With Petra in our memory bank, we planned three more days in Wadi Musa mainly to take care of tasks without a lot of sightseeing or traveling. Living on the road 100% of the time means that we sometimes need to have a few days like this. Sunday was laundry day and a day to recover after the last three days in the sun and the heat. I watched the Florida State game, and they won as expected over East Texas A&M (hadn’t ever heard of them) and Sandy worked on the blog. We went to the town center for lunch at Al Wadi – we had pitas and hummus, lemon mint juice and Sandy had maglouba (traditional upside-down rice dish) and I had mixed skewers with beef, lamb, and chicken. We enjoyed tea as well.

We stopped for gas for the rental car on our way home – they overcharged us, and I wasn’t happy, but Sandy talked me into letting it go. David and Wessan (our AirBnB hosts) invited us upstairs to their home to join them for dinner. The primary memory leaving Jordan is likely going to be how hospitable the people are. We had a wonderful night getting to know them and learning more about Petra. Hayyan (their four-year old son) was shy, so we didn’t get much interaction with him, but the food was superb. They knew we had probably had a lot of traditional Jordanian food so they made chicken fettucine alfredo, lasagna, and a really good pomegranate salad. David’s brother visited a little later – he is a dentist in Amman but was in Wadi Musa for a few days. After eating, we sat on their outside deck overlooking Wadi Musa enjoying alcohol free mojitos and hot tea and it was just a perfect evening. They designed the home and built it and it’s very impressive. 

Monday, we went to the local gym for our workouts. Nice gym – lots of equipment and in good shape. For a late lunch, we went to Jordan Heritage Restaurant. It’s in a very old stone cave-like building and is committed to preserving Jordan’s culinary heritage. The menu describes each item and where in Jordan it comes from. We each had the local red and white wines – we preferred the white – from JR Winery, Sandy had a walnut salad and maglouba and I decided on mansaf one more time while here in Jordan. I like the dish, but I guess I don’t like the pungent yogurt sauce that comes with it to be able to say that it is a favorite of mine. We watched America’s Got Talent and Frasier before calling it a day.

Yesterday was travel day. I got up early to watch the Bucs game because it was on too late to watch live. They pulled off another last-minute win, this time against the Texans. We packed up our belongings and we were on the road at 10:45. We made one stop along the way at an overlook for the Dana Biosphere Reserve. If we had more time, we probably would have spent a day or two in this area because it has some nice trails and offers a different Jordanian landscape to the typical desert land. We picked up a local who was hitchhiking and gave him a ride ten minutes up the road. We arrived at our hotel near the airport in Amman around 2pm and checked in. We were hungry, so before taking our bags up to the room, we drove over to Passion Fruit and had fresh-squeezed juices and Nutella, banana, and strawberry crepes. We put gas in the car to attempt to get the bars back to where they needed to be for the rental car return and then went back to the hotel to drop our bags off in the room. When we went back down to return the car, the gas tank had not refreshed and so we needed to go find more fuel. It was quite an ordeal as we kept putting little amounts in (no need to give the rental car company more gas than they gave us) and the fuel gauge wasn’t increasing.  Finally, the attendant (everything is full serve in Jordan) popped the hood, disconnected the battery, reconnected the battery, and sure enough – there was more fuel in the car than needed to be. That was a good trick to learn. Sandy really enjoyed the whole process – not really – she was pretty fired up and couldn’t find anybody who spoke English to find out what was going on. Although everyone in Jordan has been helpful, she was skeptical that they were changing out good parts for crappy parts.  Finally, we dropped the car off at the airport and Mahammoud at the hotel had arranged a driver to pick us up and take us back to the hotel. We were back at 5 and dinner was served at 5:40. We had chicken and yellow rice, yogurt, spicy sauces, and tea – everything was very good. We then went for a short walk at sunset, and a woman who didn’t speak English communicated that she wanted us to come to her home for coffee.  We were tired and had an early morning, so we declined and went back to the room to try and get some sleep.

Today was another travel day and it started early and ended late. The alarm was set for 3:30am and our driver was right on time at 4:30 to take us to the airport. We checked in easily and completed the security process by 5:15. We were able to take advantage of the free airport lounge (a benefit of our credit card) and had a full meal. There was another random security check at our departure gate and I got picked. No problem, though. We boarded our British Airways flight and wheels were up at 8am. During the flight, we were served a snack box with a small fruit cup, mango yogurt, and a granola bar. We each slept a little more, worked on the blog, and read our books. The flight was just short of six hours, and we landed at London’s Heathrow airport at 11:50am London time. We passed through security and passport control in London and then had lunch at Giraffe World Café – I had an English breakfast, and Sandy had a grilled chicken pomegranate salad. We then went to the airport lounge, which was overflowing but we hung out there anyway. I did some research on our rental car and canceled our reservation to make a new one because of a much better deal. We then headed to our next departure gate, boarded the plane, and wheels were up at 4:19pm. Where did we land? My favorite country – beautiful Ireland! We sorted out our rental car – best deal I think I have ever had with one anywhere. We got a car for $36 for six days and it included the insurance. Ireland has strict car insurance requirements, and I had originally booked with our Capital One card, not even thinking of Ireland’s requirements, which I am familiar with from past trips. That was the research I was doing in London. I realized I could switch to my American Express and get their coverage letter sent to me, so that I wouldn’t have to pay for the rental car company’s insurance. I am very happy with the deal we got. We were in our little Hyundai i10 (and little is not a bad thing at all on the roads of Ireland) and on our way at 6:30. We stopped at Subway to eat on our way to our hotel and arrived for the night at 8:10. We settled in and we were asleep a little after 10 after a long day of travel.

That brings us to an end for our time in Jordan. We both knew we would like Jordan from what we had read, but it really surpassed expectations. The history, the food, the landscapes exceeded our expectations, but as mentioned earlier, it’s the people. As travelers, we heard “you are welcome here” hundreds of times and it is so genuine when it is said. And the friendships we were able to make – just amazing. We can’t recommend to our friends and family enough to put this place on your travel list. And let us know when you go. We both are confident we will find a way back here in the future and we’d love to share it with you.

But now? It’s Ireland. It’s going to be a very short visit, but it’s my favorite place to travel to and I am so excited to be back!!