Amra Palace Hotel - Wadi Musa, Jordan

My room was small but well appointed.

The view from my window was up the hill and not really spectacular, but I didn't actually spend any time looking out the window.

The front of the hotel. The hotel has a pool, Turkish bath and a patio with a great view of the valley. It was nice to see a water feature.

Wadi Musa

Carolyn and I hired a driver to take us from the retreat to Wadi Musa, which is just outside of Petra in Jordan. Our first glimpse of Petra was from the highway above Wadi Musa.

The rugged mountains in the background are Petra.

Puzzling at Retreat

Besides reading a novel during our free afternoons, I managed to get in a bit of time doing a jigsaw puzzle. The first puzzle was done quickly, but we ran out of time for the second one. I only seem to find time for puzzles at Christmas, so this was a nice treat for me.

Meals at the Retreat Centre

Lunch and supper ended with a dessert of fruit. Above you can see some huge peaches. They were very firm and not that juicy, but very good.

Basim and his son Chris (almost 3) live in Palestine (his wife and daughter are not pictured here). Chris was interrupted from a nap to eat supper, which didn't go over that well with him.

This was the least Middle-Eastern meal we had. The carrots, though cooked, were served as a salad.

We all tried to eat with different people each meal to connect with each person.

City Mall - Amman, Jordan

After visiting historical sites, the MCC group had half an hour to visit the mall. Some people dashed off to Second Cup for their favourite beverage, while others raced to Carrefour to find tea sets.

We all gathered back on the main road to get back on our bus. Ingrid had bought some olive bread which she shared with everyone. It was kind of like a huge pretzel with olives in it. Chewy, but good.

The oldest mosaic map of the Middle East

Mosaics are really popular around here.

The map was discovered while workers were building a new building on this site. The church is called St. George's and it is in Madaba.

Here is the explanation of the map.

A happy family

Some of you will remember these people from Winnipeg. They are all doing very well.