Today we began with an au revoir to
probably the classiest hotel of our journey, the Amman International. We had
wondered about a number of men in the lobby who seemed to be very intent about
something, and often on their cell phones. We had also had a couple of minor
issues that seemed like the hotel was not quite ready for us. This morning we
found out that the president of Tunisia was staying… so apparently everything
is not about us!
We set off to see one of the largest
mosques in Jordan, dedicated to the first king. The tiling was being
re-furbished on the domes (more than your average re-grout job). The welcome
was most sincere, and a number of things reminded me of how often we Christians
have not lived up to our own call to peace. The ladies had to gown in order to
come into the mosque (the “nuns of St David’s”?), and we were reminded that
women pray in a separate area. I don’t think I would want to be a Muslim woman.
A trip to the Amman citadel showed another
set of ruins that started before the Romans were a twinkle in the eyes of the
Greeks, on down to the Turkish Sultans. A photo shows the remains of a statue
of Hercules for his temple… three fingers and a knuckle that stands about a
foot high. They did believe in “going big”! Again the citadel was on the top of
a hill – very defendable, so some of the best engineering was to collect and
conserve water.
We visited another Greek/Roman theatre for
us and 3000 of our closest friends. Then we were off to tour the central market
district, which frustrated some of our shoppers, as it is hard to barter from a
passing bus.
A
long trip south through the desert (which makes the land east of Brooks look
positively green) took us to Petra. Thankfully the trip was interrupted with a
great traditional Bedouin meal. Which reminds me that we have said little about
the food so far. We generally have found that the usual lunch time is a bit
late for us… 2-3 pm. It is usually a large meal, and then we get to eat again
at about 7pm. Not likely to lose weight
on this tour…
The final approach to Petra brought us back
into hill country. The valley is named after a spring which tradition tells us
is thanks to a little help from Moses. It is country which one traveller
described as “Drumheller on steroids”. We are pretty pumped for tomorrow’s
offering!
