Day 9 Jerash

Sunday 15 July (Day 9) Olive Branch Resort, Jerash, Jordan 415/4142 km
We actually did not expect it, but the hotel room in Aqaba did include breakfast with their rate. It was local breakfast of course (hummus, eggs and Arabic bread). Jamaliah never thought that one day she really missed the real “sliced” bread and butter and jam and the rest. Only the 2 eaters, Bernard and Rudy, ate them. The others were not interested. (Anton is still not feeling well). When we finally managed to find our way out of Aqaba, Bernard screamed “Fire”. Jamaliah said “Stop. Stop” and I had to find a quick way to a side street, without bumping into any other cars at the roundabout, not knowing how serious the problem was. I was anticipating something some time. (Rudy being the pessimistic person he is). You know how each trip is remembered best by its disaster. How bad will it be for us…? Luckily it was a minor one. The cable connected with the rear power point in the boot of the car got short-circuited and was rapidly melting and smoking. The only damage was with the car seat plastic and upholstering. After this excitement, we are off again. We took the road along the Dead Sea back up the country. At Mujib we made a short stop to explore the wadi cutting through the mountains and flowing into the Dead Sea. There was quite a water flow still. To go up the wadi to the water fall would have taken some 2 hours. In hindsight I wish we had done it, but we would never have managed to convince the boys to come along. They just love their games in the car….. We drove through Amman without problems and up north further to Jerash. Here we drove through the town past the Roman city, towards Ajlun and up the mountain following the hotel sign. It is a great hotel up on the slope of the mountain at 900 m. It has a fantastic view and the weather is great. Windy and cool (24 deg). While the kids stayed in the room, (1700hrs) we went down the mountain to visit the old Roman city. It was impressive. The old town has 1 hippodrome, where there are still demonstration wagon races held, and also 2 amphitheaters which are still in use. The main road through the town is still paved and they have done their best to restore many of the columns along it. Furthermore the town had several temples with large walls and columns which over the years had been converted to churches and were later abandoned. At one point in the city you stand on a cross point of 2 paved and columned roman roads going to different exit gates. You can really envision how it was some 2000 years ago. Fantastic.