being removed from its original island that had flooded. I liked the boat ride and the temple was very cool. We saw the original carvings of gods and hieroglyphics as well as graffiti from visitors in the 1800s in the form of names and dates carved into the walls. I liked the temple and it was interesting to learn about its history of being used and modified by different cultural and religious groups over time.

       We then took the boat back to our bus and drove back to the hotel where we rested for almost 6 hours because during the middle of the day it is too hot to be outside for long periods of time. I didn’t have a lot to do to fill the time but I appreciated the air conditioning. 

       Later on we took another boat to a different island where we were led by a local Nubian around the island and we saw local agriculture and farming before we were hosted for dinner at his cousin’s house. We had rice and chicken and then after our meal the guide fed our leftovers to cats by dropping it off the balcony. Then we took the boat back to our hotel where we went to bed, tomorrow we will have to wake up very early.

      

            -Magnolia

Mummies

 The ancient Egyptians believed that the soul  had three parts the Ka, the Ba, and the Akh. The ka was essentially someone’s double and when the person dies the ka left the body. The reason for the embalming and mummification of people was to insure that when the ka left the body that it would be able to return and have a home. When we visited the museum we learned how the Egyptians would preserve and mummify meat and other foods to leave in the tomb with the deceased so they  would have food in the afterlife. Officials were also buried with jewelry weapons cloths and their mummified pets. 

The second part of the soul the Ba was seen as a human headed bird that was believed to be able to travel between the worlds of the living and the dead. The ba too required food in the tomb to be able to survive. 

The final peace to the soul the akh was a “transfigured spirit who survived death and mingled with gods” one only had a akh he he was deemed worthy by the goddess of truth, justice and balance, Maat Kheru. Maat would take the form of an ostrich feather and the heart of the deceased would be weighed against it. If the heart was in balance with the feather the that person had lived a good and decent life and he was then allowed to pass into the after life. If his heart did not weigh the same as Maat his heart would be eaten and he would not pass through. 

When they mummified people they would remove their organs and embalm them separately and place them in canopic jars. Each organ had its own jar with its own symbols. Except for the heart. The heart stayed in the body so that when it came time for them to be judged it could be weighed. All other soft tissue needed to be removed including the brain which was scooped out through the nose using a hook. A gold plate was used to cover the incision made in order to make the person whole.

Many of the mummies in today’s museum were buried in multiple sarcophagus‘s stacked like nesting dolls. The mummy was decorated with rings and bracelets gold coverings over their fingers and toes and a mask made to look like the wearer. The mask was to protect the deceased from their enemies. The mask also was believed to restore vision to the wearer in the afterlife. There was a ceremony similar to a funeral called the opening of the mouth and after this was preformed the deceased would regain his or her power of speech along with other senses necessary for the afterlife. 

Today we woke up early. 6:30 ish and ate our breakfast at the hotel. We quickly got into our bus and headed to the great pyramids of Giza. We were trying to beat the heat of mid day. We first stopped at the great pyramid where we took pictures and walked around looking at other tombs ment for family members and executive staff. We went to the second pyramid and we got to go inside. We kind of walked/ crawled through this really funny passageway into the burial room of the pyramid. Everything was taken out to it really was just four walls but it was cool to be inside. Then we made our last stop by the Spinx and took some photos. We went to lunch and then back to the museum for two hours. We went back to the hotel and took showers and hung out before leaving again for the train station. Tonight we’re spending the night on the train traveling from Cairo to Aswan. That’s all.

-dagny

New Cairo, same Ancient Egypt

Readers,

When I originally heard the plan of laying low near the Cairo Airport for a few days between tours, I was hesitant. I was eager to get into the older parts of the city, which hugged the banks of the Nile, so that I could get to seeing the Museum of Egypt and what not. But upon the discovery that I could play a full, well kept eighteen hole golf course nearby and swim in a quite lovely pool, I became more receptive to the idea. The Marriott Renaissance where we had elected to stay in New Cairo had some amenities which we had grown to forget over the course of the trip, the best of all might have been the blackout curtains and soft mattresses, which over the course of three nights helped me to catch up on some much needed rest. 

