2010 Vacation: Jordan - Day Seven - Getting Home And Epilogue

Our last morning in Jordan was uneventful except for a couple things:

1. A bird, probably the damn Falcon, took a crap on me and my camera bag at the airport.  Splattered off my forehead onto the bag.  Okay.  I get it.  I shouldn't have gone in the women's mosque.
2. We bought water after passing through airport security just to find out that you had to pass through security one more time before getting on the plane.  To top it off, the free water we got on the plane after we left Amman had to be chugged because we had to go through security once again in Frankfurt.  A pox on the liquid explosive idiots waging a war on my water bottles.

Other than that, the flights home went fine.  No delays.  Better seats.  We also landed in Omaha during a rather spectacular and harrowing lightning storm.

A few observations about Jordan:

• Talking to people after we returned they wanted to know about the women we saw in Jordan. While most of the women wore the traditional head covering, exposing the entire face (the Hijab), the more conservative head-to-toe, hands gloved, and only the eyes showing was rare.  I saw, maybe, a handful.  In fact, I saw more women with their head/hair exposed than I did with the full covering.  I saw a family at Jerash where the woman was totally covered, the husband was in leisure, western attire, as were their two children.  What struck me as I watched them is that the man and the children seemed under dressed.  I kept thinking that the man should have been in a suit.
• Jordan is a country of men.  We saw women wherever we went but the men usually out numbered them.  All the waiters, shop keepers, and hotel attendants were men.  The only exceptions were at Petra where there were quite a few Bedouin women selling their wares and at security posts there were often one woman police office to search the women (The Wife was inspected by two different women, short women, while going through airport security).   Beside these exceptions, you only interacted with men.
• Jordan is Bilingual.  Most of the signs are in Arabic and English.  Everyone we met knew some English.  The Wife wished they would have encouraged us to use more polite Arabic greetings but, frankly, the Jordanians were quicker at the Hello-Welcome than we were with the as-Slām ʻLykm
• Jordan, while 94% Muslim, is not a very religious country compared to, say, Saudi Arabia.  Jordan is pretty Liberal which may explain why everyone in the Middle East likes Jordan and have made Jordan a vacation destination.  It may also explain why a Mosque was not on the tour itinerary.
• Another question often asked was about the heat.  It was hot in Jordan but, as they say, it was a dry heat.  We arrived in Jordan at approximately the same time of day that we left Omaha.  The temperature in Jordan was cooler than Omaha and the lack of humidity made it much more comfortable.
• Water is scarce.  Typically a neighborhood has running water every three or four days.  When they have water they fill tanks which you see on the roofs of most homes.  A big water pipeline is being built to bring water from the aquifer under Wadi Rum that will leave the water on all the time.
• Cats are the animal of choice.  I saw only a  few dogs.
• After we got back we rented Lawrence of Arabia.  Neither of us had watched the whole thing.  The movie was filmed in the Wadi Rum area.  It was kind of fun to see where we'd been - I swear I recognized some of the rock outcroppings in the movie.  Some of the blown up trains in the movie were actually filmed on the wreckage of the original destroyed train.  All I have to say about T.E. Lawrence is that he was a nut case.

We enjoyed Jordan.  It wasn't perfect.  Jordan is a rather drab country.  Our hotel was not in a very walkable area of Amman so we were a little limited in the evenings.  I would have added a day at Aqaba and a night in Wadi Rum to sleep under the stars which are said to be spectacular there.  Despite this the new cultures, the many firsts for me, and the hospitable people made Jordan a memorable vacation.  I can now add one more red country on my travel map (At the bottom of the sidebar on the right in the margin).

Next on our list of vacations (all subject to change, of course): 

• 2011 - Spain to walk the Camino and a visit to our friends in California via Route 66 (Chicago to Santa Monica)
• 2012 - China, Tibet, and Nepal followed by RAGBRAI.

2010 Vacation: Jordan - Day Two - Um Qais, Pella, Dead Sea

On day two we joined up with M_SD and headed north.  We left Amman passing reforested areas, cities, towns, and Palestinian refugee "camps" (They were more like towns and cities).  The northern part of Jordan is the agricultural area of the country and is the 'greenest' area of the country.  It reminded me a lot of parts of southern California in the summer - hints of green amongst very dry browns.

We arrived at our first stop and our guide pointed toward some vendors who had some cards for digital cameras.  This wasn't exactly the camera store I'd envisioned.  The largest card available was 2 GB which was less than what I photographed the first day (over 3 GB).  The card was also rather expensive so I passed.  I gambled that my camera card would work and it did ... for a few days anyway.

Our first stop of the day was Umm Qais, location of Gadara, one of the decapolis cities.  Here we walked through Greek, Roman, and Byzantine ruins.  Like most ancient cities in the area, the main part of the city was built on a hill to take advantage of the cooler, breezier conditions.  The heights also had strategic advantage as trade routes ran through here and those who controlled the heights controlled the trade.  In the main thoroughfare you could see the worn wagon wheel ruts of years - hundreds of years? - of trading caravans.

Northern Border - Syria

From a nearby view point we had a sweeping view of the Jordan/Syria border and the Sea of Galilee.  There was a dusty haze this time of year in most of Jordan, the dry season, so our view of the distant hills, especially the Golan Heights, were just barely visible in the distance.  It reminded you where you were and the issues that still plague this region.

Byzantine Church Of Gadara.

As we explored the site, a young boy in a window overlooking the ruins yelled Hello down to us.  He made sure we heard him by repeating himself ... 10,000 times.  It was funny for the first 100 times or so.  I exaggerate, of course, but the boy was insistent.

Back on the minibus we headed for our next stop, Pella.  Along the way we passed through several military checkpoints where bored soldiers watched you warily over large caliber automatic weapons.  Something you don't see in the United States except, maybe, Arizona.  I have to say that I never felt safer than in Jordan.  To enter the lobby of our hotels you had to put your bags through x-rays and walk through metal detectors.  Cars were inspected on the way in using mirrors.  Unfortunately they also used bomb detecting wands which, as far as I could tell, were just a radio antenna attached to a small metal handle.  Similar bomb detectors have been deemed fraudulent.  It looked like they were dowsing for water or something.

We stopped at a rest house which, in Jordan is a combination rest area, hotel, and restaurant.  The rest house overlooked the Roman ruins of another decapolis city, the city of Pella.  This is also near where Jesus supposedly went out into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights.  The building of the rest area and some of the initial excavations of Pella were done with help from USAID.  Unfortunately funding has dried up and only a little excavation is done now.

Pella.

We ate lunch here overlooking the ruins.  The owner/manager of the rest stop asked us where we were from.  He got excited when he found out that we were familiar with Iowa.  Apparently he has been trying to contact the Iowa governor so that they could set up a sister city relationship with Pella, Iowa.  The Wife promised to try to contact someone from Pella.  We left with Mr. M.G. Deeb Hussein's card.

The call to prayer was heard and we sat down to eat an okay meal while surrounded by some of the skinniest cats I've ever seen.  The Wife and M_SD fed some of the cats from their plates.  Not sure what I would have thought if I was the owner.  Feeding pets is very American.  Not sure how Islamic cultures interpret that.

