Going in Circles in Amman

We're in Amman, Jordan! After 14 hours of airflight, and a 5 hour layover in Amsterdam (which included an unplanned canal ride excursion by the way), we landed at the Queen Alia airport in Amman at 11:15 pm! Our pre-departure planning made securing our visa and passport control a breeze. In fact, most of our time in the airport was at baggage claim, waiting for our luggage to arrive, seeing everyone's bags going in circles around the carousel seem like an eternity especially when waiting on ours to emerge. Wouldn't you know it, our bags were sitting off to the side, along with another 50 pieces of luggage, from a previous flight. Go figure.

Anyway, our hotel, Amman West, is quite nice. Breakfasted included the staple American cuisine as well as Arabic options of sliced cucumber, cheese, yogurt and fine seasonings. Yum!! Our guide's name is Rasha, a very nice and witty univeristy graduate. We spent the day driving through, around and between the 7 jabels (hills) and the eight circles that make up the city of Amman. We enjoyed seeing the Roman ruins, palaces and ampitheaters in the old city of Amman, circle center 1.

An unexpected treat was the Palace of the Slave 30 minutes outside of town, an oasis of sorts, with figs and pomogranates growing on the side of road in abundance! A big box of figs can be purchased for 1 Jordanian Dinar!

We are all thankful to be here, seeing the people, walking the history that seems to be in the not so distant past.