The dead sea

The original plan for today was to have an easy day... get some money exchaged.... get a Jordanian sim card for my telephone and chill out...

First we went for a little walk around Maria's house...

That's Maria's house on the picture above

And those are the views of Amman from a nearby place


After the walk we decided to execute our well laid out plan... but when do plans work out the way you expected?... it turned out that today is a bank holiday so it took us the whole morning to realise that there was no way we could do what we wanted so we settled for a nice lunch in a nearby place that Maria new.

First they brought us a shot of some vegetable soup (yes... a Zucchini shot! while you wait for your food).

Then came the humous with beef

And as main a chicken dish... in a breaded cover... and look at the chicken legs... there's even a piece of bread so you can pick it up without burning your dirty fingers. If you are like me and love bread... this is as close as you can get to bread paradise! :-)

We also added some breaded cheese just for good measure

After that we decided to go to the Dead sea... just like that!... we were mobile as we had a rented car so we packed our swimming gear and off we went to the Dead Sea. :-)

The beach is not free... but you only live once! :-)
You can also join some hotel and pay a little bit more (or a lot more depending on the hotel) and get drinks and a buffet included in the price.

When you get to the beach, you are greated by what initially look like some bizarre warnings

Those looked a little bizarre to me but once you get into the water it becomes obvious that you actually cannot swim because you float too much and more importantly... as I can tell from personal experience... if you let a drop of water go into your eyes you'll be in agony for 5 minutes... I tried it twice for good measure... you cannot swim without some kind of protective glasses.

The water feels like oil instead of water.... even your bathing suit is dry as soon as you get off the water... the "water" just slips off.

During the day is nice and calm... not a hint of wind...

There are really interesting salt deposits of different kinds on your way to the water

Even in the water

But the most important thing of all

You float!!!!

A lot actually. If you go to a place where you can't stand any more and try to jump in the water and touch the ground with your feet you just can't... water pushes you back out again. :-)

We played around a bit, I came out a couple of times to dry up my aching crying eyes and next thing we know it was the sundown

After that, they ask you to get out of the water. Not just because they cannot see you if something happens to you but because apparently, at night there are quite strong winds that generate very strong waves and it's actually quite dangerous to swim under those conditions... which explains why you are not allow to swim after sundown...

Later we went to grab a bite in a local English pub and made our way back home...