Preface
Following the Belgian tradition, the choice of the honeymoon destination was fully the responsibility of the groom keeping it as a surprise for Denisa till the wedding day.
However, not to make a mistake, I went through a little questionnaire with her. What I remind of this exercise was to keep water as an exception, providing any cruise, but, first of all, to avoid pyramids and,
therefore, Egypt… which I was foreseeing as a possibility.
Looking around the world, skipping the Caribe and Indochina thanks to the weather, keeping in mind a programme of about one week due to time restriction and striking out all the countries where one of us went or that we could jump to for a city trip but willing to make this journey unique and amazing, I quickly arrived to my final choice: “Jordan” and its key spot: “Petra”.
For once in my life, the trip was fully arranged by an agency, we just had to follow the guide.
It was worth to make it 🙂
But, let me count you our odyssey… Once upon a time…
Day 1: AMMAN – AJLOUN – JERASH – AMMAN
Landed in Amman at 4am from Brussels via Roma; our journey started by a short night :-).
Nevertheless, a few hours later we managed to wake up ready to discover this unknown land and all its faces.
All started by meeting our guide and our driver, who joined us all along the trip and to realize that we’ll spend a certain time in this car going from spot to spot.
Indeed, Jordan’s main spots are spread around the country and, despite good road and reasonable distances; a lot of time is spent in transports.
We began by the discovery of Ajloun, former fortress in the north of the countries and Jerash, one of the largest preserved Roman town in the Middle east counting with a long columns alley and a series of well “preserved” edifices (thanks to the weather… and to the restorations).
This first day was also the time for us to face 2 realities: we will not see any clouts during our stay, the temperature moving between 35°C and 45°C with a big sun, and we’ll have to be careful, all the meals being made of tasteful buffets counting with many fresh dishes 🙂
As the night short, so was the day and we came back at the middle of the afternoon to our hotel, ready to enjoy the swimming pool and recover from our previous night.
Day 2: AMMAN – MADABA – MONT NEBO – KERAK – PETRA
The second day was synonym of moving from Amman to Petra, without letting aside the opportunity to stop to some nice spots along the road.
All started in Madaba and its enormous ceramic map covering the territories from Egypt to Syria.
Not forgetting the sources of the monotheist religions, our second stop was made at Mont Nebo, where Moses saw the Promised Land and, finally, we discovered Kerak and its dominating castle on the king road.
The journey to Petra leaded us through the desert and along the dead see.
The journeys by car where synonyms of incredible views over the different landscapes covering this land: mainly the desert and the mountains. From north to south, two main road exist; one, the king road, crossing the dessert for centuries on the way from Riad to Damacus; one, the Dead sea road, chilling around the Jordan and the Dead see (the border to Israel) from Tiberian lake to the Red Sea).
We rest in the evening enjoying the panoramic view of the sunset over Petra.
Day 3: PETRA
This day was fully dedicated to one of the world new seven wonders: Petra.
Petra, more than the Treasurer, most famous building shown in all book and many films, is a huge complex built through the ages which welcomed till 30000 inhabitants. It is spread within the mountains and count with many temples and tombs dig in the rocks but also of some constructions (mostly from the roman time).
Going around the site took us 7 hours under the sun but every corner is bringing its surprise and makes it worth to make. But better than words, you are invited to discover the pictures in our gallery 🙂
Day 4: PETRA – WADI RUM- AQABA
Another pearl of Jordan is the desert at Wadi Rum, enjoying the colours of the sand, the constructions in the rocks and the rides in an empty land. Despite that the best way to enjoy it is to spend a night over, what we couldn’t do, we had a nice time and didn’t miss the camel ride (1st time ever for Denisa) enjoying 45min under the sun :-).
The day finished in Aqaba, standing in the Red Sea and doing some souvenirs shopping in the souks. As most of the evenings, we also enjoyed to refresh ourselves at the swimming pool.
Day 5: AQABA – DEAD SEA – BETHANY – AMMAN
Waking up with the sun, this day brought us back to Amman a few hundreds kilometres back to north. On our way, we’ve stop in a Dead Sea resort centre to discover this curiosity of floating over salty water. It’s pretty funny to be sitting feet and hands of the water 🙂
After a couple of hours in the water, we jumped into a pool to get off the salt and moved to Bhetani, bless spot for the Christians, where was made the christening. The place was close on arrival, but some exchanges with the entry guy and the site was reopening for us.
To note, since our second day, Ramadan started resulting in having all the restaurants empty, the sites closing earlier, etc. Together with it, Jordan peak seasons for tourists are before and after the heat of summer. It didn’t impact us much; at the contrary, it just emptied the different places and allowed us to enjoy them fully out of the tourism masses.
Day 6: AMMAN – DESERT CASTLES – AMMAN
After the north, the south and the west; came the east and the direction of Iraq. From Amman onward, it is just made of a sandy and rocky dessert with, time to time, some small cities and, along the journey, some castles. After a morning dedicated to discover the Amman historical fortress and the roman amphitheatre, we took the road to discover some of those desert castles. Discovering interesping places and facing some questions about their utility when being in the middle of nowhere 🙂 We also faced some small sand twisters.
Day 7: AMMAN
Here came our last day in this country, ride of our driver and guide, we decided to take this time for us, resting some in the morning and going downtown to visit the souk in the afternoon.
It was also synonym of stepping out from the touristic paths and meeting the people in the street.
And finally came the night and our transit to the airport for the journey back home the head full of sun and souvenirs 🙂
We are grateful to everyone who participated in this trip and allowed us to discover this beautiful country.
Happily ever after 🙂
PS: Don’t forget to take a look at the gallery 🙂