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Greece, Egypt and Jordan
  • Happy Days Travel
  • Mark Wade

Greece, Egypt and Jordan

Our first proper overseas post-pandemic trip! Read more
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  • Greece, Egypt and Jordan

    Sound and light show at the Pyramids

    January 7, 2023 in Egypt ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    We met Romani in reception at 5.45pm for our outing to the sound and light show. He passed us on to a different driver and guide to be our escorts. Then it was a crazy drive through Cairo's rush-hour traffic! How on earth there aren't more accidents, I've no idea!!

    Tonight's show was in Spanish (it's random what language you get - they don't publicise it in advance!) so we listened to the story through headphones 🎧. All I can say is that it didn't detract from the experience! It was brilliant!! They told the story of the pharaohs of Egypt and really brought it all to life!

    Here are some photos 📸. They aren't great because the light wasn't good, but they capture the essence of what we saw.    Read more

  • Greece, Egypt and Jordan

    A visit to the Egyptian Museum, Cairo

    January 8, 2023 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    We were up earlier than planned this morning due to noisy neighbours! We got ready and went to breakfast at 8 so we had plenty of time before our trip was due to start at 9.

    In reception at the appointed hour, Romani appeared with another guy who he introduced to us as Ray, our guide for today and tomorrow. We had a bit of a chat about the tour we have just done and about Nabil and then went to find our transport and driver.

    Our first stop was the Egyptian museum in the centre of Cairo, a building purpose-built in 1897 to house Egypt's impressive collection of antiquities. There are plans to move the entire collection to a new site near the Pyramids. Indeed, the building is ready (Nabil pointed it out to us when we were there) and some artefacts have already been relocated. By all accounts, it will be a modern state-of-the-art facility which will rank as one of the great museums of the world when it opens to the public.

    The current museum is rather dark and dusty with poorly-written explanations about the exhibits. It is, nevertheless, an impressive collection, despite the fact that so many antiquities were taken overseas by the archaeologists and treasure hunters who discovered them.

    Ray showed us the highlights of the museum and explained their significance. He left us by the Tutankhamen room and gave us free time to explore by ourselves. It was quite a moment coming face-to-face with the young Pharaoh's mask and sarcophagus. I remember when the Tutankhamen exhibition came to the British Museum in London to mark the 50th anniversary of Howard Carter's discovery of the tomb. It was 1972. I was seven years old. My friend, Carolyn West, went to see the exhibition. It was a huge deal! She brought a commemorative programme into school to show us all. I can vividly remember seeing the pictures of the magnificent treasures, the like of which none of us had ever seen before. It sparked an interest in me that never went away. Now, just over 50 years later, today I saw them for myself! It was quite a moment!!

    We weren't allowed to take photos in Tutankhamen's room, so I bought a couple of postcards instead.

    We spent a further hour in the museum marvelling at the exhibits and wondering at the incredible talents of the Ancient Egyptians to have created such a huge quantity of outstanding artefacts.    Read more

  • Greece, Egypt and Jordan

    A visit to the Hanging Church

    January 8, 2023 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Saint Virgin Mary's Coptic Orthodox Church, also known as the Hanging Church, is one of the oldest churches in Egypt. It was probably built during the patriarchate of Isaac (690–692), though an earlier church building may have existed on the site as early as the 3rd or 4th century. The church was largely rebuilt by the Pope Abraham (975–978). It has seen many other restorations including an extensive repair and restoration of the church and its surroundings completed in 2011.

    The Hanging Church is so named because it was built above a gatehouse of the Roman fortress in Old Cairo. Its nave is suspended over a passage. The church is approached by twenty-nine steps. The land surface has risen by six metres since the Roman period, so the Roman tower is mostly buried below ground, reducing the visual impact of the church's elevated position.

    The design of the church is based on Noah's Ark with the barrel-vaulted roof representing the upturned hull of the ark. The church's interior is full of intricately carved wooden screens, bright stained glass, striking art, and religious icons.    Read more

  • Greece, Egypt and Jordan

    A walk around Khan El Khalili

    January 8, 2023 in Egypt ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    From the Hanging Church, we drove to Khan el-Khalili, Cairo's famous souq.