We were given glasses of mint-lemonade.  The past couple of mornings I'd had bitter orange juice for breakfast and the lemonade continued the trend.  I think sweet juices are not the norm in Jordan.  I discovered that adding one part pineapple juice to three parts bitter orange juice made it much more palatable to my American sweet tooth.

There was a geocache some 500 feet away from the road house but I never had the opportunity to search for it.

After lunch we drove further south to the Dead Sea.  Here we stopped at a resort/spa where we were given the opportunity to swim at the lowest point on Earth.  The Wife and I changed into our swimsuits and headed to the beach. I waded in.  They recommend that you not get water on your face or in you eyes and I discovered why very quickly.  The salt water made every little cut, scratch, and nick burn.  I now understand the phrase "Rub salt in the wound."  The water is one third salt and feels very oily to the touch.   As I walked out into deeper water my feet came out from under me and I found my self floating on my back and bobbing like a cork.  I never could float very well before but in the Dead Sea I had more difficulty trying not to float.  No need for a floaty in this lake.  The Wife discovered this as well.  I've now been in the lowest lake and the highest navigable lake in the world.

The Dead Sea and a couple of umbrellas.

On shore there was free mud that was supposed to help your skin.  We did not partake but I saw other people smear it all over before getting in the water.  Dead Sea Spa products were on sale all over the country.

Sadly, the Dead Sea is dying.  Its main source of water - the river Jordan and two smaller rivers - have all been dammed up and diverted to support agriculture and to provide drinking water.  The lake has dropped 50 ft in some ten to twenty years and may be completely gone in less than thirty years if something is not done.  Fortunately the Governments in the area are looking into bringing water from either the Red Sea or the Mediterranean.  The new construction, mostly resorts, indicate that there is some optimism for the lake being kept alive.

The sun was hot, in the upper 90s, so I got out before I burned.  We rinsed off the saltwater under the showers and changed back before heading back into the spa.  By the time we got back with our driver and guide I was sweating buckets.

The place where Jesus was baptized was not far away but was not on our itinerary.  Our guide says, due to the diversion of the Jordan river, the water is very narrow at the site and is not very impressive.  I think the Wife was a little disappointed that she didn't get to baptize me.

We headed back to Amman and the Wife and I crashed early.  We rarely went to bed later than 9:30 PM this vacation.

I've added more pictures to the 2010-07 Jordan Google Photos album.

We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Vacation Posts To Bring You ...

I was planning to post my second installment of our Jordan vacation but I am altering my plans based on what happen this weekend.  What happened?  A lot but only a small bit concerns my vacation posting.  I think I'll tell you about a pretty enjoyable weekend with family.

On Friday we rented an SUV (a Ford Exploder) to drive to Minnesota.  We went there so that the Wife could attend a wedding shower and we could pick up a grandfather clock that the Wife had inherited from her Aunt D - hence the need for an SUV with a large cargo space.  I want to state right now that I like the environment and, while not a loony tree hugger, I try to take environmentally friendly steps in my day to day life and, frankly, driving the SUV made me feel a little dirty.

We arrived at the Matron of Honor (MoH) and Best Man's (BM) place just in time to get rained on.  We exchanged hellos and started talking about our Jordan vacation when the storm stepped up a notch, began hailing, and the sirens started going off.  The rest of the Jordan story was told huddled in the master bathroom until the weather calmed down a bit.

On Saturday we were joined by the Altar Boy (AB), his Wife (ABW), their unborn bundle of joy (no name publicly shared ... yet), and the GodSon (GS) (who may have to be re-pseudonymed to GodFather later this year once the AB's child is born).  The Wife, MoH, and ABW left for the shower being held for the GodSon's fiancée.  The GodSon's fiancée has told me that she doesn't read blogs so I'm free to say anything I want about her (I had an evil look as I typed this line but now I realize I really don't have anything bad to say about her - the GodSon got himself a winner).  The BM, GS, AB, and I went out to do our own form of geek shower by going to Dave & Buster's to play arcade games (mostly racing which, I discovered, I suck at), followed by a camera store, and Best Buy.  The trip to Best Buy was to look at the iPad.  I think I'll wait for the larger version, the Max-iPad.

We all returned to the BM/MoH's place at about the same time.  We were joined by the GodSon's fiancée and we all got to look at the loot she (they, actually) got at the shower.  We watched videos of Aunt D, talked about politics, talked about family, guessed baby names and birth dates, ate, drank, and were generally merry.  It's always fun when the family gets together.  The only downer was I downed a whole bowl of dark chocolate M&Ms - a self inflicted pain ... in the stomach.

Sunday started off with finding out that the Wife had left her purse at the shower.  This must be a purse weekend as the GS's fiancée forgot her purse in a public restroom before the shower.  We got directions to the house, said our goodbyes, and headed out.  On the way I decided to stop and say hello to the pleasant police officer.  I'd invited her over by doing 45 in a 30 zone.  She was nice and let me go with a warning.

We picked up the Wife's purse and then went to her cousin's place to pick up the grandfather clock.  As we left with the clock we thought we might go insane as the clock chimes ching-chinged constantly from the road vibration.  It turned out that ching-ching is much better than rattle-rattle and squeak-squeak.  As a matter of fact, when we turned the radio on, we were surprised to find the ching-ching seemed to fit amazingly well with the classic rock we were listening to.

We stopped at the lake to say hi to the In-Laws and to make some measurements for the boat parade next week (The theme is Pirates).

We got home after six and the day felt like it would go on forever.  It felt like the longest driving day ever ... not sure why.  Of course it might have been the fact that I never went over the speed limit ... well, not over by much that is.

What does any of this have to do with delaying my Jordan posts?  The trip to the camera store with the guys  is why I'm postponing my Jordan posts.  While there I discovered it would cost only $20.00 (plus costs of DVDs) to have them recover my Jordan pictures.  While I'm not 100% optimistic, I still have hope so I will hold off posting until I find out the results.  Hopefully I'll hear something later this week.  Fingers are crossed.

2010 Vacation: Jordan - Day Five - Petra

Every vacation usually has that on destination, that one attraction, that you really look forward to visiting.  For Peru it was Machu Picchu.  For our summer vacation last year, it was Yellowstone and Arches National Parks.  For our Jordan vacation it was Petra.

We had a whole day at Petra.  We started, early in the morning to beat the heat, outside the gates where we met up with our fellow tour people (they all walked from their Hotels) and guide.  We passed through the gates and started down a dusty road that, after passing some simpler tombs, led us to the start of the Siq, a narrow valley that leads to the Petra ruins.

The Siq, which is Arabic for shaft, is a narrow canyon with sheer stone walls three to six hundred feet high.  In places the canyon is only ten feet wide.  Along the way are small shrines carved into the stone.  One impressive sculpture was of a caravan including three life size camels and their leader.  Only the bottom half of the leader and some hooves remain.  Water channels run the length of the canyon walls on both sides.

Petra - The Treasury.

As we approached the end of the Siq, a guide for another tour group started humming the Indiana Jones theme.  Why, you ask?  Well, at the end as you turn a slight corner you see possibly the most spectacular, and most recognized, ruin of Petra - the Treasury - famously showcased in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  The carved facades are memorials and tombs of wealthy and/or powerful Nabataeans who made Petra their capital sometime in the 6^th century BC.  This would make Petra the oldest ruins that I've ever been to - very cool.

