Moses and Looking to the Promised Land

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Our day in Amman seemed quite short, and there were many more things we could have done...but it was time to move on to another part of the country...the Dead Sea! I had originally planned to do a stop in Jerash, one of the most preserved Roman cities. But good guidance from my brother Rick was that even though it was only an hour north of Amman, there wasn't really time to do it properly and then head to the Dead Sea. Instead he suggested doing Mt Nebo and a stop in Madaba for some lunch, then heading to the Sea. And as he is much more experienced here, I listened, we adjusted and it was great advice!!

But first, it was rental car time. And since we were in the city, I rented at a location close to the hotel, knowing full well we would have to drive in the traffic to get out of town. Interestingly, we got a fancy car from the hotel to get to the rental car. Beautiful car, clueless driver. Poor guy...we knew more about where we were going than he did...including pulling up the location on google maps and giving him instructions. Not sure what was the deal, but he obviously had issues.

We got the nice, automatic car, and as Ken gets very stressed in city driving I took the wheel. Since I have driven in Paris, Madrid, Athens and various other cities, I wasn't too worried. Other than being in the bus lane (it was totally empty and we figured out something was wrong), we made it out with only a few swear words and Ken yelling "HONEYYYYY!!!" a couple of times. In 45 mins we were navigating the much smaller, but still a bit complicated Madaba.

We found a nice parking place along with quite a few other cars, parked and walked to Harat Jdoouna, the restaurant Rick recommended. http://www.haretjdoudna.com/. Very cool stone surroundings, great handicrafts and yummy food. Excellent recommendation. Then we wandered the small streets with lots of local shops for the normal day-to-day life. Hardware, kitchen gadgets, material for sewing, and oh, wait yeah, gold. And not just a little, a LOT of gold. We saw some of the gold souk in Amman, but Madaba seemed to have more. I never get over how shop after shop have gold hanging in the windows. Bracelets, necklaces, rings, every imaginable type of jewelry in 18k gold which is sold by the gram (set by the govt). I am not gold person, so thankfully it was easy to pass them up.

Ken decided he wanted an espresso which mean a quick stop at a coffee place. We got the coffee, but then the guy in the shop wanted to know where we were from and advised he spends 4-6 months a year on Columbus OH. He owns the mosaic shop across the street and we were amazed at what he and his 20 artisans do...some of the stuff he is shipping to the US is amazing replicas of pictures people want recreated in mosaic. Pets, people, houses, scenes...all in mosaic. Pretty cool

Arriving back at the car we found we were the only car there and with a ticket. Our nice little parking violation souvenir from Jordan. Now it was on the Mt Nebo, a quick 9k from Madaba. The drive was easy and soon we were at the parking lot with a few cars and a bunch of buses. We got our $2 ticket and wandered up the stone path to a cool church and amazing views over the vast countryside. From here, we can see Palestine, Israel and Jordan, which for me is quite extraordinary. Three countries we have heard of all our lives and here they were within 50k of us.

For those that grew up or learned of the Bible stories, this entire area is filled with areas of reference. Mt Nebo is where Moses went and viewed the Promised Land after leading the Israelites from Egypt,, through the desert to escape persecution in Egypt. He died somewhere around the area (thought to be in Jericho not far away) at the ripe old age of 120, never entering Israel (the Promised Land). Close by is also the River Jordan where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, and so many other story references that you could be here a week and still not see them all.

The visit and references were interesting, but dodging the ever present tour groups became a sport. The Italian group was especially annoying, a German guy yelled at an Indian woman casually looking at a monument "Madam, you are beautiful but I don't want you in my picture, please move!" and then the Indian tour group that was chattering so loudly in the church that the caretaker went on a microphone to say "silence!" (twice as it didn't work the first time). There is no nationality that has the top prize in annoying groups.

We left the (at times) peaceful Mt Nebo and started down the extremely steep, switchbacks towards the Sea with incredible views in all directions. Within 30 mins we were going through the security check point that is ever present at the hotels. They scan the entire car, open the trunk and give us the once over and we passed thankfully. Then on entering every hotel our luggage and handbags are scanned airport style (India is the same).

The Dead Sea Marriott is a resort hotel with 3 pools, several restaurants, bars, and great views of the Sea, including directly across to Jerusalem. We checked in, again got a complimentary 1/2 bottle of wine and some Jordanian sweets and quickly headed to the pool for some relax time. After getting in some laps, we cleaned up and hit the sports bar to watch the World Cup on a massive screen. Tomorrow is a relax day!

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Photos

Maybe a little gold?
In Madaba

Comments

[Shelly Trainor]

Thanks for the memories
You are hitting the same places we did in March 2020 (just before the world changed). So fun to see the photos and remember our trip. Enjoy your trip and Happy Thanksgiving