    Ray took us for lunch in what he said was the best place for schwarma in the whole of the city. The food was OK, but I'm sure there is better! We were given a menu with tourist prices and ended up paying almost £20 for a couple of sandwiches, a water, and a Coke Zero! We were not overly impressed, either with the café, or with Ray for taking us there!

    After lunch, Ray gave us free time to explore the souq, advising us not to veer off the main drag. All I can say, is that it wasn't a patch on Istanbul or Marrakech! The stalls were mainly selling tourist tat. The stall holders were tame compared to other markets we've been to - we didn't feel hassled or pressured at all. I don't know if it was just the area Ray took us to. Perhaps there are other more authentic parts of the souq which we didn't see.

    We spent a pleasant hour wandering around. All we bought were some nuts - smoked cashews and salted pistachios. We settled on these after trying nearly every nut in the place!

    After the market, we returned to the hotel.    Read more

  • Greece, Egypt and Jordan

    A visit to St Simon the Tanner Church

    January 9, 2023 in Egypt ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    There was a terrific storm last night. It wasn't forecast - it came out of nowhere! There was thunder, lightning, and torrential rain. By this morning, though, the bad weather had gone and we had sunshine 🌞 and blue skies again.

    We met Ray in reception at 10am for our half-day trip to the cave church at El-Mokattam Mountain. Our itinerary was for us to go to the Pharaonic Village, a living museum of Egyptian history. Ray advised us that this is an attraction mainly aimed at children and offered us the chance to go to Saint Simon the Tanner Church instead. We agreed.

    There was no mention of the place in my guidebook and I struggled to find much information online, so we went not knowing what to expect. What we found was a huge surprise!

    The first shock was driving through the Zabbaleen Village on El-Mokattam Mountain in order to reach the church. This is where the rubbish collectors of Cairo live. The city governor moved them all there in 1969, insisting that all of Cairo's waste was sorted and disposed of in the same place. By 1987, there were 15,000 people living in the village, the vast majority of them Coptic Christian. I didn't get an answer from Ray as to why only 5% of the population are Muslim.

    The 'village' today supports a thriving community with shops, businesses, and schools within its confines. The overriding impression, though, is of the rubbish everywhere. The place is dark with a pervasive smell of rotting waste. The roads are not tarmaced. Instead, you appear to be driving on top of a build-up of waste. Ray told us that all the rubbish is sorted. Everything that can be recycled is. Everything else is burned. Through heavy metal doors at street level, we caught glimpses of people (mainly women) up to their waists in rubbish, sorting it into different piles. The rooms were dark and filthy. I can only imagine what it must be like to work in there for hours every day! The whole place was a grim reminder of how some people have to live.

    Once through the village, we climbed the mountain to reach the church of the Virgin Mary and St. Simon the Tanner.

    Simon the Tanner lived toward the end of the tenth century and, according to local legend, was responsible for the miracle of moving a mountain 300 metres. El-Mokattam is the mountain in question.

    In the 1980s, with a growing population of Christian rubbish collectors who had nowhere to worship, it was decided to build a church in one of the caves on the mountain. At the start of the project, the chosen cave had a ceiling height of just one metre. Over five years from 1986 to 1991, stone was removed from the site and a church with 21,000 seats was created!

    We had to have one of the three official site guides to explain things to us. Mina was clearly a fervent believer as he told us how some of the sculptures in the church revealed themselves as stone was removed. Relics belonging to Simon the Tanner himself were found on the site and are now displayed in a glass case near the altar.

    Whatever you believe, the fact is that there is now a massive, impressive church sitting on top of a mountain dedicated to rubbish!

    The site has an evangelical mission, with bible verses carved into to rock in both Arabic and English.

    Because the church of St Simon the Tanner is half open to the elements, a further cave church has been created further up the mountain. It is known as 'the winter church' and is dedicated to Saint Mark. This church is totally enclosed and can seat 2,000 people. It came into use in 2001 and has elaborate stone carvings around the walls.

    The whole effect of both churches is completely mind-blowing! We have never seen anything like it before. We struggled to make sense of what we were seeing. I don't know if the photos convey the scale of the place. I will attach photos 📸 of the main church to this footprint 👣, and of St Mark's Church to the next one.

