We are about to head off on a trip to Jordan and Egypt. When we travel to exotic locales, we’re often asked “why xyz?” As for Egypt, it’s always been on our bucket list, so the better question is “why now?”

I think the idea was planted when we were in Berlin and saw the extensive collection of Egyptian antiquities in the Berlin Neues Museum. From sarcophagi to papyri to the famous bust of Nefertiti, our appetite for ancient Egypt was whetted. (See earlier post for more about the Neues Museum.)

We knew we wanted to go somewhere in January/February to escape the dreary northeast winter, but for various reasons I didn’t have anything planned by November. So we decided to look into using a tour company that would package everything together for us. Turns out January is a great time to visit Egypt, and one of the companies we were interested in had an opening. So Egypt it was!

As for Jordan, we wanted to see the ancient city of Petra in Jordan at some point. I assumed we would visit there as part of a trip to Israel, but our tour company offered a pre-trip to Jordan, and the logic being – we’re traveling that far – why not add Jordan? So we did.

Our ride from our NJ home to JFK airport went surprisingly smoothly, only 90 minutes door to door, because nobody did anything stupid to cause a jam on the Belt Parkway. Hopefully the rest of the ride is as smooth. Next stop Cairo and then on to Amman.