Our guide took us along the winding canyon pointing out other facades and, eventually, more Roman ruins.  Petra has changed hands many times in its lifetime.  The last residents, Bedouins, left in the 60s after King Hussein payed them a personal visit to ask them to leave so that it could be preserved.  In return for them leaving, they were given a new village not far away and they were allowed to work and sell things in Petra.  Most of the vendors we saw in Petra were Bedouin.

We wandered down the canyon admiring the swirling strata of the stone (I had better pictures of the stone but my camera card decided, after this picture, to take a crap and they all went *poof*).  We looked into one chamber to see the burial niches.  We passed Roman temples.  Our guided tour ended at a museum.

At this point we were given choices.  The afternoon was ours to do with what we pleased.  Our guide had told us of another facade known as the Monastery.  By the way, the names given to these facades have nothing to do with what they were used for.  They were all tombs.  The treasury was not a bank.  The Monastery never had monks.  The Monastery lied past the museum ... up 900 steps.  It was probably in the high 90s or low 100s Fahrenheit.  I looked at the Wife and she said Hell Yes.  We hadn't traveled all this way to be turned away by a few steps.

What Would Jordan Be Without A Smiling Camel.

The steps were not all contiguous.  You would walk up a few dozen steps hewn in the stone and then hit a flat stretch.  The path up twisted and turned in and out of shade.  In the flat areas small Bedouin shop keepers had set up tents where you could get shade and buy crafts.  We were passed by surefooted donkeys carrying tourists up the stairs.  I let the Wife set the pace as I figured my usual pace would be too fast.  We were doing pretty good.  Soon we could see a large tent, larger than all the others, up above our heads.  Thinking this was our destination we pushed ahead.  It wasn't the Monastery but it was the location of our most memorable Jordan vacation moment.

I reached the big tent first.  The tent covered a large rest area with chairs, a jewelry store full of Bedouin jewelry, and a snack bar.  I turned around looking for the Wife.  She looked winded so I tried to steer her to one of the chairs.  She passed me, ignoring the chairs, and sat on a step.  I wondered what was happening when she started wheezing, crying, and said she couldn't breathe.  She was having an anxiety attack and hyperventilating.  I tried to calm her down.  She laid flat on her back gasping loudly.  Two French women came over and fanned her with their hats.  I got up and bought cold water and rushed back.  I got back in time to hear one of the French women, her face only a few inches from the Wife's face, say:

"You must promise me you will hire a monkey.  You must ride the monkey down. You must have you husband hire you a monkey."

Now, this was a very confusing thing to hear.  I was confused and you could see in the Wife's eyes that she was thinking about what the French woman was saying.  All this talk of hiring a monkey distracted the Wife so much that she forgot that she couldn't breath and she stopped hyperventilating.  The Wife said later that she was thinking "She means Donkey but she's saying Monkey" and she didn't know if she should laugh or not.  We think that the effort and the heat had combined to deprive the Wife of air which triggered the anxiety attack.

The Wife recovered and downed the water bottle.  I asked if she wanted to go back and she insisted on continuing so, after we had rested a while, we continued.  The Monastery was only about ten minutes further ahead.  At the top there was a very large, lush Bedouin tent with carpets, pillows, hookahs, tea, and cold drinks.  Opposite the tent was a huge facade.  Very impressive and worth the climb.  Because of reasons beyond my control ... damn camera card ... the only picture of the Monastery is a scan of a postcard the Wife bought.

The Monastery - Resorting To A Scanned Postcard - Damn Camera Card.

I left the wife at the tent and went up to some view points.  At one of these viewpoints was a geocache.  I figured it was my last chance to find one in Jordan.  To get to it you had to walk out on a four foot ledge with a knee shaking drop off and search the pock marked cliff face.  I searched and searched and did not find it.  My GPS said I was two feet away from it at one time.  It probably was gone.  Or maybe I was just too tired to see it.  I left Jordan without finding a single geocache.

I rejoined the Wife and we headed back down.  Going down is so much easier.  We stopped at a lunch place near the museum at the bottom and ate ... a buffet lunch.  After eating and drinking our fill we headed back up the canyon to our hotel.  Since it was the afternoon, the temperature had gone up several degrees since the morning and it was really, really hot.  By the time we got to our room we were exhausted and a bit ripe, if you know what I mean.  We had been walking around Petra for about nine hours.  We walked about 10 miles per my GPS (Actually it said 11.67 miles but GPS reception was shaky in some of the valleys and the track actually shows me walking through solid stone in some places so I'm guessing it over did it on the distance).  The vertical, from the museum up to the Monastery was 768 feet.

After showering and cooling off a bit we were crazy enough to go back out and do some shopping.  Prices were pretty reasonable as it was the off season.  We even negotiated for some ice cream.  If we'd known the ice cream was so good in Jordan we would have bought some sooner.  Those Eskimo Pies were awesome.

The last of my pictures have been added to my 2010-07 Jordan Google Photos album.

2010 Vacation: Jordan - Day Four - Madaba, Mt. Nebo, And Al Karak

Jordan is a Muslim country.  Some 94% of the Jordanians are Muslim.  The rest are mostly Greek Orthodox.  After spending three days exploring Muslim, Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman cultures, day four of our Jordan vacation was primarily focused on Christian culture.

We checked out of our Amman hotels, got on our short bus, and headed south.  Our first stop was the city of Madaba.  The city of Madaba is roughly 45% Christian.  One of the first things I noticed as we entered the city were signs advertising liquor and beer.

In Madaba we stopped to visit an example of the Christian churches of the area, the Greek Orthodox Basilica of Saint George.  The church is known for it's extensive mosaics including a mosaic map of the holy land dating back to the 6^th century.  Our guide took us to a room with a blowup of the map and explained several landmarks on the surprisingly complete map before we entered the basilica to see it for ourselves.

Basilica of St. George - Mosaic Map of the Holy Land

From Madaba we went to nearby Mount Nebo, the supposed location of Moses' death.  There is no physical proof of this but it has been visited by two Popes so I presume is is accepted by the church.  From the top you do have some awesome views of Jericho and the Dead Sea, despite the ever present sandy haze.  This is where God gave Moses a view of the promised land before burying him, somewhere, on the mount.

There is a 4^th century church and monastery on the highest point but it was being restored and we could not go in.

Near the entrance of Mount Nebo is a sculpture with representations of Jesus, Moses, and Mohamed.  While the faces of Jesus and Moses are fairly detailed, Mohammed's image is vague to satisfy Islam's prohibition on images of the prophet.

General Tours, our tour company, has a custom of taking it's guests to one charity location, a way to give back to the host country.  In Peru it was an orphanage in Cuzco.  In Jordan it was a mosaic factory outside of Madaba, and not far from Mount Nebo, that employed women and  handicapped artisans run my Queen Noor's charity foundation.  It was interesting.  We learned how mosaics were made and we had the chance to buy the finished products.