    After our visit, Ray wanted to take us for another schwarma lunch - no doubt at highly inflated prices! We said we were still full after a big breakfast (true!) and asked to go back to the hotel 😀    Read more

  • Greece, Egypt and Jordan

    A day at the hotel

    January 10, 2023 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    We had a free day today so we spent it sitting in the sunshine 🌞 by the pool. Mark listened to podcasts and I read. This afternoon, we had a few games of Scrabble - things we don't have time to do usually. It was a very relaxing day!

    I'm reading 📚 Simon Reeve's autobiography at the moment. He is one of our favourite presenters of TV 📺 travelogues. It's fascinating to learn about how he went from teenage delinquent to accomplished author and documentary maker.    Read more

  • Greece, Egypt and Jordan

    A day trip to Alexandria

    January 11, 2023 in Egypt ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    We didn't want to miss Alexandria on our trip around Egypt so we booked a private tour on one of the free days we had in Cairo. Romani organised it for us and, once again, Ray was our guide. I say guide, but perhaps that should be 'escort' or 'chaperone' because he is proving to be less and less able as a guide every time we go out with him! 😂

    We set off at 7.30am because Ray said it would take 3 hours to get to Alexandria. In the event, the freeway was clear and we did the journey in only 2!

    Alexandria is Egypt's second city with a population of around 16 million compared to Cairo with 25 million. It is located on the Mediterranean coast and is a popular tourist resort for visitors from the rest of Egypt 🇪🇬 and overseas.

    The city is named after Alexander the Great who founded it in 331 BC when he was just 25 years old. Alexandria's towering Pharos lighthouse, marking the ancient harbour's entrance, was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It's Great Library with its 750,000 books and manuscripts, was considered the archive of ancient knowledge. However, the city suffered a number of disasters. The Pharos collapsed and the Great Library burnt to the ground. Part of the ancient city disappeared under the sea and part under the modern city, so there are few visible remains of the glorious part.

    Nevertheless, Alexandria is still well worth a visit - we thoroughly enjoyed our time here.    Read more

  • Greece, Egypt and Jordan

    The Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa

    January 11, 2023 in Egypt ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Our first stop in Alexandria was at the catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa.

    These were discovered in 1900 when a donkey pulling a cart full of scrap metal disappeared into the ground! They are the largest known Roman burial site in Egypt, consisting of three tiers of tombs and chambers cut into bedrock to a depth of 35 metres.

    Entry to the catacombs is via a spiral staircase. Bodies would have been lowered on ropes down the centre of this circular shaft. The catacombs were originally constructed in the second century AD, probably by a rich Roman family and intended for their sole use. They would have had the principle tomb chamber decorated in a fusion of Greek and Pharaonic styles, and the triclinium, a banqueting hall where grieving relatives paid their last respects with a funeral feast.

    Over the next 300 years, the catacombs were used by other families, including Christians and Muslims. More chambers were hacked out until the place became a warren holding 300 corpses.

    Today, the lower tier of the catacombs lies below the water table. Between 500 and 600 square metres of water has to be pumped out every hour in order to keep them accessible.

    When the catacombs were discovered, the skeletons were removed and reburied elsewhere. The only bones remaining in the tombs today are those of a horse belonging to one of the dead Romans. Ray was quite shocked when I told him that the catacombs in Paris are still full of human remains!    Read more

  • Greece, Egypt and Jordan

    A visit to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina

    January 11, 2023 in Egypt ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    After the catacombs, we visited the Bibliotheca Alexandria, a building opened in 2002 on the site of the city's ancient library.

    We had a guided tour of the stunning building which was designed by a firm of Norwegian architects. It takes the form of a massive angled disc embedded in the ground to represent the rising sun. The roof is made up of solar panels. The granite exterior walls are inscribed with letters, pictograms, hieroglyphs, and symbols from over 120 languages.

    Inside, the incredible main reading 📚 room can accommodate 8 million books (there are currently 2 million in the collection) and 2500 readers, each with their own work station. The sloping roof has windows specially designed to let sunlight flood in but keep out rays that could damage the books. The space is amazing! It felt really conducive to creativity. It made me want to move to Alexandria and get started on that book I've always wanted to write ✍ 😂. Foreigners can join the library and have access to all the facilities for just 10 EGP a year - that's about £3.30!!

    The library has eleven floors, some of them below water level. The basement houses four permanent museums and a range of temporary exhibitions. We enjoyed a contemporary ceramics display and a glorious collection of textiles and folk art.

