{"id":7364,"date":"2012-01-04T13:27:13","date_gmt":"2012-01-04T20:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/?p=7364"},"modified":"2012-01-04T13:29:32","modified_gmt":"2012-01-04T20:29:32","slug":"christmas-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/04\/christmas-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Christmas weekend, our first full weekend in Jordan, we stayed at the Kempinski<\/a> at the Dead Sea. \u00c2\u00a0(Tip: we booked on Hotels.com through fatwallet, getting not only a huge holiday weekend special, but additional cash back through fatwallet!)<\/p>\n

Here are some pictures of the resort, which is BEAUTIFUL.<\/p>\n

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Full breakfast seems to be a common inclusion in mid- to high- end hotels in Jordan. \u00c2\u00a0The Kempinski’s sets the bar for fancy breakfast. \u00c2\u00a0Above is Chef Yousef. \u00c2\u00a0Chef Yousef trained for two years at the Royal Jordanian culinary\u00c2\u00a0institute\u00c2\u00a0and then trained for another year in Brazil (where his mother is from). \u00c2\u00a0He worked for several years in Brazil before coming back to Jordan. \u00c2\u00a0Chef Yousef made Kate special eggs and pancakes each morning. \u00c2\u00a0At the end of our breakfast, he carved beautiful fruit animals for the kids to eat. \u00c2\u00a0He also spent a good 20 minutes explaining all the dishes to me, advising me to try different local offerings, and explaining how they were prepared. \u00c2\u00a0(I’m still pretty sure I can’t make a good hummus.)<\/p>\n

Fresh honey, including the honeycomb, was one of the things he recommended. \u00c2\u00a0This comes from a local farmer. \u00c2\u00a0Trying this was like having honey for the first time.<\/p>\n

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The extensive bread table…<\/p>\n

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The kids, who brought along books to occupy themselves so that we could eat for hours (the rest of the meals at the hotel were very expensive… we filled up in the morning, and then took our luck to find things in our outings around the Dead Sea for the rest of the day.)<\/p>\n

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View from the breakfast dining room.<\/p>\n

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Another view. \u00c2\u00a0This pool was heated, but was reserved for adults (ages 14 and up).<\/p>\n

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Looking north. \u00c2\u00a0That’s the lazy river. \u00c2\u00a0It was not heated, so we did not get in! \u00c2\u00a0(Much to Will’s disappointment. \u00c2\u00a0He would have braved frostbite for it, we think.)<\/p>\n

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Mud attendant.<\/p>\n

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Steps down to the rocky shoreline. \u00c2\u00a0You are at the lowest point on earth! \u00c2\u00a0Says a sign nearby.<\/p>\n

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Another pool. \u00c2\u00a0Also unheated. \u00c2\u00a0The kids pool is directly beside this one, just a little smaller, with a similar view. \u00c2\u00a0It was heated and we swam in it!<\/p>\n

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Christmas decor everywhere! \u00c2\u00a0(Santa roamed the grounds and gave chocolate to the kids over and over again. \u00c2\u00a0The hotel left presents in a stocking for us — dead sea salts — in our room on Christmas Eve.)<\/p>\n

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View of Israel at night, over the Dead Sea.<\/p>\n

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Restaurant at night.<\/p>\n

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Lazy river at night.<\/p>\n

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Ancient olive tree.<\/p>\n

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Lap pool up by the main building.<\/p>\n

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The grounds were a\u00c2\u00a0travertine\u00c2\u00a0dream — beautiful handiwork, incredible stone masonry, lovely landscaping. \u00c2\u00a0It is a beautiful property in a fantastic place! \u00c2\u00a0A wonderful place to have our Christmas holiday!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Christmas weekend, our first full weekend in Jordan, we stayed at the Kempinski at the Dead Sea. \u00c2\u00a0(Tip: we booked on Hotels.com through fatwallet, getting not only a huge holiday weekend special, but additional cash back through fatwallet!) Here are some pictures of the resort, which is BEAUTIFUL.     Full breakfast seems to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[216],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7364"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7364"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7383,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7364\/revisions\/7383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}