Was that Turkey, or Bulgaria or...

We were suffering a bit from "monument" shock and also getting tired of being woken up at 3:30 daily by the call to prayer and this together with us receiving news of a death in the family made us change our plans and decide to give Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia Slovenia and Austria a miss and head for Munich - a cheap flight airport making getting back for the funeral easy.

Scenery wise and from the motorway they looked stunning, especially after months of sand and flat roofed ramshackle houses with litter strewn all around to be confronted by lush fields, mechanized agriculture, mutlicoloured houses with red tiled roofs surrounded by trees was like entering the promised land. Its a good job Moses never made it to Europe else he would have asked for his money back!

The progress in Bulgaria and Serbia was clear and the countries looked much changed from our last visit and Croatia looked more like Germany than what we remembered. Turkey too looked modern, well organized clean and very very western. You would have been hard pressed to tell you weren't back in the EU at times.

We really look forward to returning to all these countries in the future and certainly from the little we saw Croatia and Turkey are ready to join the EU.

So here we are - 6 days after leaving Syria back in Munich And heading to a therme for Linda's birthday instead of the Hagia Sophia, but in many ways We are pleased to be back in civilization and are looking forward to recharging our batteries and setting off again in September.
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Damascus and straight on for London

Our drive from Bosra was very unusual as we passed through a few towns that were not only Burka free but there were very few headscarfs visible and plenty of ladies walking around and even a few ladies in skirts! It's odd how you get so used to driving through towns and villages and seeing 90% men and the woman you do see are covered head to toe, sometimes not even with their eyes showing. When you do reach a 'normal' town it's quite a shock! What was more interesting though was how these towns seemed busier, more alive and less lethargic than the others, and how the shops seemed more modern and more appealing, more designed to get your attention and get you into the shops with large plate glass windows and displays, whereas in the other towns the shops were little more than a doorway with a rack outside.

Anyway, Damascus must be the first capital we didn't drive through the centre at rush hour but it was still bedlam on steroids. We found the campsite without a map just using the gps! Which we thought quite impressive. The site itself was a little oasis of green grass and trees due to be demolished in 2 weeks!
Damascus is a real gem. Easily the nicest city we have been to by miles and we spent two days wandering around the souks and seeing the sights. We would love to have stayed longer but you pay $100 a week diesel tax in Syria so everyone limits their trips to one week when you really need about 11 days and we therefore headed on to Hama to see the Norias - the waterwheels. We spent a couple of hours in a cafe with a drink watching these ancient wheels turn and creek and groan like mad, whilst the youths climbed all over them and even dived off the top, just for us!

Our next stop was the cavalier castle at Crac de Chevaliers which was great fun to wander round and climb all over. You can climb onto all the tower roofs and ramparts and unlike Europe there are no safety rails and also no walls to stop you walking over the edge and yet small kids climb around without their parents being at all concerned. When we left we saw our first sign post for London!

We tried to visit Aleppo as our final stop In Syria but got kicked out of everywhere we tried to park and as we were both feeling unwell with tummy bugs we headed for Turkey camping just outside Aleppo at a lovely campsite run by a Belgian lady.
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Jerash and southern Syria

Jerash is another wonderful Roman ruin with a twist - there is still chariot racing taking place and gladiator combat every day in the Hippodrome which we naturally went along to see. This was thoroughly enjoyable and obviously the gladiator contests were choreographed but looked vicious nonetheless but the racing seemed pretty genuine. We even got to watch a small section of a legion demonstrate marching and combat techniques. Excellent stuff, apart from at the end of the show we found ourselves trapped in the seats surrounded by an American student leadership trip with an evangelical organiser giving a pep talk to the students in true American style complete with numerous incorrect statements. I had to hold Linda back but in the end we could take no more and had to get people to move to let us out.

The ruins themselves are not in the league of Leptis but still fascinating with the enormous Hadrians Arch dominating the main road. The oval plaza surrounded by two curving colonnades that leads into the city proper is unique and also extremely impressive.

We spent the night camped outside the tourist police station with our very own English speaking policeman to look after us.

The next day we headed into Syria and were met by the most efficient and easy border crossing we've had all trip, which was a pleasant, though unexpected surprise. About 90 minutes after getting to the Jordan departure gate we were driving to Bosra. When we arrived we were collared by a guide, who despite us saying we didn't want a guide was kind enough to find us a place to park overnight and join us for a drink in Taffy. Bosra has what must be the best preserved Roman Amphitheater in the world. It is in almost perfect condition and we spent ages just sitting in the posh seats admiring it. The town itself is less interesting, though the ruins live side by side with hovels where people still live, and the Decumanus is still in use daily with children playing on it and locals cycling on it. It has recently been uncovered down to the Roman tiling complete with ruts from roman carts from its more modern height 2 meters above.

Naturally enough as we were sitting in the local cafe having a juice a British couple - Gary and Kim - turned up. They'd had a lousy few days in Syria including a terrifying incident having a yelling teenage guard point a machine gun at them.