    There is also the fascinating Anwar Sadat museum. Here, I was reminded of the news stories of my teenage years. The collection includes the blood stained uniform he was wearing when he was assassinated and the front page of the Daily Mirror when the story broke.

    The World of Shadi Abdel Salam was another interesting exhibition. He was an Alexandria-born film director, script writer, set and costume designer who, amongst other things, created all the costumes and sets for Cleopatra which we saw at the Atlas Film Studios in Morocco 🇲🇦.

    Outside, there is a striking sphere-shaped planetarium.

    I could have spent much longer here than the two hours we were allowed!    Read more

  • Greece, Egypt and Jordan

    Citadel of Qaitbay

    January 11, 2023 in Egypt ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    Our final stop on our day in Alexandria was at the Citadel of Qaitbay. This impressive fortification was built in 1480 by the Mamluk sultan Qaitbay on the site of the remains of the legendary Pharos lighthouse. He used stone and other materials from the fallen lighthouse in the construction.

    The citadel has been extensively restored in recent times. Some would say it has been over-restored! First impressions as you approach the fort today is that it is a completely new construction. Nevertheless, it is impressive and definitely worth an hour or two of your time if you're in Alexandria.

    After our visit, we drove into the city centre where we stopped for Ray to buy us all schwarma. We weren't really hungry but it was included in the price of our tour! He came back with large tubs of 'schwarma fata', a local speciality consisting of beef or chicken topped with creamy garlic sauce on a bed of fried rice and crispy fried bread. It was too much for me. Our driver didn't seem that impressed, either! 😂

    We were back at the hotel by 5.30pm, in plenty of time for a final buffet dinner. Mark wasn't impressed because the price of a beer has increased by £2 a can overnight! It makes it £7 now!! Time to move on 😂    Read more

  • Greece, Egypt and Jordan

    From Cairo to Amman

    January 12, 2023 in Jordan ⋅ 🌙 6 °C

    We had an easy last morning in Egypt 🇪🇬. We had to be out of our room by 12 but we weren't being picked up for the airport until 1.30pm so we decided to have lunch sitting by the pool. Big mistake!! I ordered pizza 🍕 which arrived raw and doughy and Mark had cold, chewy chips with his chicken sandwich 🥪. I wish we hadn't bothered! 😂

    Our driver was 10 minutes late picking us up but he more than made up the time on the way to the airport! We've had some hair-raising rides while we've been in Egypt but this guy was off the chart! I decided it was safer not to look out of the front window so kept my eyes fixed firmly to the side. Suddenly, my view was blocked 🚫 by a 6 foot high wall inches from my face! I was somewhat alarmed!! It's a good job we're not nervous passengers!! 😂

    Anyway, we reached the airport in record time so were easily able to go through the multiple security checks before our flight ✈. We thought we had been through them all so used the rest of our Egyptian cash to buy some drinks - only to have them confiscated at the final checkpoint at the boarding date! Oh well!!

    Our flight ✈ was a little delayed so we watched the sunset 🌇 from the departure lounge and then took off in the dark. It was only a 1 hour 15 minute flight ✈ but they served a full meal!! We had cheese, smoked chicken, salad 🥗 and a roll followed by a KitKat and a mango 🥭 juice! No sooner had they served it, they were rushing back down the plane to take away the rubbish! 😂

    We landed in Amman and were on stand and getting off in record time. The visa on arrival process was very straightforward. We had to wait a while for our luggage 🧳 so I was able to sort out some Jordanian currency.

    Once through customs, we had an encounter with a dodgy taxi guy. Luckily, we spotted the official airport taxi firm and extricated ourselves from the clutches of the scammers!! We had a very nice driver who took us straight to our hotel 🏨 and didn't try to rip us off!

    First impressions of Amman are that it is incredibly clean and well ordered compared to Cairo. We only saw normal cars 🚗 on the way in from the airport (no horse and carts or tuk-tuks!) and the drivers mostly seemed to be following the rules of the road!

