May 28
Madaba by Giam
We spent a couple of hours walking along the streets of Madaba – checking out tourist goods, finding a really nice carpet shop, selecting one and sealing the purchase with mint tea, then we left and on to Jerash. The road passes Amman(on the right, a really spread-out city of 2 million), and all the market gardens which serve it (loads of plastic tents, and colourful fruit/veg/flower stalls along the roadside).
Jerash by NH53
We reached Jerash (one of the best-preserved Roman cities in the Middle East) around noon and spent a couple of hours walking among its hilly ruins, ending up watching a (hilarious!) re-enactment of the VI Legion practice, gladiator fights and a chariot race in the excellently preserved hippodrome. It had rained overnight and the weather was a lot cooler than on previous days!
We had enough time to drive further north to Ajlun and visit the Moslem castle of Ar Rabad, along some narrow, steep and winding roads, overlooking biblical-like fields complete with goats and goatherds. This is a lovely little castle (12th Century again), but not built or occupied by Franks, and parts were better preserved than the more famous (and much larger) Kerak. While off the foreign-tourist route, it was being well visited by Jordanians. We ran out of time/left for “next time” the castle of Umm Qais – rather further north and giving a good view over the Sea of Galilee and the Golan Heights
Ar Rabad by Dale Gillard
We decided to head to Amman and try and stay an earlier night at the hotel I’d booked for our last night. Finding the hotel was not possible at all (more to the point, getting anywhere close to the hotel was impossible), we flagged down a taxi, who made a couple of calls and then we followed him to our hotel. Taxis in Amman are cheap and over half an hour of his trouble cost 10 JDs! The hotel itself is fine (apparently won Trip Finder’s “Best 4 star hotel in 2010” award) and found us a room for the night. It’s located in the upscale, business/ex-pat district, and we found a supermarket close by (Food City) where we wandered around…dinner at an extremely loud coffee shop (everyone was on the patio enjoying the Barcelona-Manchester football game, the former being the local favourites; we opted for quieter and sat inside). We enjoyed local sandwiches and ended with a shared shiesha. The cab home was 1 JD.
Thinking of travelling to Jordan? Check out these great travel books...
Gerry will be sharing her travels through Egypt and Jordan in a multimedia presentation as part of our 2011 Travel Day on October 29th. Check out this great day of programs on our homepage or through our program guide.