Mt. Nebo was our last tour stop and the next day we flew home to the USA. We will leave the hotel at nearly midnight to go to the airport for our flight to Frankfurt departing at 2:55 AM.
On our way back to the hotel from Mt. Nebo we got a quick bus tour of some of the newest luxury housing areas of Amman. There is a lot of money invested in these large houses and it is said to have come from refugees from the two Iraq wars who have largely settled in Amman, waiting for the chance to return home.
Amman derives from the ancient Ammonites and Madaba and Mt. Nebo are in ancient Moab. Jordan is the Holy Land of the Old Testament and it is a shame that it is not promoted more that way for tourism. Heaven knows there is little industry and not much in the service economy to provide jobs for all the college educated young adults the country is producing.
We had ideal travel weather through both nations though they both pray earnestly for rain - a nine year drought continues.
Some closing thoughts:
Plastic bags are a plague on the world!! While Israel was fairly free of trash, Jordan is in a close race with Egypt for first place in the littering sweepstakes. Plastic bags absolutely everywhere.
I wonder why Jordan doesn't make more use of roof top solar water heating and solar panels for electricity. The climate would certainly seem to be perfect for it.
The highway police do not chase speeders. A patrol car is parked about every 10 kilometers and if the officer sees a speeder, he radios ahead to the next car which stops the speeder and tickets the offender. Since traffic outside the urban areas is light, the system works and avoids high speed chases. There is minimal police or military presence at tourist sites, especially compared to the massive presence in Egypt. Maybe with the recent unrest in the country that has changed.
Jordan is a developing country with extremes of wealth and poverty. Dependent on foreign aid and foreign investment. Wonder if the Hashmites ever wish they had stayed in Mecca. But then the Saud family took over that area…..
We have just signed up for our next trip. After dithering for literally months about whether and where we should go, Bob found a likely trip, I researched it and within 24 hours we were signed up. In August we are going to fly to England and embark on the Crystal Serenity in Dover to sail along the Atlantic coast of Portugal, through the Straits of Gibraltar, along the Mediterranean coast of Spain and southern France and down the Italian coast to Rome, from which we fly back to the US. The ship is a lot bigger than we usually like to travel on and there will be 13 plus alumni groups on board. But all the shore excursions are individually selected and paid for so there shouldn't be a lot of waiting around for tour buses to load and be on their way. A nice relaxing cruise.
See you then.
On our way back to the hotel from Mt. Nebo we got a quick bus tour of some of the newest luxury housing areas of Amman. There is a lot of money invested in these large houses and it is said to have come from refugees from the two Iraq wars who have largely settled in Amman, waiting for the chance to return home.
Amman derives from the ancient Ammonites and Madaba and Mt. Nebo are in ancient Moab. Jordan is the Holy Land of the Old Testament and it is a shame that it is not promoted more that way for tourism. Heaven knows there is little industry and not much in the service economy to provide jobs for all the college educated young adults the country is producing.
We had ideal travel weather through both nations though they both pray earnestly for rain - a nine year drought continues.
Some closing thoughts:
Plastic bags are a plague on the world!! While Israel was fairly free of trash, Jordan is in a close race with Egypt for first place in the littering sweepstakes. Plastic bags absolutely everywhere.
I wonder why Jordan doesn't make more use of roof top solar water heating and solar panels for electricity. The climate would certainly seem to be perfect for it.
The highway police do not chase speeders. A patrol car is parked about every 10 kilometers and if the officer sees a speeder, he radios ahead to the next car which stops the speeder and tickets the offender. Since traffic outside the urban areas is light, the system works and avoids high speed chases. There is minimal police or military presence at tourist sites, especially compared to the massive presence in Egypt. Maybe with the recent unrest in the country that has changed.
Jordan is a developing country with extremes of wealth and poverty. Dependent on foreign aid and foreign investment. Wonder if the Hashmites ever wish they had stayed in Mecca. But then the Saud family took over that area…..
We have just signed up for our next trip. After dithering for literally months about whether and where we should go, Bob found a likely trip, I researched it and within 24 hours we were signed up. In August we are going to fly to England and embark on the Crystal Serenity in Dover to sail along the Atlantic coast of Portugal, through the Straits of Gibraltar, along the Mediterranean coast of Spain and southern France and down the Italian coast to Rome, from which we fly back to the US. The ship is a lot bigger than we usually like to travel on and there will be 13 plus alumni groups on board. But all the shore excursions are individually selected and paid for so there shouldn't be a lot of waiting around for tour buses to load and be on their way. A nice relaxing cruise.
See you then.
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