On the way to Jorden we stopped in London for 4 nights to see what’s new since the pandemic. One good thing of note is that you can now use “touchless pay” for anything, with a “tap” from a credit card, smartphone or watch, including the fares for all modes of transportation. In fact, many places now no longer accept cash. We stayed in a nice new Air BnB in the swanky area called Belgravia (where Princess Diana hung out), right down the road from Buckingham Palace. Little did we know that we would be bumping into the crowds from a marathon, a soccer playoff match and the preparations for the King Charles’ coronation, all at the same time.
We did all the things a short stay in London includes: saw a play (The Newsies), rode in the “tube”, drank tea and Guinness, ate porridge at Dishoom, enjoyed the Sunday Roast at a pub, followed a London Greeter around Brick Lane, walked across the Millennium Bridge, ate gelato, rode in the double decker busses, walked to Buckingham Palace and saw the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum. But, there was one new experience, we have never had, getting absorbed into a crowd of tens of thousands of soccer fans, after a game, on the way to the Tube. We had planned to go to a theatre performance one evening. However, the theatre turned out to be next to Wembeley soccer stadium, which holds 90,000 people. It happened to be hosting a playoff game between Manchester United and the Emirates team, the same night. The game was supposed to finish an hour before the play was over. So, we figured the crowd would be gone by the time we left the theater. So far, so good? hummm…….
Unfortunately, the game went into an hour of overtime. Everyone was exiting the stadium as we left the theatre. We got assimilated into and trapped in a huge mass of soccer fans as it moved slowly towards the Tube station. One Tube train can carry over 1000 people and there were two lines, operating in both directions, absorbing the crowds. The people moved toward a 5 flight stairway that stretched about 100 feet wide at the bottom and narrowing at the top. The officials intermittently stopped people from approaching the stairs as the group before them funneled into the Tube station. All the gates were locked open and no fare was collected as the crowd moved up the stairs and into the narrow corridors of the station. Each set of trains could carry away over 4000 people at one time, and there were tens of thousands queued up, waiting. We had heard that British soccer fans could be quite rowdy after a game, but the process was generally very orderly as train after train filled and left. However, for us, it was very disconcerting to be trapped in the middle of a huge mass of people, without any way to escape. We’ll definitely need to do better planning next time.
Our 5 hour flight to Jordan, was pretty uneventful except that 45 minutes before landing, everyone had to be back in their seats, belted in, for the duration of the flight, in order to be allowed to pass over Israel, on the way to Jordan. It was some kind of Israel safety requirement. We arrived at our hotel about 2am.
The next morning we had scheduled a “food” walk through downtown Jordan, with one of their volunteer guides. During the tour stopped at an ice cream shop where the server slips his hand into a plastic glove and then grabs a large glob of ice cream from a tub to put into your bowl. No scooper necessary. The ice cream here contains a lot of mastic (gum) and is very elastic. It’s hard to dip a spoon full of it from the bowl without it stringing all over the place. It reminded me of pulling a slice of cheesy pizza away from the pie with the cheese string all the way. Later the guide took us to a portico where people would throw tea bags at the ceiling, trying to make them stick there. If it stays on the ceiling it is very good luck, but if it falls, it’s very bad luck. No one in the group wanted to try it, but there were hundreds of tea bags hanging from the ceiling, bringing some folks lots of good luck. Strange custom! The walk ended with a delightful cooked meal at the guide’s house. The food here is mostly what you would expect, but with a little extra flair. It was delicious with a few surprises thrown in. There are plentiful cafes here, dispensing excellent coffee and tea, and they all make milkshakes, much to my surprise and delight.
Amman is a very large city, with 4.5 million people. But, its “downtown” historical district is very compact and built over a very hilly landscape. No matter where you go, you are always going up or down steep hills or stairways. After walking the stairs, up and down, for several days of our explorations, we finally settled on mostly walking down the stairs and taking Uber back up to our hotel. Uber is very inexpensive. A ride anywhere in the central city only costs between $2 and $3. It works well and is very convenient.
