Ḩayy Umm Udhaynah ash Sharqī

Beginning my next trip, this one to Jordan and Israel. This wasn’t Plan A - that one was scuttled due to concerns about COVID entry rules in the countries I had scheduled to visit. But this Plan B is just as eagerly anticipated.

Today I’ve arrived in Amman, Jordan after a 17-hour trip, taking me from DC to Chicago, and then to here (side note - boy, that Terminal 5 at O’Hare is just about the dreariest international terminal I’ve ever been in. Poorly lit, few windows, even fewer shops. Yikes.).

The flight map shows that we “went over the top” - or close to it. If you zoom in toward Europe, you can see the borders of Ukraine, where three of my four grandparents were born.

I’ll be traveling for two weeks, with the map I’ve posted showing where we’re headed. It will be, I think, a bit of a whirlwind with all there is to see and do, but there’s also, well, just a lot to see and do, which also means a lot of packing and unpacking given the number of locations and hotels. But the places I’ll be going to means a step back into history - most of the sites date back to pre-1,000 AD, as well as into cultures that have disappeared or that are hundreds if not thousands of years old and that have continually tried to adjust to their times.

As one of my brothers said this week, a trip to Israel is one of the places - if not the only place - my dad ever really wanted to go. So he and my mom will be here with me in spirit.

Once again, A&K is my travel guide. This is my eighth booking with them which makes me, I guess, a brand loyalist. I haven’t yet met any of my fellow travelers - that’ll be tomorrow, the first official day of the journey.

#A&K #amman #ammanjordan #IsraelLes mer