The night lights of Wadi Musa

This is the view from the Amra Palace patio.

Relaxing at the hotel

The view from the hotel patio included a mosque only a few feet away. A mosque with a very good sound system I might add. There is a canopy over the patio and a really nice place to sit and read a book.

Afternoon in Wadi Musa

Carolyn loves her Turkish coffee, so we found a bakery near the hotel that served coffee and treats. Most of the desserts feature pistachios. We sampled a number of tiny treats.

The view from our table. We were entertained by all the people coming and going up and down the street. They even had workers picking up garbage.

A look back at the bakery. It is that really big fancy building with the pillars.

There were many barbers in the neighborhood, so I eventually gave in and got a Jordanian hair cut. It cost 5 JD (about 7 Canadian dollars) and was completed in about 5 minutes. The barber didn't ask anything and I just let him do what he did. He landed up shortening my beard, giving me a shave, and trimming my eyebrows and ear hair.

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.