The real gem of our stay by the airport, to me at least, was getting out to golf a full eighteen after a nice breakfast. There’s something nice about only seeing two other golfers during your entire round. It took my average round time during high school tournaments of about five hours down to nearly two and a half, which made the pace of play much more suitable for ninety five degree weather. My golf skill itself remained largely unchanged from the fall, which driving being a little shaky, the irons striking pure as ever, and my short game a little hit or miss. Early on in to the round I was quick to ask about if we were playing any penalty for a lost ball, and I can confidently say if the answer was no, that I would’ve broken ninety for the first time, but I walked off the course with my average score of 104, luckily, the balls I lost were cheap. The rest of the day was very relaxing, as the family and I sat poolside as I tried to help sunburn my wrist in such a way as to get rid of my watch tan. It still needs an hour or two of direct sunlight to go away completely. The pool served as a great training space for Dagny and I to practice our routine for the circus, as we nailed some acrobatic feats in a short matter of time. The rest of the day was marked with a dinner at the on property Chinese restaurant, which, although overcooked, did a pretty nice job of cooking up roast duck in Northern Africa. To round off our time at the Marriott, I took a solo session in the Men’s locker room where I could listen to music, steam room, and sauna to my hearts content. 

The following morning we took our time again getting motivated, but we eventually met up at the Continental breakfast buffet which was surprisingly pleasant compared to some of the others we had encountered over our travels. Eventually we had to leave behind our cushy digs in New Cairo and venture via Uber to our new place in the city, Pharaohs Hotel. We quickly dropped off our belongings before heading to the Egyptian Museum, which I had been looking forward to. It became instantly apparent that the museum had way too many artifacts and exhibits than it could curate. The best example of this to me was that they could label when a papyrus manuscript was from but couldn’t do the same for a mummified baby, no explanation, no date, just a display of it. All in all I was utterly fascinated with the museum and am excited to see more of it tomorrow. We quickly noticed after exiting the museum that there stood a Ritz Carlton hotel right next door, which seemed like the appropriate place to stop in for lunch and cards. Looking back, I’m tremendously regretful that I didn’t the steak on their menu because I’m certain I won’t find a better one during the trip, and I miss a good ribeye. The rest of the day was marked with almost nothing noteworthy, we retired to our hotel before meeting with our next tour group for dinner in the evening.  Tune back in tomorrow to hear what the inside of a Great Pyramid looks like!

Cordially,

Alastair

New Cairo, same Ancient Egypt

Readers,

When I originally heard the plan of laying low near the Cairo Airport for a few days between tours, I was hesitant. I was eager to get into the older parts of the city, which hugged the banks of the Nile, so that I could get to seeing the Museum of Egypt and what not. But upon the discovery that I could play a full, well kept eighteen hole golf course nearby and swim in a quite lovely pool, I became more receptive to the idea. The Marriott Renaissance where we had elected to stay in New Cairo had some amenities which we had grown to forget over the course of the trip, the best of all might have been the blackout curtains and soft mattresses, which over the course of three nights helped me to catch up on some much needed rest. 

The real gem of our stay by the airport, to me at least, was getting out to golf a full eighteen after a nice breakfast. There’s something nice about only seeing two other golfers during your entire round. It took my average round time during high school tournaments of about five hours down to nearly two and a half, which made the pace of play much more suitable for ninety five degree weather. My golf skill itself remained largely unchanged from the fall, which driving being a little shaky, the irons striking pure as ever, and my short game a little hit or miss. Early on in to the round I was quick to ask about if we were playing any penalty for a lost ball, and I can confidently say if the answer was no, that I would’ve broken ninety for the first time, but I walked off the course with my average score of 104, luckily, the balls I lost were cheap. The rest of the day was very relaxing, as the family and I sat poolside as I tried to help sunburn my wrist in such a way as to get rid of my watch tan. It still needs an hour or two of direct sunlight to go away completely. The pool served as a great training space for Dagny and I to practice our routine for the circus, as we nailed some acrobatic feats in a short matter of time. The rest of the day was marked with a dinner at the on property Chinese restaurant, which, although overcooked, did a pretty nice job of cooking up roast duck in Northern Africa. To round off our time at the Marriott, I took a solo session in the Men’s locker room where I could listen to music, steam room, and sauna to my hearts content. 

