CLOTHING

We’re used to traveling heavy.  We’ve carried at least six suitcases of clothing and four boxes of “staples” on our world cruises.  However, because we would be traveling within Egypt, the airline carrier, Egyptian Air, limited our luggage to 33 lbs. each and a carry on no heavier than 11 lbs.  Well, that was certainly a challenge (at least for me) because we would be staying almost an additional two weeks in Jordan and Israel after we left Egypt. 

Michael had been checking the weather in Egypt, Jordan and Israel and it looked like it would be cooler than I had expected.  Cooler is always better for me but my flow-y cottons did not even seem suitable for the temps I was seeing. 

We were leaving on Friday, and, as with all our travels, we started packing on the Sunday before our flight.  Throughout the week, I packed and unpacked.  What I thought would be comfortable seemed even, to me, too light so I added a couple of ¾ sleeve-length shirts and removed a couple of very thin tops. 

My clothing preference is wide-legged loose pants but, knowing I would be using a lot of public toilets during our travels, I considered other alternatives.  Although I'm not crazy about the look of joggers, they made the most sense.  All my pants for daytime were cargo-style joggers.  It was a smart move because, although I was able to find Western-style toilets (there were some Eastern-style toilets also but not many), the floors were not always pristine.  So joggers were definitely the way to go.

  

I brought a light sweater, Tyvec jacket, a cotton Safari-type jacket and a lighter-weight puffer jackets that satisfied all the various temperature changes we experienced - from t-shirt only weather in Egypt to a raging snowstorm in Jordan! All my daytime clothes and outerwear was white, gray or black.  Made life and traveling very easy.

I actually used packing cubes, which I never use, but they turned out to be perfect.  Usually, on cruises, I just pack everything in the suitcase, unpack and hang everything up in our cabin, and that’s the end of it.  Throughout this trip, I knew we would be in ten hotels which would involve a lot of packing and unpacking which is always cumbersome.  Keeping my “night” wear for dinners and “daytime” wear for touring in separate cubes worked beautifully.  Michael, of course, took far less clothing, and had lots of room for our magnet purchases and other small souvenirs. 

I kept shoes down to a minimum - slippers for the plane and hotels; sturdy athletic shoes because I knew how rough the terrain was going to be in places like Petra, a pair of more moderate athletic shoes and a pair of Rothy’s flats for evenings.  Perfect. 

All the hotels provided slippers and bathrobes although I found the bathrobes a little lacking in material for full-figured gals like me except for the one in the Kempinski Hotel at the Dead Sea in Jordan.