    From what we have seen so far, the hotel 🏨 is a typical joining hotel for an Intrepid tour - not the best, but it will do! 😂    Read more

  • Greece, Egypt and Jordan

    25,000 steps around Amman

    January 13, 2023 in Jordan ⋅ ☀️ 5 °C

    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

  • Greece, Egypt and Jordan

    A walking tour of downtown Amman

    January 13, 2023 in Jordan ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    We met up with Abdallah an hour earlier than planned. The first thing he did was to take Mark inside the Grand Husseini Mosque 🕌 because he wouldn't be able to do it later due to Friday prayers. No women are allowed inside the mosque! Mark said it was interesting but not as ornate as other mosques we've visited.

    Our walk took us through several different markets including those selling fruit and veg, meat, fish 🐟, live birds 🐦, second-hand clothes, and furniture. The fruit and veg market was particularly colourful with the freshest produce on sale and the biggest radishes we've ever seen! 😂

    Despite this being a city tour, Abdallah took us to some restaurants and gave us some tasting samples. We just hoped we wouldn't end up in the same places on our food tour later in the day! As it was, although we came close, we didn't actually revisit the same places!

    We didn't expect to be eating on this tour, especially coming so soon after our large breakfast! We tried delicious falafel from the Hashem restaurant which we'd read about in our guide book and made a mental note to return. We also had knafeh, a traditional Jordanian dessert of goats cheese topped with spun pastry soaked in attar, a sweet, sugar-based syrup, sprinkled with pistachios. It was sweet and savoury. We both enjoyed it but you couldn't eat much of it! Our third tasting was strong Iraqi mint tea which was really good.

    We then had another food stop as I needed to change a big note and the only way Abdallah knew how we could do it was to buy a couple of cheap meat 🍖 sandwiches! I gave mine to a little boy who was begging nearby. From the look he gave me, I think he would have preferred the cash! 😂

    In between the food, Abdallah proved to be an excellent guide. He pointed out lots of places of interest and explained about the history of the city.

    We visited the remains of the Nymphaeum, a 2nd century AD Roman two-storey complex which would have had fountains, mosaics, stone carvings, and a 600-metre swimming pool 🏊‍♀️ . The site is still being excavated.

    We also went to the Odeon, another 2nd century AD Roman ruin. It is a semicircular auditorium for musical recitals with space for 400 audience members.

    Our tour finished at the Roman Theatre which dates from the same period as the Nymphaeum and is the most impressive remnant of Roman Philadelphia, the forerunner of modern Amman. It has a seating capacity of 6000 with the best seats at the front reserved for the rulers, the middle tier for the military, and the top tier for the general public.

    I will add general photos 📸 of the walking tour to this footprint 👣 and market photos and photos of the Roman sites to the next ones.    Read more

  • Greece, Egypt and Jordan

    Amman Food Tour

    January 13, 2023 in Jordan ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    After our walking 🚶‍♂️ tour ended, we made our way back up the hill to our hotel for a much-needed rest before our evening food tour.

    We left the hotel again at 4.25 pm for our 5pm meeting with our guide, Jumana. Google Maps said the walk should take 25 minutes but they hadn't factored in that we had to make our way down the steep slopes and steps to downtown and then climb the 1 in 3 hill up to Rainbow Street 🌈 ! We just made it - albeit a bit hot and breathless!!

    Jumana turned out to be a brilliant guide, not only describing all the amazing foods we were trying, but also filling in interesting background information about Amman itself.

    Our first stop was a Lebanese pastry shop on Rainbow 🌈 Street itself. This street is full of restaurants, bars, and cafés representing many different cuisines and is the place to go to eat out.

    We stopped to try manaqish, a flatbread topped with a zaatar spice blend of sumac, thyme, roasted sesame seeds, lemon salt, and oregano mixed to a paste with olive oil. It was a new taste for both of us and we really enjoyed it. The café itself was very quirky. The walls were decorated with pictures of characters and quotes from a cult Syrian TV show of the 70s and 80s. Jumana explained the entire plot to us 😀

    Our next stop was at a tiny hole in the wall place for falafel. It's called Al Quds and locals say it's the best falafel in town! (The most famous falafel restaurant is Hashem in downtown. It's renowned because King Hussein went there a couple of times, but Jumana insisted that this place serves better tasting falafel!) Al Quds had been in business since 1966. They have been consistently successful but have never expanded beyond the one branch. We had a small sandwich each and I can confirm they were delicious 😋.