Farther south we passed through the "grand canyon of Jordan", Wadi Mujib ('Wadi' means valley in Arabic).  We stopped at a viewpoint and admired the beautiful water-worn landscape and one of the dams that was slowly choking the Dead Sea.

Wadi Mujib

Lunch time approached and we pulled into the city of Al Karak.  We ate at a restaurant facing the crusader castle of Kerak.  After another tasty buffet lunch, we explored the castle.  The crusaders built the castle in the 1140s.  The castle had been used and reused, built and rebuilt, many times over.  The castle felt bigger that the Saracen Castle we'd seen in Aljun.  There were tunnels running under the castle that we were able to walk through.  It was pretty cool.

A Chamber in the Kerak Crusader Castle.

There was a geocache at the castle which I failed to find.  My geo-senses and my luck just weren't working on this trip.

Kerak was the last stop today.  The rest of the day was a driving south, passing by dry farm fields and desert landscapes, ending in Wadi Musa, a town located near Petra.  Our hotel was only a few hundred feet from the entrance.  We checked in and got to our room in time to watch the sunset.  Pictures can be found here.

Sunset Over Wadi Musa.

Book: Benjamin Orbach's "Live From Jordan"

I can't remember ever reading a book that I've received as a gift so it's appropriate that my first gift book was also my first book of 2010. The GodSon was the gift giver and the most appropriate gift to the Wife and I was Benjamin Orbach's "Live From Jordan: Letters Home From My Journey Through the Middle East".

Benjamin Orbach spent thirteen months, from July 2002 to August 2003, living in Jordan and Egypt studying Arabic. The book compiles letters he wrote back home to his family in the USA, one letter per chapter. His account is less about Jordan than of the people he encounters - the true Jordan. He hoped to educate the Jordanian people he met about the United States but ends up being the one educated. His immersion into the culture gave him a perspective that the diplomats, cocooned in their 'green zones' and posh hotels, rarely are exposed to.

The most interesting part was when the Iraq war started. Nothing like being a Jew in an Muslim country when your country is bombing their neighbor. This was the real test to the conclusion Orbach had arrived at - that people in the region liked Americans but hated the American Government. His conclusion, at least for his relationships, turned out to be correct.

I've never read a compilation of letters before -another first for me. It felt cumbersome to me as there wasn't a smooth flow from idea to idea and from chapter to chapter. As I read more this became less distracting. That's good as I ended up liking this book.

When I started this book, I was hoping to learn about the country the Wife and I are going to visit in June. Instead I discovered a whole new perspective. A true gift from ... a gift. Thank you GodSon.

Recommended.

2010 Vacation: Jordan - Day Six - Wadi Rum

I only have one picture from our last full day in Jordan so you'll have to use your imagination ...

We checked out of our hotels in Wasi Musa and drove south out of town.  As we left we stopped at an overlook and took in the sweeping vista.  Our guide pointed out the extent of Petra.  The site is much larger than most people realize.  It would probably take a week or more to explore all its nooks and crannies.

[Insert Petra Panorama Here]

On the mountaintop on the left of the panorama, the white dot, is a mosque/shrine.  It is the purported burial place of Aaron, brother to Moses.

We continued south, driving through small desert towns.  We passed by fields with herds of camels [Insert Picture of Camels Here].  We crossed our first train track and the exit to the Camel Racing course, before arriving at the Wadi Rum visitor's center.

Wadi Rum, a valley named after a prominent mountain in the region, Mount Rum, reminded me a lot of the American desert southwest.  Parts of it were reminiscent of formations I saw near Moab.  This makes since as the Moabite kingdom was located in Jordan though not in Wadi Rum.

We walked out back of the visitor's center and saw a group of pickups, the ubiquitous Toyotas that are found in all countries all over the world, decked out with seats in the bed, and a sun covering [Insert Picture of Pickups Here].  We climbed into two of the trucks and raced out into the desert.  Ours was the lead pickup so we were spared from eating dust.

Our first view was of the Seven Pillars of Wisdom, [Insert Picture of Seven Pillars of Wisdom Here] a rock formation named after the book by T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia).  Lawrence based his operations out of the Wadi Rum area in 1917-1918.

The tour continued past large sand dunes, petroglyphs marking caravan routes [Insert Picture of Petroglyphs Here], and stunning vistas.

[Insert Stunning Vista Here]

After driving through one stunning view after another we stopped at a Bedouin tent to have tea.  Outside the tent were carvings of three faces, one of them being Lawrence of Arabia [Insert Picture of Carved Face Here].  Now, I know this is a sin to some of my bloggy friends but, frankly, I am not fond of tea.  I especially am not fond of hot tea when it's in the 90s in the shade.  Having said this, I didn't want to anger Allah any more than I already had so I took tea with the Bedouins and drank it down once it had cooled off enough (I think I burned my lips a bit - it was very hot tea - and I'm not used to hot beverages).

We returned to the visitor's center and got back on our short bus.  We drove north the rest of the day.  We made one stop at a rest house where I took my last picture - a picture of a falcon.  I would come to despise this falcon.

The rest of the day was a long drive back to Amman.  We dropped some of the tour group at the airport so they could catch flights out that evening.  We returned back to our Amman hotel and spent a quiet last night in Jordan.  It felt odd.  When we went to Peru we left rather late in the evening but before most of our group had left.  It felt right.  In Jordan I felt like we had over stayed our visit.

2010 Vacation: Jordan - Recovery

We got back home late last night from vacation.  Jordan was great and I will post about it over the next three or six weeks.  Today, Monday, was reserved for recovery.

In the case of this vacation, recovery pertains to two different issues.  The first is the one familiar to almost anyone who has taken a vacation - you often need a vacation to recover from the vacation.  Jordan was no different.  For me this recovery is more difficult than usual because of the eight hour time difference and the resulting jet lag that I have never experienced to this magnitude.  I think I am recovering better than I expected but I still feel like I'm in a fog.  I'm sure it will take a day or two to get everything back on rhythm.

The second issue that I'm recovering from was unexpected and very disappointing and ate up most of my day.  I took some 636 pictures in the six days we were in Jordan.  When I got back I discovered that 284 of these were corrupt and unviewable.  Yep, 44% of my pictures went *poof* into the ether.  Now, I suspected that something was wrong when I was taking pictures, and I'll talk about it in future posts, so I wasn't totally surprised today but I did have some hope that I was wrong.  I wasn't.  The files are corrupt.  Damn.

I spent most of the day downloading photo/file recovery programs in the futile attempt to recover some of the lost pictures.  Fortunately most of the programs are free to try out (you only have to pay to save the files) so when they didn't work I was out nothing.  I tried out three and had the same results.  The files are of varying sizes and appear 'normal' but they are not recognized as an image.  I suspect that the problem is with the memory card I was using.  If any of you have any suggestions for a utility/program that may help me recover my pictures, please share in the comments.

To top it off when I plugged the card into the computer to copy off the files, my virus scanner lit up like a Christmas tree.  After I first suspected a problem, I'd gone down to the hotel business center to see if I could view my pictures (I couldn't - no RAW viewer).  Apparently I infected the camera card and my USB thumbdrive with four viruses/trojans.  Fortunately my virus scanner caught them and disposed of them for me.

