25,000 steps around Amman

We were up quite early, even though we didn't need to be! We noticed the difference in temperature overnight. It's a good few degrees colder here than it was in Cairo. We slept with the supplied two-bar electric fire 🔥 on full and were still pretty chilly!

Breakfast was served in the bar and it turned out it that there are just us and a single guy staying in the hotel 🏨 at the moment! It was cold in the bar. Note to self: wear a jacket tomorrow! 😂 We had no choice about what to eat. We were each served a plate of vegetables, cheese, and cooked meat, a large bowl of hummus, an equally large bowl of cream cheese, a plain omelette, a basket of bread 🍞, and a selection of jams. The only thing we were missing was coffee ☕!! We asked for some and were served a cup of Turkish coffee each. The waiter seemed surprised when we finished it and asked for another one! The food was good, although there was far too much. We hate waste so have asked for half as much tomorrow!

We had pre-booked a walking tour of the city at 12 noon and a food tour at 5pm today so we're in no rush to leave the room. Consequently, the housekeeping team (2 lads in jeans, sweatshirts, and baseball ⚾️ caps worn back-to-front) came knocking a couple of times. Eventually, we let them in 😀. They were in and out in less than a minute!

We left the hotel at about 10.30 and made our way downtown. I hadn't realised that Amman is built on seven hills so there were a lot of very steep slopes and steps to negotiate! On the way down, I spotted a mosaic workshop and stopped to have a chat with the guy inside. Everyone we met today was so friendly!

We were struck by the amount of street art 🎨 we saw. As we got to the downtown area, it was very busy but had a really nice feel about it. Our walking tour guide, Abdallah, messaged us to say he was already at our meeting point, the Grand Husseini Mosque. We were close by, so we started our tour at 11, not 12.

Here are some photos of street art. I will post about the walking tour in my next footprint 👣.Read more