Flights from Boston to Lisbon were cheap at $550 round trip with Iberia, so we decided to make Portugal the first country of our European vacation. Even though Portugal was open for tourism, it still required us to take a PCR test to enter from the US in addition to proof of our covid vaccination.…Continue reading Portugal – Lisbon, Sintra, Óbidos, Nazaré, Cascais, Estoril, Tomar, Coimbra & Ericeira
Egypt – Dahab, Sharm el-Sheikh, Alexandria & Cairo
Egypt was the final country of our Madventure Arabian overland tour. We took the Aqaba to Nuweiba ferry and it was obvious that the 2 year hiatus in international travel due to covid had taken its toll here because the immigration and customs officials appeared to be bewildered with what to do with us. It…Continue reading Egypt – Dahab, Sharm el-Sheikh, Alexandria & Cairo
Jordan – Petra & Wadi Rum
Jordan was the penultimate country on our Arabia Overland tour. We entered from Saudi Arabia and even though we had negative PCR results taken within 24 hours, Jordan forced us to pay for yet another PCR test at the border! Once that was out of the way, we were stamped into country where we met…Continue reading Jordan – Petra & Wadi Rum
Saudi Arabia – Jeddah, Riyadh & Al Ula
The border crossing from the United Arab Emirates into Saudi Arabia took over 3 hours and we were finally stamped in at midnight. Yippee! We were the first overland truck in history to enter the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and it felt great. From the border, our first official stop was the Bir Hima rock…Continue reading Saudi Arabia – Jeddah, Riyadh & Al Ula
Kuwait – Kuwait City
It looked like our visit to Kuwait (country number 6 out of 8 on our Arabia Overland trip) might not happen. Just a few days before we were scheduled to arrive, Kuwait suddenly announced that despite recent negative covid test results and vaccination status, all visitors arriving after midnight on Christmas Day had to go…Continue reading Kuwait – Kuwait City