Finally, for a little closure, clicking this photograph will take you to a Flickr set of my choices for the best pictures from our trip. Relax, there are only 148. But if you want to see more, way more, you can sample this collection instead.

[I've only written 12,000 words so far about the big trip, so I suppose there's no reason not to go ahead and slap on a few more and close this out.] Our lame-duck tour company had, belatedly, offered...some shisha (watch us toke up here and here ), while colorful Cairenes filled in the tables all around us. Altogether, it was a fine and civilized way to close out our Middle Eastern adventure

We knew that Friday, May 30, as another long travel day, was going to suck. We just didn't know yet how badly it was going to suck. Over dinner the evening before, Ra'ed had broken the news to us that...we took turns feeding bits of meat on the sly to the two stray cats that prowled up to our table from beneath a parked car. It was a good way to close out an interesting but ultimately shitty day

Petra is an ancient city established in what is now Jordan in the 6th century B.C. by a tribe called the Nabateans. The city inhabits an extensive valley defended by a narrow canyon called the Siq ...beastie in it before flicking it away. At least if you trust hearsay. Nonetheless, it was an educational and encouraging evening, and we were sad to see our trip's last major day of sightseeing end

[Writing in Cairo hotel room, hoping to stay up all night in preparation for sleeping through our 7:35 am flight to Paris.] According to the original plan, we shouldn't have been on that overnight train...the hotel and not saving ourselves for one of the cabanalike restaurants serving tropical drinks on the water. And then we rode the shuttle back and turned in. It was the most relaxing day of our trip