Four Countries in One Day

Goodbye Full Panorama of Archaeological Site Jarash Hotel

At our apartment in Jerash we have breakfast in the dining room at 8am. The father serves us with all kinds of little dishes filled with homemade hummus, pita, olives, pickled pepper, cheese, a salad and yummy spiced pita bread. And of course there is that delicious tea. It almost seems like its a sweet camomile and mint mix. The older father doesn’t speak English, but he serves the food with a huge, ear to ear smile, while saying, ” Welcome. Welcome”.

We chat with some German women at breakfast. I get a picture with the friendly father and we head back out on the road.

That Can’t be Right

Today we are going to Ajloun Castle and Umm Qais. Traffic is a bit crazy. I see a car packed with kids, two of them are hanging out the window. Seat belts do not seem to be a priority.

Google sends us down a narrow, steeply downhill street. As we near the bottom, a taxi driver turns up driving towards us and starts waving his arms wildly. We are on a one way street. John inches the car within an inch of a car parked on the side. Our side mirror is pushed in. Horns are beeping. Finally we get past.

John admits that he will be happy to return the car tonight. I am getting better at spotting speed bumps but we still go flying every now and then.

Ajloun Castle

Ajloun Castle is our first stop. It is a 12th century Muslim castle used as a defense against the Crusaders. Of course there are lots of steps to get up to the castle and once inside, there are even more steps.

We spend around 45 minutes checking it out and then head to Umm Qais, an archeological site of Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman ruins with amazing views.

We hire a guide to take us around the site. It’s a smaller than Jerash but located in a beautiful setting high in the hills surrounded by the countryside and by countries (see below). There are a lot of black volcanic columns and stones used in this site because that is what was available for their use. John and I agree that we both prefer the limestone columns.

Our guide takes us to the theatre which is also built from black, volcanic rock. We try out the acoustics. Amazing.

Four Countries with One Glance

We go to a lookout where you can see the Sea of Galilee, and the town of Tiberias in Israel. We are also directly across from the Golan Heights in Syria but since 1967 occupied by Israel. Our guide also points out Mount Hermon which borders Lebanon. Unfortunately, he says, it’s not clear enough to see Nazareth. I am blown away that we can see four countries from one spot…Jordan, Israel, Syria and Lebanon.

Our tour finishes and John and I eat lunch at the highly recommended Resthouse Restaurant which is on the archaeological site and overlooks the ruins and the views of all four countries and the Sea of Galilee.

I try a new dish called Fattet Bathenjan. It is a fried pita, eggplant, tomato sauce, tahini paste dish. Delicious. I want to learn how to make it. Here is a link for the recipe. The fresh lemon and mint juice is also very refreshing. John has a thick Turkish coffee.

Once Last Look Around Umm Qais

Fully replenished from our lunch, we explore more of the site. We see deep wheel ruts worn into the black volcanic Roman road. It truly blows my mind thinking about how long ago those ruts were made.

Return to Monte Carlo Car Rental

It is time to drop our car back off at the car rental agency. It’s a 2 hour and 20 minute drive through many narrow, curving, steep up, steep down roads before we get to the highway leading to the airport.

At the car rental drop-off they find a scratch on the car, probably from our encounter with the taxi on the steep hill. Fortunately we had the extra insurance…which is funny because we don’t usually buy it.

They offer us tea while they make various phone calls about the scratch. They ask why John didn’t get a police report and we reply because we had no idea the car got scratched. Apparently for the insurance to cover it there has to be a police report. More phone calls. They hand John the phone to speak to a manager who is very friendly asking about our time in Jordan then asks why no police report. John explains why he never got a police report. The manager says to wait in the office and have some tea as he needs to make phone calls.  It is just normal tea with sugar and fresh mint leaves but it is so tasty. I mention my enjoyment and Riat (our service person) gives me about 20 tea bags from the box and some mint leaves.

The manager calls back… we don’t need a police report. Everything is fine. We don’t need to worry about the scratch because they can buff it out.

Now we need to get a cab to our hotel in downtown Amman. The car rental agent says he can drive us there for 10 JOD ($18 CAD) which is less than the normal fare. Riat drives us to our hotel in the centre of Amman. It is about a 45 minute drive and Riat points out places of interest along the way.