Wadi Rum

 
Wadi Rum in southwestern Jordan is Big Time spectacular scenery. Oodles of exotically eroded sandstone, red sand dunes, and much, much more. They have Hyenas! I'm bringing my night vision binoculars next time

Wind has eroded all of the stone faces on the cliffs and mountains but also has delicate motions, too. This circular pattern is from the blades of grass getting swirled in 360 degrees

And there are critters out here in the vastness, too. Just like our spring trip to the dunes in Death Valley, here are the tell-tale tracks of some small rodent.

Did I say RED sand dunes!

We spent real money and  - hired a guide from Eco Tours for this event,. Ali, former Tank Battalion commander and Jordanian Special Forces soldier, now retired, drove us all over this immense reserve. Although he drives a 4WD Toyota (the current Bedoin's "Camel"), he only uses 2WD because he uses very low tire pressure. We had no problems negotiating the very sandy desert.

Bar-be-cue chicken lunch against the cliffs with roasted whole tomatoes, onions buried beneath the ash and crusty outer skins peeled off, and of course hummas and pita.

OK, besides views of a spectacular nature, footprints, chicken lunch, erosion - what else can you show me? How about scads of Petroglyphs?

Yes, I want to go back and do some camping and more exploration. Someday...

Short Story today - Wadi Rum tomorrow

I'm only partly sexist - Becky DOES have her own Bucket List, printed on the reverse on my laminated wallet card (she doesn't carry a copy in her own wallet, just relies on me to whip it out in mixed company)

Today we spent time in the Israel Museum and when I got to some ancient Canaanite exhibits I had a life-altering moment! Previously when I croaked Becky has instructions to donate my body to the CSM Anatomy Lab so the students can explore just like I did in 1974. But after seeing these really cool ceramic bone pots the Canaanites used for bone storage I am all in for Ancestor Worship! I can see it now - 4 generations hence they'll cross their arms over their chests and repeat the ritual ancestor speech "Tooooom". And I'm going to have my bone pot made to look like a French "Mille Borne" highway marker, just like Paris-Roubaix.

And for  anyone who's sat by the fireplace in our house and wondered at the funny-shaped object in the corner - LOOK! It's a museum object! This was part of an exhibit on modern design and the Eameses leg splint was prominent.

Where were we....

Last thing I remember was packing again, this time for Jordan and....PETRA! We really missed "Checkpoint Charlie" in Berlin - there were some remnants and photos and a small recreation but none of the atmosphere - but we got it recreated in spades at the Israeli/Jordan border.

We got escorted through the process by our guide from Eco Tours of Israel and brother, we needed it. First exiting Israel - examine passport, questions, check my photo to see if this was really me (take glasses off, pal), have luggage scanned and examined for security and finally a couple of stamps. Walk our luggage approx. 100 yards through the "Phantom Zone" (for all your Superman readers) to the Jordanian side. Re-examine passport, Jordanian visa, get a Jordanian X-ray of luggage and met our Jordanian relay from Eco Tours and......we're in. On to Petra!

See that dark canyon in the center of the photo? That's the entry to Petra that was a valuable stop on the twice-yearly caravans coming up from Yemen. Why valuable? When you got water in the desert, you have something precious - Petra had and still has water. But Petra is suffering these days from want of tourists - since ISIS started chopping people up in Syria tourists have stayed home - our hotel had room for hundreds more and there were a ton of empty vendor stalls all throughout Petra.

We were the first group that our guide from Eco Tours had since the first of the year when Jordan also introduced new visa requirements that just added to the grief. But ironically our hotel was staffed by a bunch of young women from the Philippines while Jordan still has 20% unemployment.

OK, OK, back to Indiana Jones. Our guide manipulated us as we got close to the entrance "Look over here at this interesting aqueduct, now turn to the left and..." Bazinga!" Surprise achieved.

Can you say "Lost Crusade?" This is Jordanian Disneyland with a town that has grown to over 50,000 supporting this UNESCO World Heritage site. Bedoins lived inside Petra until 1985 when a new village was created to better exploit the site for the thousands of world travelers - it's up on the hillside above Petra.

If you were like me and thinking all of Petra was like the most famous image at the entrance you are forgiven. Once you turn beyond the "Treasury" this very tight canyon opens up and you can see all of the tombs carved into the sandstone cliffs. And these guys did it their way - no starting at the bottom and working your way up - "Amateurs!" they would scoff. Real stone cutters begin at the top and work their way down. And do they ever cut stone.

Here's the "Monastery" at the top of 900 steps cut into the hillside. For those of you who count flights of stairs on your I-device, that's over 60 flights. They actually didn't use this as a Monastery but the Nabateans (that's the pronunciation emphasis) held religious meetings inside, then when the Romans arrived they eventually got Christianized and that became a place for Byzantine dudes to meet, ad inf.

