Buying snow Madaba

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Buying snow Madaba

I am back on the road and this time I have landed in Jordan. Of course my first stop was Amman international airport, a very modern one. No picture because I was too stressed looking for my contact to pick up my booked rental car at pm. It was very dark and there were no road signs, but being a very clever teddy bear, I had spent the waiting time at the airport buying a Jordanian sim car and got to my destination with the help of Google maps. Madaba is well known for its mosaics and its reputation goes back to the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman times. Mentioned several times in the bible, the city is not short of churches. But the highlight in my humble opinion is the Virgin Mary Church. The mosaics there are amazing and still in very good condition even though some dated back from the 1st century AD. The central mosaic with its geometric forms shows where the Byzantine Church of the Virgin Mary once stood. All that stands today are a columns and this mosaic which lies on the top of earlier Roman construction. Just next to the church, were the ruins of a Roman private house with one of the most magnificent mosaics I saw today depicting representation of the four seasons at each corner, a Greek tragedy of Phaedra and Hippolytus, the figure of Adonis and a topless Aphrodite amazing how this one managed to survive , while the top left represents three women respectively symbolising Rome, Gregoria Istanbul and Madaba. In Byzantine it was often the case that important cities would be represented as women. Outside along the church, stands the remain of the Roman road which connected with the city to Jerusalem. My little walk took me to church of the Beheading of John the Baptist cheerful name! It is a relatively recent church which offers a view over the city. I was a very brave teddy bear, but despite my little legs I managed to climb up to the top. The challenge was to navigate the steep steps and the narrow staircase which had bell-cords running through it. Once on the top the height was scary for someone little like me. At the end of the day, I felt that I deserved to try Jordanian wine and a mandi traditional Jordan meal. It was ok but maybe not worth the extra effort to bring any back home. Jordan is an Islamic country but pretty tolerant to the other monotheist religions. The locals are very nice and friendly and welcome foreign people and teddy bears. I think that I have landed in a nice peaceful part of the world which is pretty amazing if we remember that Jordan share borders with Iraq, Syria, Israel, Palestine and Lebanon……….. Blog at WordPress. Share this: Twitter Facebook. Like Loading Leave a comment Cancel reply. Comment Reblog Subscribe Subscribed. Trouspinet travels. Sign me up. Already have a WordPress. Log in now. Loading Comments Email Required Name Required Website.