When you've had a few bad days and you're surrounded by an alien environment like Syria you want to find something 'normal' to settle you down again and so we offered them the use of the shower and Linda cooked them supper and a cup of tea! We chatted until about midnight and the next morning Kim cut Linda's hair which was driving Linda mad.

Kim and Gary were driving to Australia and had originally planned to go through Iran, but after the recent diplomatic spat involving the Iranian President and the west visas were not being issued to Brits so they were hoping to go via Saudi!
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Amman

Jon spent 4 hours lying under Taffy cleaning up the tanks and then sealing the splits. Initially it seems to have cured the split tank completely, but the original leak is still dripping, not as badly thankfully. Now we are in Amman we've got another few tubes of Epoxy and will have another go at sealing this.

Amman has a more modern feel to it and is a bustling newish place teaming with people and shops set on 7 steep hills. Naturally we arrived at the city centre at rush hour on Thursday evening - the busiest day of all and wound our way to the camp site at the Theodore Scneller School through a hectic city centre.

There's not much to see here, most other tourists we've met said you need half a day which is about right. The Roman temple on the Hill dominating the city is mainly in ruin but would have been very impressive once and the Amphitheater and Odeon in the valley below are largely complete and still used today.

Shopping wise Amman is great with hundreds of shops and market stalls all noisily hawking their wares. We spent a few hours wandering around getting a few things before heading off to the tranquility of a western style supermarket to restock on things we find hard to get here like fresh milk, strong cheddar and a loaf of bread!

We're having a day off today catching up on jobs (we broke the step again which Jon intends to fix) before we move onto Jerash and then Syria.
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Karak & The Dead Sea

Our next destination was Dana National Park which is set in Jordan's "grand canyon". Unfortunately we were too big to stay in the park and so we plotted up on the edge of the canyon at the top.

We've been having more trouble with our diesel tank with one of them splitting down the seam at the top. Having just about repaired the first tank this was not a pleasant surprise. Whilst Jon was under the van inspecting the damage, a car pulled up with two men and a baby in. They asked Linda if they could look around and once comfortably settled inside asked her to make some tea for them!! They were very pleasant and used all our reserves of sugar in their tea! Later that evening as we were getting ready for bed they returned with their entire family (excepting the wives of course!) to show them the van. We think they wanted us to go to their house for a meal but we had just eaten and when we successfully managed to explain we were veggies (because of our religion) they quickly left us alone! It was very funny explaining we are veggies, we have this written down and explained in Arabic and we showed them this. "Why?" is always the first question but once you get past this they keep saying "no fish?" followed by "No meat?" and repeated many many times as if by this process they can make you normal!

During the night the Police tried to move us on, but we told them we couldn't move as we had just epoxyed our tanks and wanted to let it set overnight. After much "Not safe, you must go to hotel" followed by "No" they gave up and left us alone.

As we couldn't visit the park easily we headed off to the Dead Sea on a spectacular drive winding through the mountains until we arrived at Karak.

Karak is a crusader castle captured and improved by the Muslims in one of the crusades. The Christian sections of the ruin are conveniently built in a dark rough stone and the Muslim parts in a smoother white. It is set on top of a hill commanding great views over the plains toward the Dead Sea. Its main attraction to us was - its not Roman or Egyptian! We really enjoyed wandering around something different after having spent the last few weeks visiting numerous Roman and Egyptian sites. Much of the castle is underground - it has 7 floors most of which seem to be hollowed out of the rock. Of course the other attraction was the nightmare one way system and incredibly narrow streets we had to wind our way through to get there. We were followed to the site by a coach which had to stop and ask a car to move before he could get through a gap we had just sailed through with a clear centimeter on either side of us to spare!

The drive down from Karak to the Dead Sea is lovely as the mountains just stop with no foothills and you suddenly find yourself 400m below sea level. The cool air of the mountains is left behind for the stifling heat of the Dead Sea.

We stayed at the Amman Beach Resort car park where we got electricity and filled up with water, which is so salty we can't drink it! The resort is a posh pool club and beach next to the sea. Its £10 each to get into so we spent all day there, we're not sure how the locals can afford it but there were plenty of westerners and locals around.

The beach is sandy, presumably imported, and you walk into the sea from sand onto solidified salt, keep walking and suddenly just float off. It's almost like becoming an Angel as you seem to take off from the sea bed. It really is great fun and according to he guide books and tourist information you can't get sun burn here. Our 3rd degree burns will testify to that being untrue! 3 months we've been away and not got burned once. Read the guide books and check into the nearest burns clinic!