As I said, I will post more over the next few weeks.  For now I'll say that I had an awesome time, experienced a lot of firsts, and saw a lot of interesting things.

2010 Vacation: Jordan - Day One - Amman

Monday, Day One of our tour, started at midnight for me.  I couldn't sleep.  I suppose it wasn't a very good idea to sleep on the airplane.  I went in and out of consciousness all night.  The Wife was smart and took an Excedrin PM.  I would have been totally irritated by my insomnia except for one thing: at 3:35 AM I heard the Call to Prayer.  It wasn't as loud as I expected it would be.  It sounded ghostly, ephemeral, and quite beautiful.  In Amman the call to prayer is a uniform recording that is started at the exact same time for all mosques.  The result is an harmonious citywide chorus.  Outside of Amman the call is sung live and the many different voices are more cacophonous.

After breakfast (beef bacon ?!?) we met our guide for the next six days -  Suhaib Al Nweihy.  Suhaib was twenty-something wearing a polo shirt with his collar turned up.  He looked like some bar hopping gigolo.  He turned out to be a nice guy and fairly knowledgeable.  He led us to a minivan where we met the first of our tour mates - M_SD.  M_SD was a retired civil servant from San Diego.  She would be the only other American on the tour.  She would also be our only companion for the next two days.  Ultimately our group would consist of twelve people of six nationalities living in three different hotels.  Our group would not be completely together until the afternoon of day three.

The first stop of the day was the Citadel.  Amman is built on a series of hills in the east mountains.  The Citadel, a group of Iron Age, Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman ruins, is located on one of those hills.  The Roman city built here is called Philadelphia and was one of the Decapolis Cities.  This is where we were first exposed to the mixture of cultures that make up the history of Jordan.  Everywhere we went it was mainly Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman.  The ruins were my first Roman ruins and were very interesting.  After touring the grounds we went through the small but well stocked museum that included some of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Temple of Hercules

After leaving the Citadel we travel into one of the many valleys/canyons criss crossing the city to the Roman amphitheater.  The place has a capacity of 6,000 people.  The Wife and I climbed up to the top, not an easy feat in 85°F heat.  Along the way I looked for a geocache that was supposed to be hidden there.  We didn't find it and the cache logs appear to indicate that it's been gone for a while.

Roman Amphitheater from the Citadel

At this point our guide said that we had a free afternoon.  This came as a surprise as I didn't realize we had a free afternoon scheduled.  On the way back to the hotel we passed a shopping district and some of the more modern areas of Amman.  The guide explained that most buildings were built of Jordanian limestone which gives it the sandy beige - white -rose color.  Amman is sometimes refereed to as the white city.

At the hotel we decided to do a couple of things.  We found out that we were not visiting a mosque on this tour so we would visit one.  We also decided to go back to the shopping area we'd passed to do some shopping.  This is also where I had a pang of insecurity and a mild panic attack.  What is it about being in a foreign country in a taxi that sets the hair on the back of my head aloft?  What's worse, I would have to ask questions ... the horror.  Fortunately I got over my hissy-fit and we got on with our business.

We went to the hotel desk and asked about a taxi.  They suggested hiring a taxi as a city guide for about 15 JD per hour.  We went out front and the bell hop called a taxi over.  Talking with the driver (in English of course) we negotiated for 25 JD for two hours of his service and off we went.

Our first stop was the King Abdullah Mosque, a mosque we'd passed on the way to the Citadel.  The taxi parked opposite the visitor's center.  The traffic was fairly heavy and I wondered how we would cross.  Before I could wonder for long, the driver just stepped out into the street and walked across.  The cars didn't stop.  Horns were not honked. He just walked across like there was no traffic and the traffic avoided him.  I decided, rather foolishly, that I could do that too and I just walked out across the street.  It felt a little like playing Frogger without the stress of being hit.  When I reached the other side, frankly, I was amazed that I hadn't been run over.  I looked at the Wife who was still on the other side.  It became obvious that she was not as crazy as I was.  The taxi driver, also realizing what was happening, stepped back into traffic and managed to stop the traffic so that the Wife could cross.  Crazy.

First stop at the mosque was to get some coverings for the Wife.  She was given a black robe-thingy that covered all but her face.  Then we walked through a small museum featuring models of other famous mosques all over Jordan.  We picked up a brochure that explains Islam and, most interestingly, condemns those who "have done gruesome and criminal acts in its name."  This was followed by the main attraction, the interior of the mosque.  We had been a little strategic in picking the time of our visit, planning it to be between times of prayer.  We took off our shoes and entered the main prayer area which was empty except for three or four men praying.  It felt a little like a round church without pews.  A niche in the wall, where the Imam would preside, was set in the direction of Mecca.  The dome was ringed in stained glass.

We then went to the room where the women pray.  Unfortunately I didn't realize where we were going.  The Wife went in as I approached (I was taking exterior pictures).  Our taxi driver took off his shoes and then put them back on.  I took off my shoes and went in.  The taxi driver then took off his shoes again and followed me in.  There was only one women in the room but the Wife said that she had an horrified look on her face (again, I was taking pictures and missed the look).  Next thing I know a woman police officer came in and ushered us out.  She also chewed out the taxi driver.  When I realized what was going on I looked at the taxi driver and said "You could have stopped me."  He just shrugged and smiled sheepishly.  We were a little embarrassed.

Our next stop was shopping.  Unfortunately to the taxi driver this meant taking us to one of his friend's store.  While it was a very nice store, it was obvious that it was also overpriced.  I sort of let him know with my look and manner that I wasn't very happy.  He knew exactly where we'd wanted to go and was just trying to make some extra money on the side for his friend.  We bought some small trinket and the Wife wisely used this chance to find out what overpriced looked like in Jordan.  This helped us find some better deals later on.

Back in the Taxi and off we went to the shopping area that we'd seen earlier in the day.  We stopped and the driver showed us a shop that he said was pretty good.  We walked the street a bit before returning to this store.  Fifteen minutes later, after talking with a real salesman, one who probably watched too many westerns,  we had some Christmas shopping done and we got pretty good deals on all of it, I think.

When we got back to the hotel we were a half hour over our two hour time allotment.  To the driver's credit he did not ask for more money and stuck to our original agreement.  We recognized the honesty by paying the original 30 JD and added a tip on top for him.

Later that night our guide picked us up and took us to Kan Zaman, an Ottoman trading post whose stables had been converted into a restaurant.  Here we had another buffet but it was a more authentic Jordanian food experience than what the hotel offered.  We invited our driver (Mohammed) to join us and we had interesting dinner conversation over interesting food.  I would never have guessed that I would like lamb in a yogurt sauce (Mansaf) but I was surprised.  I'm not sure I can say I liked it but I can say that I had no problem eating it.

After eating I took out my camera and took pictures of the stone domed arches and the impressive dinning hall.  I decided to check out a few of the other pictures I taken earlier that day.  That is when I discovered that my camera would not display several pictures.  Actually, of the 167 pictures I'd taken that day, only about 35 to 40 were viewable.  My heart sunk.  I had an extra battery but I did not have an extra SDHC card. On the way back to the hotel I asked the guide if we could stop somewhere to buy a new card on day two of our tour and he said we would.

