Last Days in Jordan

One of the compulsory things to do when in Jordan is to visit Petra. So we did on Thursday.

Entering a through a huge gorge, the city appears as a revelation of lost times when you hit the end of the gorge. The city, an old Nabbatean center for trade and burial, is mainly carved from the mountain sides, although later Roman and Christian additions is built free standing. The city was lost for almost six centuries, until a Swiss explorer and muslim convert came upon it back in 1812. Today it's a site on the UNESCO-list and was also voted one of the seven "new" wonders of the world. The long walk down was well worth the experience.


On Friday we went to the so-called baptismal site of Jesus of Nazareth, in the Jordan valley. John-Arne has previously been on the Israeli side, but back in 2009 the Pope proclaimed the site to be on the Trans-Jordanian side, since there were found church ruins there dating back to 5th and 6th century. Although it was fine enough, it the precise location don't matter much to our faith.


On our way back we stopped at Amman Beach, i.e. the Dead Sea shore, and took a swim. The weather was kind of rough, but at least Jan got a mud bath. John-Arne on the other hand got sore eyes, as he didn't take care in the rain, that splashed the very salty water back into his eyes.


The last day was spent well poolside and at the beach, just savoring the last bit of sun and warmth before heading back to November in Copenhagen, i.e. rainy, cold and dark weather.

Salam Jordan. Maybee we'll meet again (although preferably without the upset stomach).

Sunny days in Jordan

Last year in November, we had a great vacation in Texas, where we experienced how great it is to escape the depressing Danish fall and go somewhere warm and sunny. The boost of sun in the fall proved to be so addictive that we wanted to do something
similar this year as well. A couple of weeks ago we booked a trip to Jordan, where we could get a relatively good deal on the trip.

Sunday afternoon we arrived in Aqaba - Jordan's only coastal town in the Southernmost part of Jordan, on the Red Sea.

Monday we wanted to relax in the sun. The public beach in Aqaba is absolutely nothing to write home about, so instead we took a taxi to a new resort about 15 kilometres to the South, close to the Saudi Arabian border. They charged us about 28$ each to spend the day at their beach club, with super clean pools and a very nice private beach. As it turned out, it was worth every penny and we enjoyed the sun and the nice temperatures (90+ F).


Tuesday we went on a tour to Wadi Rum, a very famous and picturesque part of the Jordanian desert. Lawrence of Arabia lived with the bedouins here during the Arabian rebellion against the Ottoman kingdom and wrote about the area. We saw some magnificent rock formations, not unlike the rocks in Monument Valley, and had a chance to drive through the desert with bedouins - not on camels, though, but on a jeep. We had traditional bedouin tea, and
watched the sun set in the desert, before going to another bedouin camp for a tradtional meal with lamb and different salads. Very delicious.

Wednesday it was time for another day of relaxing at the pool. Today, we did not leave town, but went to one of the more luxurious hotels here, where we were allowed to use their pool area and private beach for a fee. It was not exactly inexpensive, but considering
how much we enjoyed it and that we practically spent all day until sunset there, we did not feel robbed in any way.

Next on the agenda is trips to Petra (Thursday) and the Dead Sea (Friday). We are really looking forward to both, and simply to spend more days here in the sun. Who would have thought that late October could be this pleasant?

September went fast...

Wow, it feels like September went really fast this year. On the second weekend, Jan went to Western Jutland for a reunion with his class mates from 7th grade, celebrating the 25th anniversary since they left 7th grade back in 1984. I guess you could say that someone felt a little old all of a sudden :-) The trip to Jutland was also a very welcome opportunity for Jan to visit his parents.

The following weekend we had a couple of friends visiting from Norway, and as usual when we have people visiting from out of town, we took the opportunity to be tourists in our own city once again. We enjoyed some of the sights in downtown Copenhagen, as well as took a trip out to "Dyrehaven" (originally the King's hunting grounds, now a big public park north of Copenhagen) and saw the very cool new addition to the Ordrupgaard Art Museum. The weather was gorgeous, and very much like summer.




We spent the last weekend of September in Oslo, where we visited friends and family. We also had the time to shop a little, taking advantage of the favorable exchange rate for the Danish krone against the Norwegian and to have a look at the area around the new opera, where the busy road is about to be put underground, which probably will make the area much nicer. Before heading back to Copenhagen, we had the famous Norwegian dish Fårikål (litterally "Sheep-in-cabbage, which pretty accurately describes the dish) at JA's uncle and aunt's house. Always interesting to try something new and exotic :-)

Macaroni soup!?

Today, JA was sick and had to stay home from work. Tonight, he felt a little better so he decided that he wanted to treat himself to some macaroni soup. Macaroni soup?, you may ask. It is a Norwegian dish with hot milk and macaroni, served with cinnamon and sugar on top. I am sure the receipe is available upon request. I did not have any, though - I am kind of conservative when it comes to food, so I decided that a breadroll with cheese was a more appropriate evening snack for me.

Food from Abroad

This week, there is a food festival in Copenhagen called "Copenhagen Cooking". During the week, there are food stands with food from many other countries at Gammeltorv and Nytorv in the centre of the city. I drive by the area to and from work every day and wanted to try some of the foods from abroad, so I suggested to John-Arne that we skip our regular dinner on Thursday and eat at the food stands instead. He bought the idea, so we met up at Gammeltorv after work. After looking at everything, we decided to get an Australian burger from the "Boomerang Barbecue", hoping that the koala bear was not a hint as to the content of the ground meat. After that, we had a German "bratwurst" and - for dessert - English candy (especially fudge) and Italian cookies. Yum.

Open Air Theatre

After some weeks of extensive blogging during our American road trip this summer, we have not been very good at getting back to blogging. Now that the summer fades away, and things return to normal we will try to resume blogging now and then.

Friday night we had our first night out with our theatre group. Every year we pick a number of plays that we want to see with good friends, and during fall and winter we enjoy about 7 or 8 different plays at various theatres in Copenhagen.

The first play this season was an outdoor play. There is a theatre (Grønnegårds teatret) in downtown Copenhagen that has open-air plays during summer, staged in a piqturesque yard with trees and surrounded by old buildings.

The play we saw was an old classic called "Den stundesløse" (The Fidget) by the Danish-Norwegian playwright (etc.) Ludvig Holberg (1684-1754) . The play was very entertaining, the actors were great, and... it did not rain! A very promising start of the season.