Jordanie 2008

An 8 day  trip to Jordan, in the Middle East, from 8 to 15 september 2008

Please have a look at the slide show Rondreis Jordanie 2008, and the video show, also available from the menu on the right.

Day 1
A pleasant trip by train to Schiphol and by air with Royal Jordananion Airlines to Amman.
Late arrival in a mediocre hotel and an early start next day! Met the group for this week , a small party of 12 nice people and the guide, a friendly Jordanian woman.

Day 2
The morning starts with the socalled City tour. Amman is  relatively young city as capital of Jordan and not much a real city. But Amman has an historical center dating back to ancient times. The first rocks but not the last this vacation!

After visiting the Acropolis and the theater a short trip to Roman city Jerash. This was the first highlight of this vacation! Jearsh must be one of the best conserved large Roman cities I have visited.

 

In the afternoon it became quite warm. Even more when we headed for the famous Dead Sea, where we had the chance to experience the salty contents of this lake. Too hot for my taste, but the others seeemed to like the swim.

Day 3
A full day excursion to Damascus, Syria. Quite expensive (130 euro, 50 more than expected). Early up again, because the trip to Damascus takes some traveling time (and lots of time spent at the border with the customs and waiting for the guide and driver buy taxfree goods).

 

Damuscus is a real lively Middle-East city, with quite some history.
We witnessed the traffic, visited the museum, the Ommayada Mosque and Palace, had a nice lunch and spent a lot of time shopping in the Souk. On the way back to Amman a short visit to a Christian church recently restored.
Late arrival at the hotel, but the visit to Damascus was worth the money and time.

Day 4 
First a short ride to Mount Nebo, a Christian holy place, where Mozes saw the Holy land and died. The church is being rebuilt at the moment, the view was spectacular, the mosaics on display looked good.

Next we went to the old Christain church in Madaba, with a mosaic showing a map of the Holy land. Nice sandwich lunch.
Next we visited Kerak, an old crusader fortress on top of a mountain. Not too well preserved, again a spectacular view.
We ended up that night in Petra, and saw the sun set over the Petra mountains.

Day 5
Again an early start. Walking into Petra, by the Siq.

 

Colors of the rocks are amazing, and once the long walk is over a very impressive look at the Monastary.
And then all of us went up to 860 steps to the top of a mountain to see the Monastary or Jabal Al-Deir. Quite a walk and climb, drinking lots of water in the hot sun. But it is worth it!

Walking downhill is easier, though being late for lunch of course. And then the long walk back to the hotel!
Glad we could rest in the bus, driving to Aqaba, enjoying the colors of the rocks in the desert near Wadi Rum.
Dinner in Aqaba, a lively small city with lots of shops open all night long since it was Ramadan

David Roberts
During my visit to Egypt I enjoyed buying poostcards of paintings made by David Roberts. As he made his trips mote than 150 years ago, his paintings reveal how the ancient sites looked like before mass tourism and restauration (and destruction ..) took place. I found a book with his paintings of the Holy Land (at Al-Deir!), and scanned his Petra paintings. See the slideshow for all 9. And see here for the Egypt David Roberts slideshow

 

Day 6
Aqaba lies on boarder of the Red Sea. SO the ideal palce to make a trip by boat, seeing coral riffs, a (very very) late lunch and a nice time on the sea.
The night was spent by making photos of the local shops I even was dragged into a bakery to make photos.

http://www.hansotten.nl/reizen/Jordan%202008/Aqaba/slides/IMG_4851.JPG

 

Day 7
Wadi Rum, a jeep ride in the desert.
Words cannot describe the colors of the desert. Red, yellow, grey, black, white, sand, rocks, blue sky, fresh wind in the back of the jeep.

 

The rest of the day was spent to drive to Amman, to the last and worst hotel of the trip.

Day 8
A pleasant trip again by air with Royal Jordananion Airlines to Amsterdam and by train home.

Nice view fron the air on the Dead Sea:

 

Conclusion
It was a nice trip. The logistics were fine. Hotels were adequate, but not worth 3 *'s. Brreakfast was mediocre, lunch and dinner from good to very good.
The whole trip went smoothly, no real problems or delays (except the Jordan-Syrian border). Jordan is a pleasant country, though not very clean, dry and full of rocks. The political climate seems to be quite conservative Islamic with a powerful king in command. Lots of security, in the plane, on the airport, on the roads with many checkpoints. It felt safe therefore.
Highligths were the Roman city Jerash, the remains of Petra and the desert of Wadi Rum. Well worth the visit.
The guide was fine, the group was pleasant company.

Bagpipe player in Jerash

A small video part, made in Jerash, in the roman theatre. It took me a minute, buit then I did recognize that song! 

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