This was one of the heights overlooking Petra but if you wanted to get the real McCoy, there was always this view......

I didn't take up the opportunity - surely some other enterprising guy would have HIS sign advertising "Best View over here, 400 meters" as soon as I got close. Petra exhausted us in our 1-day whirlwind tour but I can now say, "Dun" and cross this off my bucket list. I carry mine, laminated, in my wallet - doesn't everybody?

And Becky has her own Bucket list and she achieved one of her lifelong dreams

First days in Israel

Tel Aviv - Let me see - feels like San Diego/Mission Beach? Maybe Viareggio? This is another great Beach town! Wonderful sand, roaring surf - life guards and sun shades and restaurants. There are 14 kilometers of strolling pathways connecting the beaches - and in the warm season (which will probably start the day we leave) this place must hummmm. But that is not THIS day - it's cold, wet, and windy. Use your imagination.

We stayed in an apartment about 3 blocks from the beach - Becky and I went out last evening when the skies had temporarily cleared, walked down the promenade to the yacht harbor where we got DUMPED on - we could have been drowned rats except for Goretex.
I have now added the eastern Mediterranean to the list of "Seas Experienced by Tom's Toes".

If anyone has ever lived in Pacifica or near the coast you'll know how destructive and corrosive the lovely sea air can be - and Tel Aviv is not immune. There's all sorts of decay in our neighborhood with some repairs going on and most places not

And although Tel Aviv is extremely modern with WiFi and other electronic connectivity, lots of their infrastructure is just pasted onto existing building exteriors without much thought of integration. There's just a lot of pasta attached to walls. When they make me King there's going to be a lot of changes around here.

 
Ellyn's Family! - we got to visit with a batch of Ellyn's Israeli cousins yesterday - to review family legacies, family trees, etc. Ellyn thinks she has made some progress understanding several generations of cousins, aunts, Grannies, etc. - just like Simpson's wondering about that Uncle John from Detroit who no one knows the whereabouts of. In addition to the perpetually unfolding family tree that Ellyn is looking at with her Great Aunt Mimi and cousin Dahn we had a FEAST for brunch for the 20 members of the lucky gang. And the family tree that Dahn had researched and created? It is 50' long............We meet some more branches of the family next week in Jersualem and experience Friday Night - REAL Friday night in Israel.  

And my favorite.  part of our stroll through the Souk? pomegranites and the way they were displayed. Now that's marketing

Tel aviv is not so old but Jaffa is

The weather has been wild, blowing and raining sideways. We took a long walk along the beach checking out all the fancy hotels. Not so bad until we headed back to the apartment we rented in the center of the city, then we faced a fierce headwind and the skys opened - bracing!

The beach must be packed in the summer, no one was there when we went out.

Tel Aviv is a full of cranes like the rest of Europe. Lots of building going on. 

This is is Jaffa on the south end of the city. It is where people like the crusaders use to land. 

They built stuff like this.

This is our new favorite food- Shakshuka, eggs cooked in a tomato/vegetable sauce. It really yummy. This restaurant served it with merguez sausages and all kinds of salads. 

After eating it for breakfast we had a big walk around Jaffa and headed off to the Carmel market where once again I was lured in to purchase all kinds of things. Cucumbers , peppers, radishes, grapes,  hummus, cheese all kinds of stuff for a picnic dinner

We didn't buy any spices. A long walk back warranted a nap upon arrival. We are looking forward to dinner with our bottle of French wine.

Tom's News Shorts

World Cyclocross Championships - Belgium (Zolder race course)

Well, it had to happen someday - the sport/activity that consumed our beings (mine, anyway) for 20 years has gone dry. The behavior of fans, the scene, the weather conditions, weird deep-fried food - everything that had attracted me to the sport vanished when I walked onto the course at the World Championships. I had some kind of weird epiphany and it all seemed.......sort of stupid. Drunken fans, fans who were drunk inside big tents singing inane songs (think soccer matches with "O lay - O lay - O Lay - Ohhh - repeat ad infinitum) and loud pulsing music - no thanks. Stick a fork in me, Dude - I'm done.

That was a nice piece of personal history time but that ship has now sailed. And THIS year it was even wet, primo conditions for 'cross. But these are the only pictures I took - with my phone. I lugged all the big gear with me but it was way too wet to bring it out and chance destruction in the rain - all the pro's had lots of elaborate lens and camera body protections but I'm a "Fair Weather" kind of picture taker.

So, I attended Saturday and stayed home on Sunday and watched the race unfold on TV. Cold, wet Sunday and I had bread, beer and borscht inside where it was warm and dry.

