Jordan day 7 - back to Amman

It was an early start for our final day. We were on the bus and heading out of Aqaba by 8:30.


We had started to shed people with two of our party staying on in Aqaba.

The trip back to Amman along the desert Highway was uneventful.

The desert is spotted with plants such as the ones seen in this photo

We had one stop for refreshments, toilets and shopping and we did buy a number of items.

Once we hit the outskirts of Amman the traffic became heavier and the closer we got to the centre the more caotic it became. Still, there is an acceptable manner of behaving and drivers do allow others to merge and cross. Rarely did we hear a horn.

We ate lunch at a local eatery. Obviously local as the menu was only in arabic. Tourists were not a common cliental. Sami organised the food for us which made the process fairly simple. And the food was excellent.

After lunch we headed for the Citadel. This site has been occuppied by the usual suspects from before the bronze age. The remaining structures are from the Roman times onwards.

The traffic was very congested particularly as we passed the vegetable market.

The views over the city from this high point were excellent. We were able to see the suburbs crawling up and over the ridges. With a population of 1.8 million people the city is surprisingly compact. Perhaps not so surprising when you consider that people generally live in apartment blocks. I still haven't worked out what the transport system is for Amman, apart from cars. There are busses but not enough to cater for that number of people. I must check it out when I get a chance.

These four photos show what much of Amman looks like. Note the Roman theatre in the top right of the final one

The Citadel site is quite big and Sami walked us through it explaining the history and purpose of each of the buildings/ruins before letting us loose in the museum. The museum was set up by time periods and each one had a small but impressive collection of relicts from the period.

This photo and the one below date from the Byzantine period

Just below the Citadel was the Roman Theatre. This was very well preserved. Getting to it in the bus required quite some skill and Hussein eased the bus through a number of points contrained by parked vehicles and narrow points on the road.

View of the rows of seats taken from the centre of the theatre stage

Trevor looking over the theatre

The theatre was certainly worth a visit as was the small museum attached which contained displays of clothing by region and some mosaics from a number of sites.

Two of the mosaics on display in the museum at the theatre

We said goodbye to Sami at the hotel and Trevor retrieved the bags we have left there earlier in the week.

We had been promoted to the 5th floor and our room was a very generous size with a huge bed.

Poor Thingy was starving. He had dropped to a mere 6% of his battery capacity. While we waited for our bags to be delivered we headed down stairs for a cup of coffee.

I eventually got Thingy sorted out. While there were quite a few power points in the room some of them did not work. After trying a couple of dud points I eventually unplugged a working lamp and used that point. Later I discovered a power point hidden behind a piece of furnitre which worked so I was able to plug the lamp back in to its point.

For dinner most of the group had opted to go to the resaurant Sami had taken us to on the previous Sunday night. Hussein, our driver, had kindly agreed to pick us up and return us to the hotel. At 7 o'clock we piled on to the bus and headed off. We were allocated a table in the "tent"area. This is actually an open air area with a bedouin cloth overhead intended to give the feeling of being in a bedouin tent. Those of us who were inadequately covered for the cool evening were provided with a robe to keep us warm. Without a translator ordering dinner was a bit of a challenge however we did eventually manage it. Most of the group had opted for mezza and an a la carte main.

Once again the food was excellent and there was far too much of it for us to finish it all.

We farewelled hussein when he dropped us back at the hotel and headed upstairs to attempt to finish our packing ahead of our flight to Dubai.

Later in the evening we went down and got a hot drink. Not being able to make a hot drink in our room was a bit of a pain however tonight it was a great chance to say final farewells to the people who had shared our week in Jordan.