That night I spent about an hour in the business center trying to see if the pictures were good or bad.  Unfortunately there was no RAW viewer capable of viewing the pictures I took.  Everything looked okay.  The files were there and they varied in size like pictures would.  I didn't accomplish much except to infect the camera card and my thumbdrive with Viruses/Trojans.  I went to bed, after taking an Excedrin PM, hoping that the pictures would be there when I got home.  I slept better that night - better than I expected I would - while it was the Wife's turn to hear the call to prayer at 4:00 AM.  (The time of the call to prayer is based on the rise and set of the Sun so it varies as the day lengthens and shortens.)

The Wife and I have come to the conclusion that my camera problems were punishment for entering the woman's mosque.

The few pictures I took that survived can be found in my 2010-07 Jordan Google Photos album.  What is missing is most of the Citadel, the museum (including pictures of the dead sea scrolls), the roman amphitheater up close, the King Abdullah mosque, the Kan Zaman, and, most disappointing, the seven goat heads lined up in a butcher's window.  As I post, I will add more pictures to the set.

2012 Asian Adventure - China Epilogue

China was magnificent.  The tour had been structured perfectly.  I mentioned before that the tour was done in reverse.  This turned out to be perfect.  I can't imagine starting the tour in Beijing all jet lagged, with a busy itinerary, and trying to get to know your new travel mates.  Shanghai was a better place to get your bearings and for group introductions.

We ended up with a group of wonderful people - not tourists but travelers.  The group adds a lot.  Of the three group trips I've been on (Peru, Jordan, and China) two of the groups have been an asset.  Jordan is the only group that disappointed.  Jordan was a mix of Americans, Central Americans, and Europeans.  Peru and China were all American.  That might have been the difference.  Not to say Americans are better, we just had more in common.

Someone asked me what was my favorite place in China.  I can't really put my finger on any one place.  It seemed like every new place we would visit was spectacular or at least new.  Even the touristy parts were satisfying.  Just about everything was awesome:

• Our four day cruise on the Yangtze was a perfect length.  We ran into another tour group who'd had a nine day cruise and they had been bored out of the skulls.  Our cruise was full to the brim with activities with just the right amount of down time.

• We made it to Tibet, something the other tour groups we encountered could not say.  Again I say, we were so ... so lucky to get to go to Lhasa.

• We went to the major Panda breeding facility in China.  Other groups went to smaller ones in Chongqing.

• Add in all the temples, palaces, terracotta soldiers, Tienanmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Great Wall and everything met or exceeded my expectations.

All in all, we had an incredible trip through China with a very good guide.  She suggested changes that all turned out for the better.  She did not hesitate to answer our questions, even the tough ones about the cultural revolution and the one child policy.  Her honesty was a pleasant surprise.  While our guide answered all our history/political questions, she did have one short coming.  There were four teachers in our group.  Two were science teachers who loved to ask questions like "What kind of bird is that?  What kind of tree is that? Where are all the birds?"  Our guide couldn't answer any of them.  It was like nature was a mystery to her.  At one point a peacock screeched (if you've heard a peacock you know how they can be loud and obnoxious) and our guide said it was a panda.  We all laughed at that.  She eventually confessed to us that during those nature classes she had met her husband and was ... a little distracted.

Not everything was great.  I wasn't thrilled with the rickshaw ride in Beijing.  We were there in monsoon season so the sun was a rare sight indeed but the lack of hard rain was welcome.  Throughout our travels there was always an air of oppression.  It wasn't unexpected, and it wasn't always obvious ... except in Lhasa where it felt like a cloud hanging over everything, but it was still there.  In all of our hotels, very comfortable hotels, we always had access to CNN International, BBC International, and/or Al Jazeera.  When we asked the guide about some riots in Hong Kong, she didn't know anything about it.  Turns out these international channels are only available in hotels and are not available to the Chinese citizens.  I didn't do much on the internet while I was there except check e-mail.  The wife, being the obsessed teacher she sometimes is, had to check her students AP test scores.  We never encountered a blocked site.  When I got home I changed my e-mail password ... just in case.

Most importantly the negative was overwhelmed by the awesome and I left China with wonderful memories and a bit tired from all of what we'd seen and experienced.  I can't ask for anything more from my travels.

Pictures from the China and Tibet portion of our travels can be found in my 2012-06 China and 2012-06 Tibet Google Photos albums.

Our 2012 Asian Adventure continues ...

I'm Beginning To Hate ... Falcons

I've been putting off posting about Jordan until I find out the results of my latest attempt to recover my corrupt pictures.  Well, the pictures arrived in the mail today on four DVDs.  I would like to share a small sample of the recovered pictures:

The last picture I took in Jordan was of a Falcon at a rest stop.  Every picture that was "recovered" was of the falcon.  Several hundred pictures of the F-ing falcon.  When I click on the thumbnail, I get "invalid image".

I haven't given up all hope.  I think I'll visit a local camera store to see if they have any ideas. What bothers me is all the files on the card are of varying sizes consistent with a RAW format picture but all the recovered pictures have the same size.  Seems odd to me.

Anyway, I plan to start posting about Jordan tomorrow with the pictures I have.  I'm missing three quarters of the first day, half of Petra, and all of Wadi Rum.  All in all, I lost about two of the six days.

Sorry for the delay.

And Away We Go ... To Jordan

Today I stopped by AAA and put a deposit down on a tour. Where are we going? Jordan. Next June we are taking an eight day tour of Jordan.

This trip will have several firsts for me. First flight across an ocean. First flight longer than six hours. First time in Asia. And on the way back, first time in Europe - a least for a few hours in an airport.

I'm really looking forward to this trip. I really need to get out of the country and experience something new ... really new. For awhile there I thought I'd picked the wrong name for my blog.

Anticipation ... Planning ... Worries ... Vacation Planning

Make a list.  Check it twice. That's what I've been doing for the past week or so.  Preparing for our Jordan trip.

• Scan passports and copy them to a thumb drive.  Oh yeah and e-mail a copy to yourself just in case.
• Frequent flier numbers.  Where are they?  Write them down and don't forget to apply them to the tickets at check-in.
• Turn off half.com and amazon seller accounts.  Can't fill them orders when you are out of the country.
• Hold the mail.  The snail mail, that is.
• Can I trust the foreign computers?  Copy Portable Chrome and KeePass to the thumb drive as well ... oh and an antivirus thingamajig too.
• Replace the camera screen protector.  The old one has started to curl.
• Charge the camera batteries ... both of them.
• Are there any geocaches in Jordan?  38?!?  Copy them to the GPS.  Oh yeah, batteries for the GPS - pack 'em.
• Send the itinerary to the families.  Don't forget the emergency number.
• Speaking of numbers, what are the lost credit card phone numbers?  (Hope I don't need them.)
• Call the credit card companies and tell them I'm traveling.  This always reduces the amount of hassle when using the card overseas.
• Do I need a packing list?  Damn, I don't have one yet.  What's taking me so long?
• Jordanian Dinars ( $1.00 = 0.7077 JD) to buy the visa with.
• US Dollars to buy the Wife's new Bedouin jewelry.  Do I have enough?
• Who will water our plants?  Oh yeah, that's taken care of.
• How do we get to the airport?  Right, that's taken care of as well.
• What am I missing?  So much,  I'm sure.