E-Bikes in Tel Aviv!

Last night when we landed in Tel Aviv, out for a walk to find grub for dinner - there were scads of electric bikes flying down the streets and in this part of TA flying through intersections like nobody's business! And wearing their hair only, no helmets, please. I wonder if TA will soon become like old Saigon where they had a very high incidence of head injuries to YP's from scooter accidents (YP's = Young People). TA reminds me of both Poland and Haiti - lots of concrete buildings with exposed rebar waiting for more funding so they can continue construction, one floor at a time. But connections! This place is so wired up it beats home! And especially coming from Paris where, sure - you got WiFi - you got all day, too? I tried all week to prepare a single blog entry, waiting and waiting for photos to get loaded (Anytime today, Pal - ANYTIME!) Soon as we unload in the apartment I ask for the code, drop it in and I'm flying - network paradise.

Retromobile - the 3rd leg of the trip involved a few days in Paris in order to attend Retromobile, one of the great European vintage car shows. I was here a couple of years ago and there has been a titanic shift in vendors. In 2014 probably 25% of the vendors were throwing a jumble of rusting, important parts onto their folding tables like a garage sale. Speedometers for your 1913 Mathis, suspension pieces for your chain-drive Simplex, etc. They have been replaced (probably priced out) by the hordes of model car vendors - there were probably 50 of them. Some very sophisticated commercial guys, many smaller-time vendors with Matchbox/Dinky scale cars, others vastly more intricate and costly. Oh, don't worry - there were real Cars - Everywhere.

 And they were AWESOME!

If Becky doesn't end up buying a house in France someday I'll look for one of these! A 70's vintage Alpine-Renault, in my color!

Tucked away on the 2nd floor, not receiving the attention it deserves, is this early 50's Formula 1 car (or, if you ever saw "Talledega Nights" Formule Un) - It's a Lancia with pontoon gas tanks that Ferrari took over the next season when racing got too expensive for the Lancia boys.

Last car picture - for Uncle Bob Johnson - a woody Buick. I've got more that I'll share with those who are interested.

Last cultural photo - when you have lunch at these great French shows there are 2 avenues of eating - with "Class" distinctions. If you want to sit down you fork over 30-40 Euros for a very nice lunch (of course with appropriate wines) or you can get a "Paul"-type sandwich lunch w/soda or water for 10-12 Euros and find your own place to sit down - or eat standing. Peter and I ate standing on Wednesday where we got a great glass of "Ch'ti" 8.5% amber and Thursday I sat against the wall along with hundreds of my new French friends.  

I unfortunately discovered many other vintage car-associated events that I could attend in the future, should finances improve. But the lottery guys have to be much more attentive to my numbers before that can be scheduled, Blast!

A Tale of Two Parks (in Paris)

Today was park-hopping. I've always wanted to check out 2 in Paris. First off was the "Bois de Vincennes" on the eastern edges of the city. I hopped on to the "1" line on the Metro and rode all the way to the end outside the Chateau de Vincennes - and something new added to the Metro - on this line they now have a solid line of gates that only open when the train gets into the station - everybody else still has the regular open line-up with no gates.

And an off-shoot - our hotel is in the Marais, the old Jewish quarter and the Army has roving patrols guarding many of the historic sites and synagogues in Paris.

Vincennes is a big park - GG Park-sized- but a very unmanicured playground. No gardeners

in sight, just a big, flat expanse of trees and scrubby bushes - a GREAT place to come and play. There are a zillion walking paths, cycling paths and signs on street lights announcing this weekend's 5k and 10k races for runners and walkers.

And they have what every great French park should have - a restaurant on a lake. This one is "Chalet des Portes Jaunes" (house with yellow doors) that dates back to 19th century although it's life as a restaurant didn't start until 25 years ago.

Sort-of-scrubby land but that hasn't stopped any foreign devils from invading. Here's

a dispatch from the front: "General, Major Ivy from HM English Ivy Brigade reporting. Our battalion has made contact with the resistance and have FULLY enveloped them - I've sent platoons out to make further contact."

Then I continued the tour at "Buttes de Chaumont", a former quarry for gypsum that's one of the highest spots in Paris (OK, not counting the Tours). Now, THIS is a manicured park. I counted 3 dozen gardeners in this joint, planting new shrubs, bare-root roses, etc. And when I got to the highest peak of the Butte, here's the "Money" shot - that's Sacre Coeur in the background.

And is your French treasure of a park complete without a restaurant on an island in a lake in your park? We can make that happen................Here's the Treasure at "Butte de Chaumont" with a long bridge connecting the island.....with the restuarant

When you need to take a break and sit down make sure you appreciate the park benches - anyone can have ordinary old steel bench supports but WHY NOT cast them to look like tree branches?