The following morning we took our time again getting motivated, but we eventually met up at the Continental breakfast buffet which was surprisingly pleasant compared to some of the others we had encountered over our travels. Eventually we had to leave behind our cushy digs in New Cairo and venture via Uber to our new place in the city, Pharaohs Hotel. We quickly dropped off our belongings before heading to the Egyptian Museum, which I had been looking forward to. It became instantly apparent that the museum had way too many artifacts and exhibits than it could curate. The best example of this to me was that they could label when a papyrus manuscript was from but couldn’t do the same for a mummified baby, no explanation, no date, just a display of it. All in all I was utterly fascinated with the museum and am excited to see more of it tomorrow. 

We quickly noticed after exiting the museum that there stood a Ritz Carlton hotel right next door, which seemed like the appropriate place to stop in for lunch and cards. Looking back, I’m tremendously regretful that I didn’t the steak on their menu because I’m certain I won’t find a better one during the trip, and I miss a good ribeye. The rest of the day was marked with almost nothing noteworthy, we retired to our hotel before meeting with our next tour group for dinner in the evening.  Tune back in tomorrow to hear what the inside of a Great Pyramid looks like!

Cordially,

Alastair

The vacation inside of my sabbatical

David and I started planning this sabbatical almost a year ago. We are pretty quick decision makers when it comes to travel, mostly because we like the adventure of not planning every detail. We had a gap of 4 days from when our Morocco tour ended and our Egypt tour begins. We booked ourselves an extra night in Marrakesh. When we booked our flight out of Morocco over 6 months ago we didn’t really pay that much attention to our flight times. The value most certainly was due to the fact that we were to land in Cairo at 2am. Oops. Never fear, if you book yourself into a really nice hotel they will send the suited man to retrieve you in the middle of the night, escort you through passport control, relocate your luggage for you, bypass customs, and escort you to your private vehicle. Yep. Totally worth it. I was so pleased to have all the unknowns of, “I wonder how we will get safely to our hotel in Cairo in the middle of the night” taken care of so easily. 

We slept til noon and spent the day lounging by the pool. This is the only break we have until August to relax and be still. I loved the ease and pace of today and I expect much of the same tomorrow.

Bentleys & Sides of Beef

 Bentleys & Sides of Beef

Readers,

For our last full day in Morocco, we decided to actually make something of our  conclusion to our time in Marrakesh by taking ourselves out on the town. Make no mistake, the day started just as late into the afternoon as the day prior. But, we departed from the hotel with the tickets we had booked 30 minutes prior to investigate the botanical gardens in Marrakesh championed by in Paris fashion icon Yves Saint Laurent. The gardens can be described most fully through the culmination of the two following words, overpriced, and underwhelming. For the pretty penny of $90 for the six of us, we were able to entertained for hardly an hour. Although the garden can be largely reflected on as a waste of time by the six of us, the frogs and turtles speckled within the lily pond were something nice to look at as we grew tired of the succulents and palm trees. 

