Apr 11 - Exploring Amman

Our first full day in Jordan started with being up at 6:00 a.m. and at breakfast for 6:30 a.m. The dining area was mobbed with six busloads of other travellers who must have been on the early shift. Many of them were almost finished, so we were able to get a table quite quickly. We had to scrounge for our own cutlery as the wait staff of four was obviously overwhelmed.

It was a cool, overcast day with a sprinkling of rain. We actually had to put on long sleeves for the first time since coming to the Middle East. The day got warmer as it progressed.

We were all on the bus at 7:30 a.m. It’s a bus that seats 20, including the driver. There are 15 of us including the driver, so there is a bit of extra space. Doug is riding shotgun in deference to his easily-annoyed stomach. Our tour guide lady is Ruby. She is the wife of Ray’s cousin. Ray, the owner of Biblical Journeys Canada fully intended to be with us, but he slipped on ice a few weeks ago and shattered his arm. He had plates and screws put into it and is under no-fly orders from his doctor until the middle of April. Ruby is a licensed tour guide in Jordan and is very knowledgable and very patient with all of our questions about Jordan’s economy, educational system, exports, religions, geography and history.

Amman at 7:30 a.m. is a crazy place (and I suspect many other times as well). There are cars everywhere. There are no lane markings on the road, so cars cut in and out constantly. Parking is a higgledy-piggledy affair which results in double-parked cars jutting out into the driving lanes. Being a bus driver in Amman is not a job for the faint of heart.

Ruby gave us a running commentary. There are 25 countries in the Middle East of 22 of them are Arabic-speaking. The three that don’t are Iran (speak Persian), Turkey (speak Turkish) and Israel (speak Hebrew). Amman is built on seven hills, just like Rome so we traveled up and down and up and down along narrow, crowded streets full of impatient drivers. Amman is on the opposite end of the spectrum from Dubai in terms of cleanliness. It's is a scruffy, untidy city with a lot of litter and some rather ramshackle buildings.

Our first stop was the Amman Citadel which is perched on the top of one of the seven hills. It is considered to be among the world's oldest continuously inhabited places. This fortress features buildings from the Roman, Byzantine and Islamic periods. When it was conquered by the Greeks in 331 BC, the city was renamed Philadelphia - yes, that's where the City of Brotherly Love co-opted its name. The remains of a huge temple build to Hercules is the centrepiece of the citadel. Part of the hand of Hercules is on display. The Amman Citadel is also the site of Jordan Archaeological Museum, which is home to a collection of artifacts from the Citadel and other Jordanian historic site.

We saw a young shepherdess tending her flock of black goats on a hillside right below us there in Amman. Sure wouldn’t see that in Dubai or Toronto, or Grimsby for that matter.

We passed the American Embassy in Amman. All around there were big signs indicating that absolutely no photos were allowed. There were armed guards and tanks everywhere. I’m pretty sure the Canadian Embassy doesn’t look like that.

Jordan has thousands of speed bumps. They are everywhere. Apparently, people build them in front of their houses to protect their children from the traffic. If nobody rats on them, the bump remains.

The money here is the Jordanian dinar (denoted JD) but US dollars are widely accepted. 1 JD = $1.79 CAD or $1.41 USD.

Two more posts for today. Limited to 10 photos in each footprint. Keep reading!Read more