Fjords of Oman

This week Larry planned the most amazing trip to a city in Oman called Musandam. We drove about four hours north of Abu Dhabi up the Pennisula right to the very tip of the country. Evidently the city sits just 25 km from the coast of Iran. Once we got there we drove up into the mountains to see what we could discover. We ended up finding lots of cliff homes. They reminded me of the cliff dwellings you can see in the Southern Utah area. The only difference is that here the people still live in them. Larry arranged for us to camp on a dhow (traditional Omani boat) that night. We boarded the boat around 5pm.

I was curious to see how Paije would do on her first camping trip. We carried her on with all the other camping gear.

When we set sail she just chilled with everybody.

The sunset on the water was beautiful.

For dinner that night the guide made us a traditional meal of curry something with rice. Under the open sky Paije slept the longest she has slept in her entire life! 7 hours!!!! I think the lull of the water kept her as happy as a clam.When she woke up (see below) she was just as peaceful as could be.

We got up and watched the sun rise together over the mountains.

The cliffs were spectacular. During the next day Paije just laid around and dozed. In case you are wondering where she slept you can see her bed in this photo. Its just above her head.

We spent the next day enoying the scenering from the boat.

We also ran into some dolphins. So cool! I've never seen wild dolphins before. They seemed so friendly and swam along side the boat most of the day.

For lunch they cooked us up some fish.

We also did some snorkeling. There were all kinds of really cool shells on the bottom of the ocean. They intrigued me more than the fish.

Here is a view from the road on our drive home.

Arabian Safari

Yesterday we went on an Arabian safari through the desert. Akmud was our tour guide. He drove us all over the desert like a maniac....and before you ask, "no....we did not bring Paije on this adventure." I was amazed the car didn't flip right over.After dunn bashing through the desert we stopped at a caravan for dinner. We got to sit on the ground and enjoy a buffet of local Middle Eastern dishes. During the dinner a belly dancer performed. We also got to go on our first camel ride. Can you tell by our faces how much we enjoyed it?

We also go to dress up like a local couple.As you can see, I blend right in with the night sky. Believe it or not those are my eyes. Me and Nelli also got hena tattoos. Pretty cool.

3rd largest mosque in the world

Besides being one of the largest mosques in the world...it also boasts having the largest carpet, dome (in a mosque), and chandelier in the world!

Cliff Jumping in Oman

I never thought I'd visit Oman one day....but it sure was cool.

On our way home we stopped to ride ATVs on the duns. We had to be careful not to hit any camels.

Merry Christmas

We made it to Abu Dhabi on Wednesday night. We spent Christmas Eve touring the Emirates Palace (most expensive hotel in the world) and walking around the city.The sunset on the beach was beautiful.

Paije pooped our pretty early on Christmas Eve.We blessed her Christmas morning (Friday is the Muslim Sabbath) at church.
More pics to come.......

Our Trip to Germany

This weekend we did a quick road trip through the western side of Germany to visit two cities from Ben's mission.

Here is a map of the route we traveled.

Paije as always was an ideal travel companion.
This is how she looked during most of the 10 hours of driving we did.

Our first stop was Bastogne, Belgium, a city in the Ardennes. It was in these forests that the Battle of the Bulge (final significant battle of WWII) was fought exactly 65 years ago. The movie "Saints and Solders" depicted this battle.
There wasn't a whole lot to see there except this cool monument, an expensive museum, and an old tank.

That night we arrived in Trier, Germany, considered to be the oldest city in Germany. Since the sun goes down here around 4:30pm, we only had chance to see the Roman baths before it got dark.

For dinner that night we visited Ben's favorite kabob place just a few blocks from the apartment he lived in as a missionary. It was delicious and definitely lived up to everything he said about them! The next day we walked around the city.
This is an portion of the ancient Roman gate that once guarded the city nearly 2000 years ago.

Our first stop was this massive ancient cathedral.

Next stop the Christmas market for some breakfast.

I'm not sure what these are called, but anything covered in warm chocolate is guaranteed to be a good breakfast!

Before we knew it, it was time for lunch.
Sausage on a roll...yet another one of Ben's favorite dishes from his mission.

Once our stomachs were full to the brim and our bodies were frozen stiff, we jumped in the car and began our drive up the Mosel river valley. The drive was beautiful. We drove past miles of dormant wine vineyards through dozens of the most quaint, adorable, christmasy, villages I've ever seen!
We even passed a few really cool castles. Ben wasn't always very willing to get our of the car into the cold to take a few pics.

I simply told him he couldn't get back in the car until he smiled.

Our last stop on the drive was the Burg Eltz castle. It was amazing!!!! A part of me wished we had been there in the summer when we could of gone inside for a tour.

This is what it looks like in the summer.



This is what we saw when we arrived.

This is how Paije looked when we got back in the car.

A little stunned by the hike through the cold.....

....but always happy as can be!

Saturday night we made a quick stop in Koln to see their Christmas market and the most gigantic cathedral I could have ever imagined. I'm going to pretend we didn't get there just minutes after they closed the doors for the night.


We spent Saturday night with a family from Ben's mission. Sunday afternoon we drove home through a blizzard but arrived safe in sound back in Brussels by 8pm.