On our first morning, as we walked to downtown to meet the tour, we stopped at a small shop to buy some water. A small bottle of water doesn’t cost much, but we had just come from the cash machine where they only dispense large bills, and we didn’t have any change. Rather than change a large bill the shopkeeper told us to just take the water. We told him we would stop by the next day and repay him, but he insisted that it was a gift and that we should not come back to pay for it. We were impressed by his generosity. In other large cities we have visited, we would have had to keep looking for water until we could make change for our large currency bills. It may have been part of his religion to do what he did, but we found Amman to be a very safe and extremely friendly place to explore, never fearing pickpockets or thieves. There are large populations of Muslims, Jews and Christians that live here and the government is secular, not religious based. We ended up stopping at a bank to get change for our large cash machine bills.
It’s a great cultural experience and a lot of fun walking around this city. Most of the women are dressed in very stylish, but traditional, clothing including head scarves, as they go about their shopping. Interestingly, most of the workers here are male, including shopkeepers, hotel housekeepers, flight attendants, (even attendants female toilets) etc. In spite of the fact that Jordan has female literacy of 98% and more women graduate from college than men, their labor force participation rate is under 15%, the lowest among any nation not at war. Unemployment for women is 25%, twice that of men. However since the pandemic, there have been efforts to employ women in “work at home” jobs like the rest of the world is doing with both men and women. Customs do change, but very slowly.
Overlooking the city is an ancient site in ruins called the Citadel. There stands an ancient Byzantine Palace, turned into a mosque (but no longer used) and several tall pillars standing from an ancient Roman Temple of Hercules. One importance of this site is its continuous occupation by humans for more than 4000 years, dating back to the Bronze Age. There is still a in tact Roman Amphitheater built in the valley below the Citadel.
We planned our visit here to be after the end of this year’s Ramadan. It meant that there would be more crowds of tourists to contend with, but at least the restaurants would be open during the daylight. Interestingly, the “weekend” here is Friday and Saturday. Sunday starts the new workweek. Also, interesting is that since Arabic writing is read “right to left” and “back to front,” some restaurant menus, in English, also read that way. It was weird looking through them to find what we wanted to order. However, a lot of English is spoken here and we had no trouble getting around without knowing the local language.
The last few things we explored here were outside Amman, in the small city of Mataba and beyond. There is an interesting church there called the Shrine of the Beheading of John the Baptist. It captures the history of John the Baptist in large paintings and mosaics on the walls and floors. There is also Saint George Church which has the oldest map of the Holy Land, as a mosaic on its floor, dating back to the seventh century. It was only discovered in the seventeenth century while preparing to build a new church on the site. A short drive down the road from Madaba is Moses’ Memorial Church on top of Mount Nebo. This is where history tells us that God showed Moses the “Promised Land” of Canaan, across the Jordan valley to what now includes Palestine and Israel. But, because of a little “tiff” he had with God over some water in the desert, Moses was never allowed to enter the promised land himself (the detailed history of which I will not go into here). A little farther down the road, in the desert, towards the Dead Sea is a memorial, housing the “rock” which, it is said, that Moses struck with his cane to make water appear in the desert, for his thirsty followers. A stream still flows from under the rock today.
Across the street from our hotel in Madaba was the main Mosque for the city, from which, 5 times a day, sang out “The Call to Prayer” on loud speakers. Sometimes it sounds like a strange lullaby and other times it sounds like a chainsaw cutting through a log! It’s always a surprise. I’ve never figured out exactly when the prayer happens. It seems random to me, but I’m sure there is some formula for it. On our last morning here the “call” came out at 4:15AM, normally a little early for us to wake up, but our alarm was set for 4:30am that day because we had to get up early for a flight back home. (Note to self: in the future avoid getting hotel rooms across from a Mosque).
Well, that’s about it for Amman. There are a few pix in the photo gallery linked below and Carol has something in the works for her blog also linked below. Stay tuned for more on a side trip we took from Amman to Petra, Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea. Coming soon….
Travelog and Photo Website:
Carol’s related blog:
https://carolapucci-tips.blogspot.com/2023/04/post-pandemic-london-prepare-for-crowds.html
Later……….. your favorite travelers, Tom and
London and Amman Photos
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