A Return to Family Travel
The Sweet Joys – A Return to Family Travel
December 2019 marked the last time our family freely traveled abroad for fun. That world wide Covid-19 pandemic abruptly stopped travel, fun adventure, and regular life. Here in the first quarter of 2022, life’s common activities started to normalize. For us, this was a return to family travel.
2022 marked a return to international family travel. For Eid, the three days that mark the end of Ramadan when Muslims break their month long fast, Jordan was the destination. In terms of school for Nadine, the kids, and myself, it equates to an additional week out of school to explore.
Honeycomb Design
Rock Hard Adventure
Researching flights for Eid break required scrolling though combinations of dates and locations. Finally, a really good deal to Amman, Jordan appeared on Etihad Airways. The only caveat, there was a nine-hour layover in Abu Dhabi . . . starting at 1 a.m. For two adults, that would be a challenge For four kids (14, 12, 7, and 5 years old), it’s an adventure. For two adults in charge of four kids, it’s crazy.
On the morning of our flight, Nadine called me. “Should we try and get a hotel for that long overnight layover?”
“I don’t really want to sleep on the floor of the airport with the kids tonight.”
A quick search found a discounted rate for Premier Inn, a hotel connected to the airport. Without a second thought, we rented the two discounted rooms.
Abu Dhabi International Airport
The Green Mile
The brown, white, and gold plane touched down on the tarmac at 1:10 a.m. After immigration allowed us into the country at 2 a.m., Premier Inn let us into their rooms at 2:20 a.m. Everyone was in bed and asleep by 2:30 a.m.
Five hours of deep sleep later, we hauled our tired bodies back out of bed and walked the same tunnel, in reverse, from five hours before, but this time back to Terminal 1 at Abu Dhabi Airport. But honestly, the airlines and hotels have to be in cahoots. Who honestly thinks, from a scheduling standpoint, “maybe we should schedule these short haul flights for the middle of the night. That way we can make passengers pay to sleep in a hotel for five hours!”
Star Wars Inspired Terminals?
Airplane Pods
Despite this inner dialogue, or at least I hope it was an inner dialogue, our family of six saddled up to gate 3 in time for our 10 a.m. flight departing out of what could only be described as a Star Wars inspired airport terminal pod.
Petra, the Dead Sea, Wadi Rum, Aqaba, and Bethany by the River awaited our arrival.
Making One Last Second Call
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[…] which I learned this was the time period roughly from 300 to 600 A.D. (sorry history teachers). But flight fatigue limited our ambition to see more than the mosaics of the Virgin Mary […]