From there we set off to meander our way through the medina in order to get back to the central square where we had been a couple days before. Now when we were waiting for our entry into the gardens, I counted a few Range Rovers and two two-tone Bentleys driving by, and a designer boutique nestled within the garden itself. Walking into the Medina, those symbols of great wealth were quickly replaced with people serving street food out of carts with wooden wheels and sides of beef hanging in the street. So it was quite the contrast from where we started to where we ended on a fifteen minute walk. There’s something especially culturally immersive about the scenes inside an ancient Medina when you walk through them without a guide. You take a turn and you’ve branched from a section with shops offering souvenirs to a outcrop where tradesman stack raw leathers by the meter. Eventually we were able to catch on to parts of the market that we had walked through a couple days prior which helped us to navigate our way back to square with its monkeys and snake charmers. We cozied up in a cafe porch that overlooked the main square of Marrakesh and relaxed for an hour of people watching. 

The day winded down from that point as we made our way back down towards our hotel before stopping at a small French cafe to tuck into some crepes for dinner before ultimately heading back to the hotel for a couple hours of quiet time before bed. The day was a good culmination of our time in Morocco, as it represented the cultural flavor of the country that we had come to recognize over the last two weeks. The African, Arabic, and European styles we had seen throughout all of Morocco were ever present throughout our time in the country did not waiver as we wandered through Marrakesh and Morocco for the last time on this journey. 

Until next time,

Alastair

Proverbs 22:6

 What a great day! Today was a free day. Half of the McLains have a different “social battery” than the other half. It is important to give them free will to do nothing on these days. It is lovely that they are all old enough to be left alone to take care of themselves. 

To that end, Adelaide, Magnolia, and I got in some pool time and cards this morning. We mostly play 4 handed Rook, but today we played some two handed as well. This is a great variation and today was the first day I was able to beat Magnolia. Yeah me.

We had a late lunch at a Chinese restaurant near our hotel. It was a gamble as we knew nothing about it, but it was great. A sabbatical rule is, eat where the people eat. If you enter a restaurant and no one is there, retreat. Lunch spot was well populated and we all had a yummy lunch. 

Today’s only planned activity was church. One of our favorite things to do on sabbatical is to visit new places of worship. Dave found a great option for us with worship at 6pm tonight at the Marrakech International Protestant Church. I loved it. We Presbyterians jokingly refer to ourselves as the “frozen chosen”. And we are. This congregation was anything but. I loved the singing and energy but I especially loved the baby dedication. Tonight the congregation dedicated baby Sharon and the scripture read for the baby, Proverbs 22:6, is exactly what Dave and I are trying to accomplish through these extended sabbaticals together. “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Not only do we want to stretch their faith on these summers away but we are attempting to increase their world view, compassion and understanding of others not like them, ability to try new things, be uncomfortable and still growing, and joy filled along the way. Sometimes these lessons don’t circle back around for years, but some of them show up immediately. We all liked lots of the worship service and some was very different. Dagny quickly proclaimed that she prefers being a “frozen chosen”. Fair enough.

Post church gelato at a fun place called Dino’s.  We all enjoyed our treats and the wonderful family time. On the walk home we made a stop at McDonald’s for several reasons. The McLains on the Road wanted to see if it actually tasted the same as it does at home, but also to witness the spectacular crowd inside. A hundred humans eating on 3 different levels and a giant patio. All eagerly munching their sandwiches. I didn’t try, but the report was that it tasted just like home. Pretty funny.

Tomorrow is our last full day in Marrakech, 17 in all. Yep, that is a long time to spend in one country about 1.7 times the size of Colorado. We feel like we have really explored every corner and we have loved it all. We have visited big cities, tiny villages, the mountains, the desert, the beach, and everything in between. The thing we like the most, almost no other Americans or familiar American influences except for here in Marrakech. The rest of the places we visited felt like they were just getting started on welcoming American tourists. Most tourists seem to be European. My favorite travel feels far away, and we are far away. The kids have learned a lot and seen so much and so have Dave and I. I highly recommend Morocco. The people are so friendly and the dollar goes a long way. Add it to your list of countries to explore. We all liked different spots for different reasons but I think Essaouira is as our favorite followed by Chefchaouen and then the High Atlas Mountains. 

