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Published: June 11th 2017
Flying over the desert
We are getting close to AmmanWe were up bright and early as usual this morning, to be ready to leave the Novotel in Cairo at 6:15 am. The hotel provided breakfast boxes (we are starting to get used to breakfast boxes) since we were leaving too early to have breakfast at the hotel. This one was better than the previous ones, with a banana, mini croissants (the one with chocolate chips was really good), yogurt, two small buns, a good portion of sliced cheese, and jam and honey, with a bottle of water.
We headed out to the airport in our mini van and I snacked on some of the breakfast box on the way. Amr came with us to the airport, and Ramadan (who picked us up from the airport in Cairo when we first arrived) escorted us into the airport. I forgot the mention on yesterday's blog the security in Egyptian airports. You can bring liquids on board (including bottled water), but you have to take your shoes off going through security, and you get frisked numerous times on the way. Today's flight had to be a record for the number of security checks we had to go through. I've never been frisked
so many times in my life, including after I had boarded the plane. They have a small area at the front of the plane which they curtain off for the female attendant to frisk the female passengers who are boarding. We went through the exact same type of security check (walking through the metal detector, bags getting x-rayed, getting frisked) about 5 times on the way through the airport. Just when you think you can't possibly be checked again, they frisk you once more as you're boarding the plane, just for good measure.
We got a coffee and wandered around the airport for a short time, then it was time to board. We flew on Royal Jordanian Airlines, which seems to be a very good airline. The attendants were all very nice. The flight was only one hour but they served a small meal (I declined since I had the breakfast box and would be having a big lunch). We flew over desolate looking desert the whole way. We were surprised that Jordan was one hour later than Egypt (my iphone lied when I checked the world clock app before we left!), so we landed in Amman about 11:15
local time.
The Amman airport is a very nice modern airport. Our luggage was unloaded quickly and we purchased our Jordanian visas (40 Jordanian Dinars - close to $80) and went through customs smoothly. Our guide for the Jordanian leg of the trip, Mohammed, met us at arrivals and we were soon in a mini van heading to the hotel. The highway coming in is new and we were amazed at the lack of horns. Egyptian drivers are constantly tooting their horns, but on the drive it didn't seem to be that way in Jordan. Amman has a lot of construction going on, and the buildings are all made of limestone, so they are very attractive looking. Amman is also a lot cleaner than Egypt. The buildings in Egypt all seem to be covered in dirt and grime.
It turns out we are not at the Grand Palace Hotel as we originally thought. They are over booked so we are at the La Locanda Boutique Hotel. Our rooms weren't ready when Fadia, Susan's cousin, picked us up shortly after 1 pm. She drove us to her apartment, about a 1/2 hour drive from the hotel. On this drive
Fadia and Susan
Toasting with arak the traffic was much more similar to that in Egypt, but not as extreme. There were horns tooting, but not constantly like in Egypt, and cars passed very closely to each other as they merged in and out. As usual here the car didn't have seat belts in the back seat.
We had a delicious lunch at Fadia's. She served a Palestinian dish which was a sort of a thicker type of Arabic bread, covered with onions and sumac, with a large piece of chicken on top. I had a piece without chicken and it was excellent. Because I didn't eat chicken Fadia stopped to pick me up some falafel and hummus, and she also had a tasty salad. It was a feast and we were stuffed. We also had arak, a licorice flavoured liquor similarly to ouzo, but better (much smoother). You serve it with water (so it turns a milky white) and ice.
We spent several hours at Fadia's and then she drove us back to the hotel. We have a very nice, large room (and a queen bed rather than 2 twins). The rooms have names rather than numbers, and we are in the Sheikh
Iman room. Shortly after we got back we met our group for the group meeting. Seven additional people will be joining the seven of us from the Egypt portion of the trip, so we have a total of 14. Four will be staying at the Grand Palace, and the rest of us here at the La Locanda. We met Meredith and Graham (from Australia). The others will be arriving later tonight or tomorrow so we'll meet them later. Mohammed gave us a really good overview of the days to come and I'm really looking forward to it. The others went to dinner but Susan and I were still full from lunch so we came back to the room, did some laundry, and I worked on the blog. Tomorrow we (Susan, Dominica and I) are going on a day tour of Amman that we booked from home. It turns out Mohammed is taking the group on a tour which will cover a lot of the same sights. If we had known we wouldn't have booked the tour, but I'm sure it will be a good day. We will be up for breakfast at 7:30, and we'll get picked up at 8:30
for our day tour.
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Faye
non-member comment
Susan, which side of the family is Fadia on? It's really nice to meet a cousin in Jordan, Wow!