That's what my mind has been going through.  Too many nit picking little details that have to be taken care of before we leave.  Obfuscating all of these preparation ruminations are the niggling worries that are spinning in my head.

• Will I like the food?  Fear of food has been a lifelong companion and the food of other cultures ... *shiver*
• Will I forget something important in all the chaos?  I have to remember to consult the list.
• Will I be able to sleep on the airplane?  We have thirteen and a half hours of flight time and I need to sleep.  I don't sleep very well on planes.  I don't want to be a zombie on the first day of the tour.
• I hate airplane bathrooms.  Silly, I know.  I think I've used bathrooms on airplanes three or four times in my 46 years of life.  I hate interrupting the person beside me to get out.
• Will I be overwhelmed by the exotic nature of it all?  The strange language?  The strange customs?  Okay, I doubt this will be a problem but ...
• Will I accidentally eat with my left hand?  The left hand is considered unclean to Muslims and using it to eat or to hand something to someone is offensive to Islam.  I am right handed and it shouldn't be a problem but ... one careless moment is all it takes for awkward to make its appearance.
• Will I sweat my guts out (90+ everyday).

All of these plans and worries will soon fade away, forced aside by all the cool stuff and new experiences.  Jordan, for a Muslim country, is pretty liberal and we will probably be prepared well by our tour guides.  Our Peru vacation was similar ... except I knew the language.

I am soooo ready ... I think.

2010 Vacation: Jordan - Day Three - Ajlun And Jerash

Day three was a big day with two very cool sites being visited in addition to expansion of our tour group.

This morning we graduated from the mini-bus to the ... short bus.  Well, the short bus was definitely more comfortable.  We three Americans were joined by a German couple and two Costa Rican couples.  After a few introductions we realized that the Costa Ricans couldn't speak English.  This made the tour guide's job a lot more difficult.  I'm sure it wasn't very pleasant for the Costa Ricans as well.

As we drove north we passed by groves of olive trees.  This area is famous for it's olives and olive oil.  The road wound through hills until we approached the town of Ajlun, the location of a 12th century Saracen castle.  Ajlun Castle was built by the Saracens, Muslims, to protect against the crusaders.  Our first view, as we approached, made it obvious why the castle was erected where it had been - the castle was at the top of a hill overlooking all approaches.  It would be easy to defend and you could keep an eye over a lot of terrain including the valuable iron mines in the area.

We toured the castle including mosaic floors, cannonball-sized head-bonking ammunition, a small museum displaying artifacts excavated in the area.  The view off the top of the castle was impressive.  One thing we discovered is that Jordan is in an active earthquake zone and most ancient sites, including this one, had been destroyed in earlier earthquakes.  What we saw today was reconstructed using whatever could be salvaged from the original ruins.

As we were leaving I realized that there was a geocache near the castle.  Unfortunately, I realized this as we were pulling away from the castle.  I wasn't paying very much attention to my GPS.

Our second stop was the Roman city of Jerash.  Jerash, another of the decapolis cities, is one of the best preserved Roman cities in the middle east.  After walking through the gauntlet of vendors trying to sell all all sorts of souvenirs, we enter the Roman ruins through the Arch of Hadrian, past the hippodrome where chariot races are reenacted.  First stop was the visitor's center for lunch.  We met up with the last four members of our group, a Swiss couple, a Canadian, and a Romanian.

After lunch we walked by the Temple of Zeus before entering the piazza.  This was one of the most impressive parts of the ruins to me.  The large area surrounded by pillars hinted at how many people lived/worked/worshiped here.  The call to prayer started and our guide explained to the larger group about the call, how it was recorded in Amman, and it was performed live elsewhere.  The call was definitely more chaotic here but still quite beautiful.

After the call finished we entered an amphitheater and listened to a group, two drummers and a bagpiper, play.  A Bagpipe, you say?  Yep, a remnant of British rule.

After the mini-concert we walked along the main thoroughfare of the city passing by the nymphaeum and ending in front of the steps to the Temple of Artemis.  It was very warm hot and our guide wasn't going to take us up to the temple so a bunch of us, including the Wife, took the initiative and headed up the stairs.  The stairs are actually interesting.  There are seven flights with a deeper step in between each flight.  From the bottom the long steps are not visible and the stairs look like one long flight (signifying the difficult journey to be with the gods).  From the top of the stairs looking down you only see the seven deep steps (signifying the easy journey back home).  It was an interesting illusion.

I walked around the temple and pulled out my GPS to look for a geocache near the temple.  The GPS took me around to the back corner of the temple.  I looked around a bit, getting as close as six feet, when I looked up and saw one of the tourist police looking down at me.  I guess he was making sure I wasn't taking a part of the temple with me.  Not wanting to explain what a geocache was, I abandoned my search and rejoined the tour group.

This was our last stop.  After shopping for souvenirs, we got on our short bus, returned to our hotels, rested up, and packed.  Tomorrow we were heading south into the desert.

Photographs of Aljun and Jerash have been added to my 2010-07 Jordan Google Photos album.

Our Next Travels Abroad ... It's A Long One

Next month, and half of the one after that, we will venture outside America for the first time since December 2019.  We will be hitting several things on our bucket list while visiting two continents.

Our travels will start in Israel, move on to Turkey and Egypt, before ending in Ethiopia.  This will be our longest trip - forty-five days - nearly two weeks longer than our previous record.  The travels begin with a fifteen hours worth of flights from Omaha to Tel Aviv, Israel via Chicago and Frankfurt.

• The first part of our travels will be seven days in Israel.  During our stay here we will be visiting: Tel Aviv, Sea of Galilee, Tiberias, Capernaum, the Golan Heights, the Jordan Valley, Jerusalem, Mount Zion, The Tower of David, Bethlehem, the Dead Sea (our second visit here - the last time from the Jordan side of the sea), and Masada.
• The second part of our travels will be thirteen days in Turkey.  Our first couple days here will be free for us as we get here a couple days before the start of our tour.  After the second day we will be visiting: Istanbul, Topkapi Palace, Cappadocia (including a hot air balloon ride), Izmir, Ephesus, Bodrum, and a ride on a gulet on the Aegean Sea.
• The third part of our travels takes us from the Asian continent to Africa starting with nine days in Egypt.  In Egypt we will visit: Cairo, the pyramids and the sphinx, the Egyptian Museum, a four day Nile cruise with stops at the Karnak Temple, the Valley of the Kings, the Aswan Dam, and Abu Simbel.
• The fourth and final part of our travels will be thirteen days in Ethiopia.  In Ethiopia we will visit:  Addis Ababa, Harar, Lalibela, Arba Minch, a boat safari, visits with the Konso, Karo, Hamer, and several other tribes.

This trip is a combination of four tours given by our favorite tour company, Anderson & Roberts.  We have done fifteen of their tours, nineteen with this next trip.  They hit all the best spots and the groups are always small (often less than eight people).  It's nice to just sit back and not have to worry about how to get there and where to stay but it can be expensive.  This will very likely be our last tour-centric trip.   After this one we will do more of the legwork and cut out the middleman to reduce costs.