McLains in Marrakesh

 Blog

       Today we had breakfast on the rooftop of our hotel. I’ve personally been enjoying the fresh squeezed orange juice and almond butter that we were served. Then we walked out of the Medina to our van and drove to Marrakech with a stop for coffee on the way. 

       When we got to Marrakech we dropped our bags before a short drive to the center of the city. We met with a city guide who took us to a house belonging to an old prime minister and then we saw the main square with snake charmers and fruit stands. Then we walked around the main markets before stopping for ice cream on our way back to the hotel. 

       A little later we walked to dinner with our tour group and we went to what I think was the nicest restaurant we’ve been to so far. We played cards while waiting for our food and then we walked back to the hotel and said goodbye to our tour group. We will spend the next 2 days on our own seeing Marrakech before we fly to Egypt. 

        -Magnolia

Beach Time and a Hammam in Essaouira

    This morning, our family woke up and had a hotel breakfast which consisted of crepes, hard boiled eggs, mint tea, coffee, and orange juice. After breakfast, we split up. I walked with mom, Dagny, and Magnolia to the beach for some lounging in the sun. Dad took a walk through the medina and along the ocean while smoking a cigar. I think he may have been looking for some wall where part of Game of Thrones was filmed. 

    Alastair hung out at the hotel for a little while and then took himself on a walk to find lunch. Along the way, he met a Moroccan man named Mohamed who was standing out front of his carpet shop. Mohamed offered him a "special gift" and ended up giving him a hand massage. Alastair bought ice cream for the both of them and they ate and talked. 

    Meanwhile, Dad joined us girls at the beach, and we all swam, read our books in the shade of umbrellas, and ordered lunch from a beachside hotel. I had spinach and ricotta ravioli but scooped out most of the spinach. Magnolia and Dagny met a girl while swimming. She just graduated from high school in Marrakech, Morocco. 

    Around 2pm, we met up with Alastair at the hotel. 5 of us (everyone except for Dad) walked 5 minutes from the hotel to a local Hammam. We were given robes and a private sauna room. Two Moroccan women dumped buckets of water on us as we lay flat on marble slabs that lined the walls. We were scrubbed down with black soap and then they used special, rough gloves to scrub off all of our dead skin. We all had massive amounts of skin peeling off of our bodies which was gross and cool at the same time. They washed our hair and then we were led to massage rooms. The four of us girls had one room and Alastair had another. Our massages were lovely and then we had some down time at the hotel to shower and get the oil out of our hair. 

    We all had dinner together at a restaurant in the medina. I had a mediocre burger and lost at Rook with Alastair as my partner while we ate. We spent the rest of the night at the hotel repacking and sorting through laundry that the hotel had done for us. Looking forward to experiencing a new city tomorrow!

Adelaide

From the High Atlas Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean

When we booked the trip to see the highlights of Morocco, we did not account for its size and pace of travel.  Morocco is about 1.7 times larger than Colorado, and not all of the roads are made for swift travel in an 18 passenger Sprinter van.  If you are getting to get a glimpse of the highlights of the country, prepare for a good amount of travel time.  Our last few days have started with a breakfast at the hotel, followed by an hour or two of driving before stopping for a restroom break and coffee, followed by a few hours of driving before lunch at a roadside cafe, followed by a few hours of driving to our destination.  Once we arrive at a destination, we will get a brief orientation, followed by some sightseeing, and free time to explore and get lost.  