The Amman beach is handy for a number of sites so we set off the next day to Bethany on the Jordan, where Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist and also where Elijah was taken up to heaven in a flaming chariot! For such an important religious site it was deserted! We visited the spot where Jesus was baptized which is being renovated. The river Jordan, now more of a stream, no longer flows to the baptism spot but there is still water there. Steps lead down to the water from a ruined church, one of many dotting the entire site, and a small shelter next to the water is apparently where John the Baptist used to baptise people. We then visited the Jordan river and got to dunk our toes in it under the watchful gaze of Israeli soldiers on the other side of the stream, the mid point being the border with Palestine. One thing you notice about the site is the oppressive heat. It is at least 5C hotter than the Amman beach (presumably because of all the burning chariots) and it was with much relief that we headed to the hills to visit Mount Nebo, where Moses looked upon the promised land and died. The view from the top is fantastic and the grounds the memorial church is set in are pristine and full of butterflies!

From here we visited the church of SS Lot and Procopius en route having to drive half in the verge to avoid a hanging telephone cable that still happily bounced along the roof a little. The church was locked and Jon went off to find the custodian who was in the shower! When he was dressed he let us in to see a marvelous mosaic floor almost completely in tact with a large burn in the centre. The custodian explained that his family lived on this site as Bedhouin for many years and the tent was roughly where the church once stood. The mosaic was unknown to them and under about a foot of soil on which they had their fire. They accidentally came across the mosaic and were then made the custodians of it! A wonderful story.

Next stop was Madaba and the Mosaic map in the Church of st george one of the oldest maps of the Holy Land in existence. In the crypt we saw an icon who, according to the guide, had seen a miracle a few years ago. The crypt had filed with smoke and when it had cleared one of her hands had turned blue! The paint on the hand has been tested by laboratories and the substance cannot be found anywhere on earth! "You are in the land of miracles you know" he told us. 'And gullible people' we thought.

Our last stop on the days tour was at the Panoramic View point overlooking the Dead Sea and Palestine. We had a drink watching the sun set and then hurried down the pass before it got dark back to the Amman for the night.

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Wadi Rum and Petra

The journey from Aqaba to Wadi Rum took us via Safeways to restock with fresh milk and cheddar - they even had salt & vinegar crisps!

Wadi Rum, famous for it association with Lawrence of Arabia, is breath takingly spectacular. The scenery is like something out of a cowboy film with long flat sandy valleys flanked by towering reddish mountains. The silence inside the park is wonderful and as we sat on a small rock outcrop watching the sun set we couldn't here anything apart from the wind. If you have a 4x4 then you can explore to your hearts content but after our previous efforts in the White Desert we took a sunset jeep tour that took us to Lawrence's springs, a wonderful canyon and then onto our rock perch to watch the sun set. We spent the night in the car park completely on our own and lay in bed watching the stars without any light pollution.

When we arrived at Petra we found Dave (Tripoli) was about to leave, so we delayed him enough to feed him have a great chat catching up with his news and half mend his Garmin GPS unit for him! Dave was having to head back to Aqaba as he had problems with a warning light on the dash and hoped to get it fixed there.

Petra was a great surprise for us. We like everyone else have seen the image of the Treasury as you approach it from the Siq, but we had no idea just how big the place is! To give you an idea we walked about 30kms over 2 days and barely scratched the surface and Dave drove to the next town for a walk and managed to get himself detained for not having a ticket for Petra! It is huge! A 2 day ticket is an absolute must but you could easily spend a week walking and exploring.

Apart from the Treasury, which we saw on a candle lit walk and then at 7:30am to beat the crowds, the Monastery, the numerous tombs, God blocks and the old city there are loads of picturesque walks through ancient tunnels, mutlicoloured canyons, gorges that narrow so much you can only just squeeze through and paths with sheer drops on one side and a cliff on the other. We loved it and found it amazing that despite it being the main tourist attraction in Jordan with literally thousands of people there at any one time you could easily find your self alone in a canyon or hike for 30 minutes or more without seeing anyone if you were away from the main attractions. We particually loved a walk we did through a deserted Wadi full of Oleanders in bloom through a gorge where the sides looked as though they had been painted and the rock looked like candlewax dripping down the sides of the gorge. It took us around 3 hours to complete the walk and at one stage we had to be man handled up the gorge sides by some Bedhouin as the gorge was flooded. We stopped for our packup lunch in a deserted tomb overlooking a valley littered with tombs and in silence part from he goat bells and occasional bleet. Apart from the Bedhouin we saw one other couple!

The Monastery is in some ways more spectacular than the Treasury as it is much bigger and at the end of an arduous walk up 800 steps. Some people do this on Donkeys but the path at times is very narrow and the donkeys merrily waltz along right next to the edge oblivious to the sheer drop next to them. We walked!

After completing the Monastery walk in the morning we headed for the Place of High Sacrifice in the heat of the afternoon. Mad dogs and Englishmen. The walk took us passed many tombs and up and down mountains like a roller coaster. We had opted for the pilgrimage route and you certainly felt you'd been on a mini pilgrimage when we arrived. In the three hours the walk took we saw 2 other people. It was hot to say the least and at times when we drank it appeared we were colanders! The view at the end was spectacular and we even got to glimpse Aarons tomb in the distance. And to round it all off we had Movenpick Ice Creams at the end of each day. Yum.

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