    From Rainbow Street 🌈, we made our way down many steep slopes and steps and eventually emerged across the road from the Grand Husseini Mosque. We then went through the fruit and veg market. It was different from this morning as Jumana was giving us samples from different stalls - dried figs, dates, nuts, fresh herbs 🌿, confectionery, etc. - and she was doing a bit of shopping for her Mum at the same time! I bought some amazing Jordanian dates - 500g for just 1.25 JOD (about £1.50).

    Mark enjoyed trying a selection of Jordanian olives 🫒.

    After the market, we went to a juice bar. These are on almost every street corner in Amman, but Jumana took us to one that specialises in lemon 🍋 and mint juice. It was amazing!!

    Our next stop was at a local restaurant where we had ara’yes, two layers of pitta bread filled with minced lamb, onions, parsley, and allspice, brushed with olive oil and grilled over hot charcoal so that it turns golden brown and crispy on the outside, and kofta bi tahini, a dish that includes a bottom base layer of minced kebab meat, flattened out into a patty, topped with thin slices of potato, smothered in a thick tahini sauce, and then baked. I loved the ara'yes, especially when topped with freshly squeezed lemon 🍋 juice. Mark preferred the tahini kofta.

    By the time we had eaten all this, I was pretty much done! Mark was getting full, too. But we weren't finished! Jumana took us to yet another restaurant to try mansaf, the national dish of Jordan 🇯🇴. There are three main components to mansaf - rice, lamb, and jameed, a hard dried out and fermented goats milk yoghurt re-hydrated into a gravy, and used to pour over the rice and lamb. The dish is traditionally eaten with the hands communally from a large shared platter. The jameed, which has a sour and salty taste, and an undeniable goat flavour is what makes mansard so special and do highly prized. I tried it but found it to be too rich for me on top of everything else we had eaten. Mark manfully managed a fair portion! 😀

    Our next stop was supposed to be for kunefi, the rich cheese and sugar concoction we tried this morning. Neither of us had room for it so we asked Jumana if we could skip it and go straight to the final stop - a Syrian ice cream 🍦 parlour. She agreed. The ice cream had a thicker texture than normal ice cream but it wasn't heavy and proved to be the perfect end to our food tour. Mark had a scoop of chocolate and I had vanilla, both of which came coated in crushed pistachios.

    Our tour ended at around 8.45 pm and we staggered back up the hill to the hotel 🏨 😀.    Read more

  • Greece, Egypt and Jordan

    A visit to The Jordan Museum

    January 14, 2023 in Jordan ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    At breakfast this morning (same as yesterday minus the hummus but with a jug of American coffee ☕ - hoorah!), we met a fellow passenger on our Intrepid trip. She arrived late last night. Her name is Ethna (may need to check the spelling on that 😅). She is originally from Bristol but now lives in Vienna where she works as a conference interpreter. She was planning a visit to the citadel today with another member of our group - Darren.

    We were in no rush to get going this morning so I did my posts and we pottered around, eventually leaving the hotel at about 11. On the way down, we stopped at the mosaic place again. We had a lovely chat with Mohammed, the owner (what a nice man!) and I booked a mosaic class for Monday - another new craft to learn!

    We continued downtown and went looking for the Duke's Dirwan, the oldest house I Amman. We found it, but unfortunately it is closed for renovation.

    So, we carried on to the Jordan Museum. It is a new state-of-the-art facility which only opened in 2014. It is the largest museum in Jordan and houses the country's most important archaeological finds.

    Just inside the entrance is a hall containing displays about Jordan today - its people, its resources, its economy, etc. It was all very interesting.

    The museum's historical artefacts are arranged in chronological order so it's easy to get a sense of how the country and the region evolved. Highlights among all the exhibits are the Dead Sea Scrolls and the 9000 year old Ain Ghazal statues which are probably the oldest human statues ever made. Incredible!!

    On the first floor at the moment is a temporary exhibition showcasing 1001 inventions by Muslims throughout history. It was fascinating and full of interactive displays which were fun for adults and children alike. It was a bit weird, though, that many of the videos were presented by Ben Kingsley dressed as a 10th century Muslim inventor but speaking with a clipped British accent 😂

    We left feeling very impressed with the museum as a whole.