Imlil

So have the last couple of days gone.  We awoke yesterday and made our way to Imlil, a small Berber village in the High Atlas Mountains located within Toubkal National Park.  It serves as the base for hikers and climbers making their way to Mount Toubkal, the highest peak in North Africa and the third highest peak on the continent.  From Imlil, we hiked up to Armed, an even smaller Berber village of about 200 families overlooking Imlil and overshadowed by the High Atlas Mountains surrounding the village.  We didn't see a lot of tourists, but we did see the locals getting on with daily life, to include cutting alfalfa at the bottom of the hill and bringing it to the top either by mule or on women's backs.  The alfalfa is dried and used to feed the cows and sheep living on the first floor of the homes.  We saw the local seamster (I had to look this up as I had to look this up as I've never needed the word for the male version of a seamstress before) working away on a sidewalk halfway up through the village.  He declined to be photographed, which made me think he was a little grumpy.  This was confirmed later when we walked back down to our gite, a traditional Berber mud-brick building in the mountains.  Two local girls walking with their mother made a game of waiting for the seamster, who had walked away from his sewing table, to look away, at which point one of the other would take turns running up to the table, touching it, and snickering with their mother when they were not caught.  My guess is that they had played this game many times.  Back at our gite, we ate a dinner of chicken couscous and, owing to the lack of internet or cell service, the kids taught other travelers in our party how to play Rook.

Looking across the valley to Armed

This morning, we hiked down from Armed to Imlil, hopped back into the van and made our way to the coast at Essaouira, a port and resort town on Morocco's Atlantic coast.  After our morning coffee stop, lunch stop, and stop at an Argan oil coop, we made it to Essaouira.  Departing our van, we hoofed it into the medina to find out hotel.  Once known as the Port of Timbuktu (due to the number of African goods that ended up here), the city has a rich history of trade and was included on the UNESCO World Heritage list as an example of an 18th-century fortified old town.  After getting a brief walk-around tour of the Medina, Jll, Dagny, Magnolia and I headed out to walk the beach, scoping out a place to rest tomorrow. 

We also had to find a bathing suit for Dagny, who left hers back at the hotel in Merzouga (now some 11 or 12 hours in the rearview mirror).  If you find yourself in need of a swimsuit in Essaouira, I highly recommend the Gypsy Surfer in the medina.  After the bathing suit excursion, we found a small Chinese food restaurant, dining on chicken fried rice, chicken fried noodles, and eggrolls.  It turns out that after almost two weeks in Morocco, you can reach your fill of tagine, couscous, and pastilla (a North African meat pie made with warga dough, which is similar to filo.  Winding our way back through the medina to our hotel, we found some ice cream and a private hammam to add to tomorrow's adventure.  

That's it for now.  Time to finish my cigar on the rooftop terrace overlooking the medina and listening to the call to prayer from the mosque next to the hotel.

- Dave        

Ait Ben Haddou

We woke up this morning ate breakfast and hit the road. For most of our trip we have been driving in the morning and walking around and exploring later in the day when its not quite as hot. We got into the vas and drove for an hour maybe an hour and a half before stopping at a herbalist. Basically, this co-op was all about using herbs and spices as natural remedies form many different things. We sat down and a very kind man showed us different spices and oils, explained them and then let us try. My favorite was a mix between black seeds and peppermint wrapped in a cheese cloth. When you held the cloth up to your nose and smelled it it kind of burned all through your head and then our sinuses were cleared.  There were lots of perfumes and soaps and everything like that. We stopped at a restraurant close by that had food other than couscous and tagine for a change. Addie and I shared a margarita pizza. Once we left, we drove another hour to a town called Ait Benhaddou. We dropped out bags off at the hotel and then immediately left to visit a rug co-op. Here women learn and work to make rugs to support their families. This co-op has thousands of handmade wool rugs. We got a short history lesson on the different styles and techniques of rug making. The city that we are staying in is the extension of an abandoned city on a hill close by. named Ait Benhaddou we learned earlier that the word ait means “the family of” in English and ben means son. We walked to the top of the hill and the city through housed made of adobe clay where we could see all of the town from the casbah. We took some pictures and then headed down in time for our cooking class. Here a women showed us the spices and the steps to make a traditional tagine. We followed her directions and then chose how much of each spice and which vegetables to add. They all turned out very well in the end. My favorite part of the day was when we were all eating dinner and the stray dogs on the street below us began howling with the call to prayer. There wasn’t a ton going on today so I think that’s all for tonight. Thanks -dagny