Camino De Santiago: The Packing List

I've been thinking about the packing list for my Camino walk for ... probably since 2007 when I first heard of the Camino.  As a matter of fact I think I started a list in Google Docs before I retired.  I've added and subtracted from it over the years since then.  The current draft, and that's what it is, a draft, is available here.  You can also reach it by the Camino de Santiago tab at the top of Homer's travels.

When I first put the list together it was much longer.  I put together a list of everything that I might find useful on a long walk like the Camino.  After I'd made the list I went through and marked each item as either Mandatory or Optional.  I ruminated on these classifications for a while taking into account things I'd read about the Camino experience.  One thing you hear about is the shedding of stuff as people go along the trail.  I even heard of people ripping the pages out of books as they read them so that they could lighten their load.  Being a person who doesn't like to throw away his stuff, or destroy books, I have to pare the list as best I can before I fly to Spain.

So, let's go over the basics of the current list:

• Clothes.  I'll be carrying a minimum of clothes.  Two pairs of pants, three shirts (or two shirts and a base layer), three pairs of socks, and three pairs of underwear.  I will be doing laundry along the way.  Possibly every night.  Very likely by hand.  The shirts and pants I'm taking are quick drying.  One short cut I have heard about is simple walking in the shower with you dirty clothes on and washing them as you shower.  
• I'll be wearing the same pants I took to Jordan - cargo pants with zip off legs.  This way, if it's warm I have shorts.  I'm still a little up in the air about the shirts.  I'll be taking long sleeve shirts like I wore in Jordan.  The shirts I have have lots of pockets and are vented so you don't overheat. One issue is just how cool it will be.  I have heard that it can be quite chilly, especially in the morning, so I am thinking about substituting a base layer for one of the shirts.  The base layer can be worn by itself or under another shirt giving me a few options.
• I'll be taking three brand new pairs of OmniWool Merino Wool socks.  OmniWool is similar to SmartWool but is slightly cheaper and has a slightly higher wool content.  They are thick, durable, moisture wicking, warm, and wear well.  I've worn them for over two years now and I like them very much.
• A light rain/wind breaker jacket will add one more layer of protection against cold and rain.
• My Tilley hat ... naturally.
• Shoes.  Possibly the most important piece of equipment for walking the Camino are your shoes.  I'm currently walking in New Balance MW977 shoes.  These shoes are amazing.  Lighter than you typical boot.  Waterproof.  They hug your feet and my orthotics fit them snuggly and comfortably.   I've walked a lot in these shoes and have yet to get a blister.  I am considering buying a new pair a month or so before the Camino (a month before to give me time to break them in, of course).  Unfortunately I can't find the 977s on the New Balance website but they appear to have been replaced with the MW978.  If I just wear my current shoes, I would be worried that they may wear out before I make it to Santiago de Campostela and shoes are just too important for this adventure.
• I'll also have a pair of flip flops/shower shoes to wear in the shower, of course, and at the end of the day when my feet need to air out a bit.  This particular pair are actually described as post-exercise shoes with added arch support that my feet seem to like.
• Back Pack.  My Go-Lite Lite-Speed pack is compact and light.  I wore it on my steamboat trace hike and found that the weight rested comfortably on my hips as a pack should.  It has a pocket for a water bladder.  It's small at 49.13 liters (3,000in³) but large enough for what I'll be carrying.  I expect rain so I have a pack cover.
• Hydration.  I thought about this one for a while.  I even asked about it in a post.  I decided to go with a two liter bladder.  I don't like the fact there isn't an easy way to tell how much water you have left but experience has shown me that two liters is enough for the 12 mile hike, the length of the average Camino stage.  I will supplement the bladder with water bottles purchased/filled along the way.  Not knowing the quality of the water along the way, I will probably also pack water purification tablets.
• Gadgets and gadget food.  I'm taking two gadgets that, as a geek, I do not consider to be optional.
• I can not go to Spain without a camera.  To keep the size down I will be taking my old Canon Powershot S5 is.  It's still a great camera and the camera plus the bag is less than half the weight of my new T1i.  I will take two 16 GByte memory cards which should give me some 8,000+ pictures or about 200 a day.  I hope that will be enough.  The camera also runs on standard AA batteries which is a plus in my book.
• I will be carrying my GPS with a chip loaded with Spanish maps.  The site that helped me generate my stages also provides a GPS GPX file, loaded with the trail, albergues, and points of interest, that will be loaded in the GPS as well.  The GPS will allow me to geotag my pictures when I get back and will allow me to record all the distance traveled, average speed, and elevation numbers that makes the number geek in me happy.
• I will be carrying 22 pieces of gadget food (i.e. Batteries).  I'l be carrying Lithium batteries as they are lighter and have a longer runtime in my GPS and camera.  I have considered just buying batteries along the way but I am not sure how common lithium batteries will be and I don't really want to deal with the much shorter run time of regular alkaline batteries.  The number is based on the distance (481 miles), my average speed (3 MPH), and the maximum runtime of my GPS (23 hours on a set of two lithium batteries).   So fourteen batteries will be needed for the GPS and another eight to cover the camera.  The one good thing is the weight of the batteries will decline as I shed the spent batteries along the way.
• Journal and pen.  I expect to find internet access along the way at internet cafes and similar places but I have no desire to post during my walk (except for the occasional e-mail to the Wife and maybe a Facebook status update if I feel like it).  My plan is to keep notes about what I experience, how far I walk, the people I meet, the sights I see along the way in a notebook.  I'm looking at buying one of these Rite in the Rain Spiral Notebook.  I just need to decide on a size and page count.
  
• Multitool.  I'll be taking a Leatherman Skeletool with me.  I kind of hemmed and hawed about this for a while.  It never hurts to have a knife, with tools attached, along ... except if you want to carry your bag on the airplane.  I'm not convinced that my backpack could be acceptable as carry-on (it's a little bigger than the size limits).  Wanting a knife in that bag makes the carry-on vs check it decision a little easier.  Of course, if there's a time that lost luggage would be disastrous, this would be it.
• Miscellaneous Necessities. This covers a lot of stuff.
• A headlamp for those days that I start out before sunrise ... or arrive after sunset.
• A small first aid kit augmented with extra ibuprofen/acetaminophen, moleskin, and band aids.
• A camp towel for drying off.
• A light weight, fleece sleeping bag.  The one I'm looking at is not much more than a fleece blanket with zippers.  It's rated down to 50°F which isn't that cold but I should be sleeping indoors and I can always sleep in my clothes for extra warmth.  I've heard this is a must as some albergues do not have linen for the beds.
• Toiletries and medicine.  We all should shave and brush our teeth, even after walking half way across Spain.  I'll be taking a compact toothbrush, toothpaste, a bar of soap (I can buy more along the way), shampoo, a couple disposable razors, shaving cream, laundry soap of some type, and my triglyceride/cholesterol medicines.

So that's my tentative list.  I still have to make some purchases and I will debate the multitool probably up until the time I go to the airport.  Let me know in the comments if you think I forgot anything, if you think I don't need something, or you just want to express your welcome opinion.