Day One & Two

Day One

The day started early with a train ride to Schiphol Airport, where all my documents for entry into Jordan where checked by the Turkish Airlines Crew.

After a 3 hour flight to Istanbul I had a 4 hour layover, which I used to visit the Museum at the airport.

From Istanbul it was a 2 hour flight to Amman, the capitol of Jordan

Day Two

After a delicious breakfast, it was time to explore the city of Amman.

The city was originally built on seven hills, but since then has spread out to over nineteen hills, and you'll notice this when walking around.

My hotel is near the city center, and once there you'll find many little alleys to wander around. Most have shops, but some have fruit markets.

Roman Nymphaeum

I just happened to stumble across this Roman Nymphaeum, which is a fancy word for fountain. The fence to the site was unlocked but not open, and I decided to play the dumb tourist and wander onto the site.

Roman Theatre

My actual goal was to find the Roman Theatre. A few months ago I visited the one in Greece. And it's interesting to see how this one holds up.

Thanks to my Jordan pass, I could walk right in.

One museum shows relics of the past, such as mosaics found near the site.

The other one shows how people lived and dressed in the day.

Odeon

Where the Roman Theatre seats about six thousand people, the Odeon next door seats just 500. It was used for musical performances, poetry readings and debates or lectures.

From the Theatre, I made my way to the Citadel, conveniently located on top of a 805 meter high hill.

Seems Amman is a safe city.

Citadel

The Citadel is one of the longest inhabited places on earth and you can find Roman temples, Palaces and Churches on this hilltop.

This might seem like a Mosque, but it's actually a Palace.

Behind the Palace, there used to be bathhouses, I think it's neat to get a sense of how it would have looked by looking through the various alleys and gates.

The views from the Citadel are really nice too.

The bathhouse and palace needed water and they used to store it in this circular building

This is the only remaining wall of the actual Mosque in the Citadel.

And just a few meters away are the remains of a Byzantine Church.

After all this walking, it was time for food, back down the hill in Downtown Amman.

I noticed a lot of people sitting around with paper plates eating something I didn't recognize and decided to join the nearby queue.

According to Google Lens and Wikipedia Knafeh is a traditional Middle Eastern dessert made with spun pastry called kataifi, soaked in sweet, sugar-based syrup, and typically layered with cheese, or with other ingredients such as clotted cream, pistachio or nuts, depending on the region.

Cheese and Sugar taste delicious!

Rainbow St.

After some relaxing at the hotel, I walked to Rainbow Street, which is supposed to be the place to be in the evening.

I thought it was slightly underwhelming, it's just a street with some shops and restaurants 🤷.