A great day in the Todra Gorge

 We have had a great day filled with laughs. These are the days on sabbatical I love the most. Not because we did or saw anything particularly remarkable, but we are now fully decompressed from our normal lives and this is when we slip into really silly and funny. The intimacy of being just us 6. The jokes only we get. The experiences only we will share. Pure gold. We laughed all day at the photos and videos of yesterday’s camel ride. Gold for a lifetime. We laughed about sand in our hair, tea leaves in our mouths, and just one more meal of tagine. Morocco has been a great launch for our summer together and I will always remember these days and smile.

We left Merzouga and the sand dunes this morning with a quick stop to view fossils found in this region. As this area was once under the ocean the examples were plentiful. 

We continued through a stone desert to the Todra Gorge. Free climber, Alex Honnold referred to it as “the Yosemite of Morocco”. We were able to take a nice walk along the spring fed river and I did expect to see climbers on the rock face. Adelaide and I had a quick chat about the possibility of flash flood because it is so narrow and high, which apparently is a real risk in August and September. It was beautiful. I am sure Alastair wished he had his fly rod as he spotted several fish. 

Our guide led  us through town and into some of the farming plots irrigated by the river. I loved this! We walked along a man made narrow path which was the top side of the irrigation trough. The water runs down the center of the fields through the trough. Each family is given two days a week when they can divert the water to their crops. I saw barley and corn mostly but their were also fig, pomegranate, walnut, and almond trees.

We had dinner and played Rook, but mostly we laughed.

Jll

Monkeys & Camels

Loyal Readers,

It has been many years since I last wrote to you, the magnitude of my families sabbaticals has greatly increased and I hope that you can tell my writing skills have as well. I’m picking up this story yesterday morning, where the McLain’s on the Road departed from Feś, Morocco en route to our desert oasis in the Sahara. As I watched the landscapes outside of my sprinter van window shift from the Mid-Atlas Mountains to a backdrop of the Sahara desert during the ten hour jaunt, not much captivated me. However so that may be, there were two key experiences this drive was able to provide to our adventure. Firstly, was our encounter with some of the locals of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, which in this situation happened to be a pack of Apes which descended on our tour in the search of peanuts being hand fed to them. Although the McLain’s decided to take a step back from holding hands with a monkey for the first time, it was still a sight to behold. We can only hope for our travelers sake that the apes were not carrying anything to be passed to them. The second takeaway from the ten hour drive was that nestled away in the Atlas Mountains, any willing alpinist has the opportunity to ski at a resort of one lift and two runs during the snowier months in Morocco. With those moments of the drive behind us, we made it to our destination resort tucked away in the Sahara. After a quick break to lie in bed and watch Netflix, it was a quick walk to the hotel restaurant to tuck into Moroccan salad, Chicken Tagine, and assorted fruit, after that, it was off to bed for the night. The following morning, at least for me, started at about one in the afternoon, after several attempts and successes at staying in bed asleep. Eventually I had to walk myself back to the restaurant for lunch, where I was pleasantly surprised to yet again find a formidable portion of chicken tagine sitting on the table before me. While I’d had no challenge tucking into a 22 oz. Steak back home and walking away with room for more, something about your seventh tagine in seven days can do a number on your appetite. The remainder of the afternoon was once again left unscheduled so the family and I sent off to the pool, which despite the ninety degree dry heat remained terribly frigid, but once I had settled into it, it proved a nice way to relax the afternoon away. So after a couple poolside hours, it was time for the great adventure of our time in the desert; the camel ride at sunset. There are two things to know about our camel ride at sunset; it was one of our first overcast nights in Morocco, and the wind was blowing something awful about five minutes into our ride. We had gotten through the mounting of our steeds easily and begun the ride with a light breeze on our backs, but by about the fifteen minute mark the breeze has morphed into gusts reaching for fifty or sixty miles per hour. I’d had similar experiences with high wind speeds and sand back home at Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado, it only took me traveling 5,402 miles away to experience it again on the back of a camel. 

