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JORDAN  - DAY THREE - The Road to Petra

Blogs: Day 1-2 JFK to Jordan Via Paris | Day 3 Road to Petra | Day 4-5 Petra | Day 5-6 Desert | Day 7 Dead Sea

 

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Time to leave Amman and head to Petra with a few stops along the way. This was our wheels. BTW, gas here is expensive - $6/gal.

Out of the 9 people in our tour group, believe it or not FOUR of the nine are doctors. Two young ER residents and a couple of cranky older doctors! Interesting conversations had by all. 

First stop was an 18th century Greek Orthodox church. Not that impressive until you understand that the church was built on top of another church much older and they preserved the original mosaic floor which had a map of the middle east made out of mosaic, circa 5th century A.D. a 1500 year old floor with a pretty accurate map of the region in biblical times.  The mosaics are impressive to say the least.

This is Mount Nebo and this is where Moses stood and for the first time saw the Promised Land.

Frankly, based on this view, if I were Moses I'd be a little disappointed. "What? You kept me wondering about the desert for 40 years and now THIS is what we get? You've gotta be kidding me! It's just MORE desert!" 

(Wendy's note - I'm the editor.  Apparently Moses has been roaming the DESSERT for 40 years.  Hopefully it was creme brulee!  Wendy = spell check!!  OCD has it's benefits at times.)

Jokes aside, it is pretty cool. At this point we are only about 35 miles from Jerusalem with the border to Israel not far away. On a clear day you can apparently SEE Jerusalem from here.

To realize you are standing on the same ground the Moses and the Israelites did 3500 years ago is pretty amazing. 

As we all know Moses never did make it to the Promised Land - his punishment for striking the rock and not speaking to it as he had been told to do. God didn't take prisoners back in the Old Testament.

Wendy's note: We felt this in Old Cairo knowing we walked amongst Jesus, John, Mary, Abraham, John, and all those others.  While we are not religious, it's the same feeling knowing you have stood where MLK or Buddah or Kurt Cobain once walked.  JS. 

No guided tour would be complete without a revenue earning stop.

In our case a visit to a mosaic factory who will ship their artwork to you anywhere in the world free of tax and shipping charges!

They make good Turkish coffee though!

As we rolled Southward the landscape started changing. At first pretty lush with rolling hills and quaint villages giving way to arid desert and if you look carefully wind generators.

Now here is the rock that Moses struck twice with his staff 3500 years ago.

As you can see the water is still running to this day, so while he might have gotten himself in trouble for that, the local people still benefit from this crystal clear spring water to this day!

We did a "Japanese Stop" to take a picture of an old castle along the way.

What is a Japanese Stop, you ask?

Well, picture a tour coach arriving. 54 Japanese tourists climb out, take a picture and climb back on and leave.

THAT is a Japanese Stop, when the bus stops only for the purpose of taking a picture. I guess you have to see it to understand the humor!!

We then arrived in Petra in time to check into our 5 star hotel.

Nice and spacious - smoking room for us, yes, Jordan still has smoking rooms and even restaurants are smoking.

With a HUGE balcony overlooking the entrance to Petra

This hotel is sneaky. they hid the Muslim Mecca arrow inside a drawer!

And believe it or not, Wendy FINALLY got her bidet!!!! Not that she actually knows how to use it! She just revels in the concept.  I believe it dates back to the Crocodile Dundee movie.

 

And finally...

 

This is the most number of toilet stalls I have seen in a men's restroom EVER!
Yes, you read those alcohol content percentages correctly.

Talk about a buzz in a can!

This requires some explanation.

Outside the USA, hotel beds have duvets (a thick polyester blanket thing in a linen cover) and not sheets and blankets. Being from South Africa I understand this. However, because there are no sheets, blankets or comforters your only option is to sleep under a thick heavy duvet or nothing at all.

When you have central heating this is too hot for me. So, every evening Wendy folds up the duvet inside the duvet cover for her and then I just sleep under the empty half of the duvet cover.

This is the FIRST country EVER that got me! When the housekeeper saw what we had done she brought in a separate sheet for me and folded the duvet over double for Wendy. What awesome service, never happened before - they would just put it back and I would have to undo it again, every single night.

Jordan rocks!