Hi,
I am now in Amman Jordan again surprised at the greenness of the land we traveled through. Only 8% of Jordan is arable land and we seem to have traveled through most of it. One hilly section is high enough to have a couple feet of snow in the winter. From now on as we head to Petra and then Egypt it will be a different thing with mainly arid land.
We left the Kibbutz in Capernaum in cool weather which continued all day. Our first stop was at Bethshean beside the Jordan creek that had extensive Roman ruins with bathhouses and all the usual stuff. The ruins were impressive but we didn't have enough time to see it all. There is a rather large hill or Tel next to the Roman city whose bottom layer dates to 4,500 BC. It seems that they just built one town after another in the same place.
We then spent two hours leaving Israel and entering Jordan by crossing the creek. We took our bus through an Israeli passport check then over to an area where we unloaded the bus and went through another passport check. Then the group loaded up on another bus after a long wait and drove ½ mile to Jordan security. We unloaded from that bus, went through another passport check and carried our luggage through a baggage check. Once through this we loaded our baggage and ourselves on the bus that would take us through Jordan. we also changed guides and I think that the new one will do better than the first.
After an hours trip through green hills and fields of wheat we arrived at an excellent lunch at about 2:00 in the afternoon. It was great middle eastern food with the ability to rent a hooka water pipe for $5.00 for an after lunch smoke. None of us took advantage of this opportunity although they must have had twenty of the things for rent so a fair number of people must use them.
We then stopped at the ruins of the city of Jerash which are immense. This Roman city is includes over two miles of collinated streets with a hippodrome for chariot races, an amphitheater theater and various temples. This was as good as anything I had seen in Greece but is not well known. We then drove through more green hills to Amman to stay at the excellent Amman Cham Palace Hotel where I have a small suite.
Tomorrow we head off for Mt. Nebo where Moses viewed the promised land in the south of Jordan ending up in Petra for the night.
Considering everything that is going on, it is good to be out of Israel.
Carl
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