Traveling to Jordan

What a send off! The Ecks (aka house sitters) stormed the house days before our trip. We had great food, conversations, and set up some very nice house projects. Unfortunately I had to work the night before we flew out. It was a busy night and I hoped to grab some sleep before our long travels but that was not in the cards for the accident prone citizens of Juneau. I also awoke an hour prior to take off with overwhelming vertigo and nausea, but nothing was going to deter me from this adventure. After our goodbyes and with a lot of Emily’s help I crawled  on to the first flight.  Luckily, with a little rest the devastating nausea and world spinning vertigo resolved. Emily said I looked like death on two legs. Off we go! Fortune continued to smile on us as we were upgraded to first class to Seattle and got to relax in the lounges before our business class flight to London. The food and comfort was worth it! We then we lounged a bit in London before our 6 hour flight to Amman, Jordan.  I think, for the first time in our travel history, we had an uneventful travel to our destination. No delays, cancelations, border issues, or lost luggage. Landing in Amman at 1am we disembarked and flew through customs where our bags were BOTH waiting for us. We drove to the hotel and crashed for the remainder of the night. 

Well, that was a solid night of sleep. We awoke to a bright desert sun and a broiling cityscape. Breakfast was exquisite, with falafel, hummus, fresh fruits and vegetables. Jordan is fairly liberal so Emily does not have to cover her shoulders or wear a hijab.  

Off we went towards Umm Qais at the northern tip of Jordan. This was one of the ancient Roman cities/military outposts that we had planned on visiting. It was a 2 hour long drive through the country. Our driver didn’t speak a lick of English and Jordan’s solution to traffic speeding is to put a ‘bump’ every 400 meters.  Needless to say, it was a jerky ride. The temperature started out at 88°F and quickly rose to 98°F with the bright sun. We found a guide that walked us through Umm Qais, and boosted that we could see Syria, Palestine, and Lebanon from where we stood, thus making that site ideal for military strategy.  We walked along a Roman trade road that stretched from Italy to Africa, lined by columns and Italian marble.    After a brief 1 hour tour we climbed back in to our car and drove off towards the castle of Ajloun. 

Now this was cool. An ancient Roman/Muslim fortress that was designed (and stood the test of time) to defend a strategic valley from invaders.  We were able to tour this castle alone. As we rounded the corner of the valley there it stood, on a small hill in the commanding the center of the valley. We drove up the winding hills under the blistering sun and got as close as we could to the fortress before hiking the rest of the way. This fortress had many tricky implementations to prevent invaders from capturing it including narrow arrow slits, various portions inside the fortress allowed defenders to drop boiling oil on people and a dry moat that forced invaders out in to the open.  We felt like true explores climbing around the inside the castle. After we had our fill of ancient artifacts we set out towards Jerash one of the largest ancient Roman cities in the world. 

Jerash is a small Jordanian city built around a massive Greco-Roman city that was rediscovered in 1920.  Hundreds of columns, giant Roman theaters, massive stone gates, bath houses, and street shops have been excavated.  But the modern city had already been build so it presents as an interesting juxtaposition of ancient architecture and modern infrastructure colliding.  Unfortunately we arrived at the peak of the heat. It was 101°F and absolutely no shade as none of the ruins’ roofs survived. We found an awesome young and enthusiastic tour guide who walked us around for two hours beaming about the ancient relics as we sauntered sweat soaked and panting.  We sat in the massive amphitheaters shouting from the perfect acoustic points, watched live street venders painting with sand, walked in the same arenas as gladiators, wondered down streets rutted thousands of years earlier by chariots and trade wagons.  It was fantastic! Hot, but fantastic. 

Finally we piled back into our sweltering car and made our way south to our next destination, the Dead Sea, while the unforgiving sun set.  Oh, did I mention that the further south we go the hotter it will get? Yelp, 104° when we reach our Dead Sea hotel… can’t wait for tomorrow!!