Shopping in Madaba

Buying snow Madaba

Apologies for staying unusually quiet these last few weeks! After producing a few new blog posts over the quiet period of the holidays, work was unusually busy, and then I went on my much-awaited winter sun holiday. Or so I thought… Do you wonder what travelling to Jordan in winter is like? Read on…. It all started with me spotting a very cheap flight to Aqaba on the Red Sea back in November one exceptionally dark and wet afternoon. Having been to the Sinai in January before, I snapped it up and got very excited about long days and warming winter sun. Here are some of them! When you visit Jordan in winter, you might want to skip Amman, as its at nearly metres elevation and usually very cold. But what a wonderful capital city it is! Book a hotel with reliable heating, put on some good shoes and scale those steps! I used Booking. Amman has the finest shopping in all of Jordan — some of it tourist-orientated, but Downtown is a great mixture of local and souvenir shopping, and locals outnumber tourists by far! The most famous one, Qasr Amra, is actually a bath house from the Umayyad bath era. It is also the furthest from Amman but worth the trip for its wonderful well-preserved frescoes alone. Thought all Islamic imagery was aniconic and austere? Qasr Kharanah probably fits the description as a castle the most. A highly atmospheric place — you really feel like you are in the middle of nowhere. When visiting Jordan in winter, sticking to the lower places in the South basically, Aqaba might be a good idea, but I wanted to see this town and its excellent Roman and Byzantine -era mosaics. Perhaps the most famous one can be found in Madabas relatively modern Greek Orthodox Church and it depicts the Holy Land pretty accurately. This might be the route you can travel on if you visit Jordan in winter. After some severe weather at higher elevations further South, taking the Dead Sea Road approach to Petra seemed my only option. Not that I minded — there was sunshine and warmth for two blissful hours as we travelled along the Dead Sea. Which has always warmer climate than nearby Amman and Madaba, and you might be able to take a dip even in Jordan in winter! But this, time, sadly, I had no time. That alone was worth the taxi fare! Beautiful scenery at every turn for about 40km from turning off the Dead Sea highway all the way to Petra. And finally… Petra! I was a little unlucky with the weather, but I did make good use of the time I had before fleeing the cold and blizzards. Yes, blizzards! After some pretty severe weather forecast for Petra, I fled the cold and snow and returned to Aqaba. I had no booking, no knowledge, no nothing…. I used Aqaba as a base for Wadi Rum, and seeing it was a little cold for me to lie on the beach, spent a lovely day eating and wandering though the markets. A resort town after my own heart — somewhat scruffy, unpretentious, and exceptional good value. Eastern Europeans in liquor stores, independent travellers, well-heeled people from the top class resorts and well-covered ladies — they all mix happily in Aqabas pleasant sunny streets. And lets not forget the food! Senaya in Aqaba. Extra bonus points for the great juice bar right next to it. You may not be able to sunbathe on the public beach without getting some real good stares, but there are some higher priced hotels with private beaches as well as private beach clubs. It is quite an important post on the overland route to Mecca, so rather conservative, but not unfriendly. I loved the hustle and bustle at the public beach, great for people watching, not so much for swimming. The dive bases 10km South or the somewhat isolated resort of Tala Bay should provide for all your swimming, snorkelling and sunbathing desired. And that was my whirlwind Jordan in winter tour! I will write some more posts about this trip, but if you have any specific questions, please feel free to drop me a line or leave a comment! Hardly any one visits the country in winter, except for Aqaba — and some cruises, so Petra and Wadi Rum are never out of season, but see considerably fewer visitors than in high season of spring and autumn when weather conditions are more favourable. I recommend you keep your plans somewhat flexible to adapt to weather conditions, especially in the high-lying areas of Wadi Rum, Petra, Amman, Kerak and Dana, but also the Northern cities of Ajloun, Jerash and Salt. Also opt for accommodation that can be cancelled should the weather require a change of plan. I use Booking. Thankfully, I only had to cancel once due to bad weather on a previous trip, and I received a full refund. My route took me from Aqaba to Amman. A week was plenty to see plenty of Jordan. A week would be sufficient to get a good idea of what Jordan has to offer, but not see all its sights. I used public transport except on two occasions. I hired a car and driver for the Desert Castles Loop, as there is no public transport. Also, due to low season and snow, there were no shared taxis on the King Highway. Or public buses from Amman to Petra on the day I wished to travel. I had to hire a taxi to take me to Petra via the Dead Sea route. Both days cost approximately 90 Euro in travel costs alone. Public and tourist buses were a lot cheaper than in Europe — details to follow. Due to the somewhat unexpected higher cost of hiring private transport, I saved on accommodation and paid approximately Euros per night for very clean and perfectly adequate private rooms in small owner-run hotels with exceptional hospitality. Food was cheap and very good, and there was also some rather good shopping but this really deserves an extra post! Cost : Private taxi on two days approximately Euro and entry fee to Petra approximately 75 Euro , totalling Euro. All other costs were about Euro in total, including flight, accommodation for 6 nights, and public transport. This amounts to Euro for a rather pleasant week exploring Jordan, travelling in relative comfort, and spending most of my money locally. The situation in the Middle East can be volatile and change with barely any notice. I visited in the weeks following the assassination of General Suleimani , where foreign office travel advice from my home country, the United Kingdom and the United States of America urged people to be alert and avoid the border regions with Iraq and Syria as well as be mindful of political demonstrations. Personally, being a white solo female with no knowledge of Arabic, I felt just as safe as in Germany, road traffic aside. People were polite I did not witness any political demonstration. There were police checkpoints all over the place, including an ever-present tourist police willing to help. Some gentle overcharging occurred here and there in tourist sites, but nothing terrible. Disclosure: This trip was entirely self funded. I have received no monetary or non-monetary rewards for linking aside from some affiliate links to Booking. I will only review and recommend places that I have stayed in myself. You can trust me for the whole, unbiased truth. More details on my affiliate link policy are here. If you like this article and wish to read more on somewhat off-beat destinations and how to get there stylishly but not pay a ton of money, consider to Follow my blog with Bloglovin. I book my hotels either directly or I use Booking. This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful. Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings. If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again. Practicalities Transport Accommodation Is it safe to visit Jordan? The legal blurb. 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Buying snow Madaba