    When we came out of the museum, it had been raining 🌧. Luckily, we had missed the downpour!    Read more

  • Greece, Egypt and Jordan

    Lunch at Hashem Restaurant

    January 14, 2023 in Jordan ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    From the museum, we made our way back towards the Grand Husseini Mosque 🕌 and went for lunch at the Hashem restaurant. Even though Jumana told us it wasn't the best, we still felt we wanted to go. It is the most famous falafel restaurant in Amman after all. It's always busy - they can't all be wrong, can they?

    We found a table and ordered falafel, hummus, French fries, and two bottles of water. Salad 🥗 and bread 🍞 come as standard. Everyone seemed to be ordering the same thing 😀

    All I can say is that it all tasted pretty good! And when we came to pay, it was 4 JOD (about £5!).

    We would definitely recommend it 😀

    It had rained 🌧 again while we were in the restaurant. Once again, we had missed it! 😀    Read more

  • Greece, Egypt and Jordan

    Old Signs of Amman

    January 14, 2023 in Jordan ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    After lunch, we popped round the corner to visit Old Signs of Amman - a quirky collection of vintage signs in Arabic and English. There are hundreds of them crammed into every inch of space on the second floor of an old building in downtown Amman.

    It was fascinating to browse the collection. We even met the owner, Gazi Khattab. He began rescuing old signs back in the 80s 😀. Now, it is a popular spot for young Jordanian Instagrammers. There is no entry fee.

    From the museum, we made our way back to the hotel for a relaxing evening.    Read more

  • Greece, Egypt and Jordan

    More steps in Amman!

    January 15, 2023 in Jordan ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    We didn't see any of our fellow travellers at breakfast this morning. There must have been other people in the hotel as they had set up the full buffet - but we didn't see a soul! It was like the Marie Celeste!

    We left the hotel 🏨 at about 10 to walk 🚶‍♀️ to the Citadel. This meant walking all the way down to downtown and then all the way up to the citadel which was built on the next of Amman's seven hills!

    At least there were interesting things to look at on the way and, once we got half way up to the citadel, we were on eye level with our hotel!

    At the top of the hill, the views of the western side of the city were amazing!    Read more

  • Greece, Egypt and Jordan

    A Visit to Amman Citadel

    January 15, 2023 in Jordan ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    The trek up the hill was definitely worth it - and not just for the views! Amman Citadel was so much more than we had expected and we happily spent a few hours there.

    The citadel is a large archaeological site built on one of the seven hills that make up modern Amman. It has a long history of occupation by many great civilizations. There is evidence of human habitation since the Neolithic period and it is clear that the hill was fortified during the Bronze Age (1800 BC). It became the capital of the Kingdom of Ammon sometime after 1200 BC. Later, it came under the control of empires such as the Neo-Assyrian (800 BC), the Neo- Babylonian (600 BC), the Roman (1st century BC), the Byzantine (3rd century AD) and the Umayyads (7th century AD). After this, the citadel went into decline and became an abandoned pile of ruins used by Bedouins and farmers. Despite this, the Citadel of Amman is considered to be among the world's oldest continuously inhabited places.

    Most of the structures still visible at the site are from the Roman, Byzantine, and Umayyad periods. These include the Temple of Hercules built by the Romans in the 2nd century AD, a Byzantine church, and the Umayyad Palace. The latter, known in Arabic as al-Qasr, was probably used as an administrative building or the residence of an Umayyad official. It draws on Byzantine architectural patterns. The magnificent entrance hall is built in the shape of a Greek cross. The domed roof has recently been restored with the help of the Spanish government. Whether the result is an accurate representation of the original structure is debatable. Nevertheless, it is an impressive example of craftsmanship in its own right.

    Also on site is the Jordan Archaeological Museum. It was built in 1951 and used to house the Dead Sea Scrolls which are now on display in the new Jordan Museum that we visited yesterday. There are still some interesting exhibits but you feel it's only a matter of time before all the remaining artefacts are moved to the new facility and it closes its doors completely.

    Despite the fact that archaeologists from Jordan, Italy, Spain, France, and the UK have been working at the site since the 1920s, a great part of the Citadel remains unexcavated.

    I will attach photos 📸 of the Temple of Hercules to this footprint and do subsequent posts for the Umayyad Palace and the Jordan Archaeological Museum.    Read more

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