Hays Travelogue

Dear Family and Friends,

Al Khazneh (The Treasury) at Petra

As you know, Mike and I went to Jordan with some friends during the week between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. Last summer, when we began to plan the trip, friends from the Middle East told us, “Oh, Jordan. There’s only Petra. Two days is enough.” Then they began to reminisce and soon had more than a week of suggestions for us. And sure enough, we did fill up the week, and there were places we didn’t get to and places in which we could have spent more time.

It’s true that Jordan is a small country, about the size of New Jersey, and you can easily drive the length of it in a day. A day, that is, if you don’t get lost, and we were continually lost, especially in Amman. Fortunately, the Jordanian people are kind and friendly and very willing to give directions. If someone didn’t speak English, he would find someone who did. Unfortunately, directions often consisted of cryptic things like, “Street. Street. Up. Down. Street.”

One day, after trying to go south to Madaba to visit the Church of the Mosaics, we thought we had followed the directions, but when the sun came out, we discovered that we were headed north towards Syria. We turned around, asked directions again, followed them, but soon discovered we were headed east toward Iraq. Finally, we hired a taxi to lead us to the highway we needed. This was such a successful technique that we used it again and again. Below are some more of the highlights. The full set of photos, including those from the Church of the Mosaics, is here.

The Dead Sea - We did float in Dead Sea water, but at the Mövenpick Spa not at the seashore. The salt content of the sea is 30%; at the spa it was only 24%, and we bobbed around like corks.

The Oval Forum is one of the main sights in the Roman city of Jerash. We also liked the theater with its amazing acoustics and the hippodrome in which there were reenactments by costumed gladiators, legionnairs, and charioteers.

Qasr Amra, an 8th century bathhouse and hunting lodge, is famous for the frescoes that cover the interior walls.

The view of the Golan Heights and the Sea of Galilee from Umm Qais. This is near the place where Jesus performed the Miracle of the Swine.

Wadi Rum is famous for its fantastic rock formations, petroglyphs, and T.E. Lawrence. A desert safari in Wadi Rum includes lots of stops at tea tents.

Ajlun Castle, built to deter the Crusaders, is only one of the many castles we visited.

I hope you are off to a happy and healthy New Year!

xox

Tags:   Jerash · Jordan · Petra · Qasr Amra · Umm Qais · Wadi RumNo Comments