Take Care,

Alastair

Fes Trades

    This is Magnolia, today we went to one restaurant and three different workshops, a tannery, a ceramic shop, and a fabric shop. We started our day with breakfast in our hotel and a game of Yahtzee. We then took a tour bus with our city guide and saw a palace belonging to the king and a Jewish cemetery. 

    The ceramic shop was our next stop, the first thing we saw in this workshop was a man making clay pots on a wheel which he spun using his feet. We saw where these ceramic pieces were dried, painted, glazed by hand, and then fired. The paintings on the clay were all original and mostly unique and I liked hearing about and witnessing the creative freedom that the painters had. We also saw the process by which they make mosaics. We saw them make the shapes out of tiles and set them in patterns to be sealed in by concrete and resin. My favorite part of the ceramics shop was watching all of the artists demonstrate their skills and seeing how the projects are completed in steps by several people with different jobs. 

    The tannery was next which was where the dying of animal skins takes place. We saw from above the huge tubs of dye that the workers stand in while working the mixtures into the skins and then we saw the finished products made from the dyed leather of cows, camels, goats, and sheep. The dyes are all made from natural materials like henna and saffron and the leather coats and bags were all very intensely colored. My favorite part of the tannery was that they gave us mint leaves at the door to distract from the smell, I thought that was clever. 

    Our lunch was very similar to the Moroccan food we've been eating all week, but our restaurant did a very good job and we had a very delicious lunch. I really liked the chicken skewers I ordered. 

    The fabric store was the last place we went today on our tour and we saw some of their blankets and scarfs paired with a description of how they were made. We also saw the loom that the fabrics are made on as well as a demonstration of how it is used. I liked watching the loom operate and I thought it was impressive how easily the worker used such a big peice of equipment. 

    Before we went back to the hotel for the night we stopped at a grocery store and picked up our dinner, I opted for a pre-prepared pasta but we also ended up with a baguette and a jar of nutella. We also ordered pastries for our desert from a big display and then headed back to our van. 

            -Magnolia

Volubilis, Arabic Lessons, and Chicken Tagine

    Hello everyone! Welcome to the blog for sabbatical three. We woke up this morning in Chefchaouen, Morocco for crepes, mint tea, and bread for breakfast. He loaded into our van at eight in the morning with the rest of our tour group and set off for a driving day. Our first stop was a coffee shop in a hotel that was an hour or so away from Chefchaouen. I slept most of the way there, along with most other people in the van. 

    From there, we drove to Volubilis, an ancient Roman archaeological site filled with tile mosaics,    crumbling fountains, and a view of the countryside. The town was inhabited from 25 B.C. to 285 A.D. and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

    After a walking tour, we loaded back onto the bus and drove about an hour and a half to the village of M’Haya, Morocco. The AFER women’s association, partnering with Planterra, served us lunch with consisted of Moroccan salad, chicken tagine, mint tea, and cookies. We also had a chance to learn a little bit about the differences between English and Arabic. For example, English has many vowels which each have many sounds based on context. Arabic has no vowels, only consonants. These consonants can be lengthened to introduce vowel sounds. (https://planeterra.org/afer-womens-homlunch/) 

    After our lunch, we had a forty five minute drive to Fes, Morocco. It rained for the first time since we’ve been here. We checked in to a beautiful hotel and spend some time relaxing in our rooms. At 8pm, we met up with our group and took the van to a restaurant designed for tourists. We were served more Moroccan salad, bread, chicken tagine, mint tea, and Moroccan cookies. Dinner was accompanied by two different musical groups, two belly dancers, and a magician. At the end, Dagny was chosen to model a traditional Marrakech bridal gown, and she was lifted into the air on stage. 

- Adelaide