Catching up

Hello everyone, long time no see!!

It has been a very busy time, I just can't believe how quickly the last few weeks have flown by.  So many things happening, all of which have resulted in a definite neglect of all things blog-related.

One of the reasons I have been out of the loop so to speak is that we were lucky enough to go to again to visit the beautiful Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan for 12 days.  It is such a fantastic place to visit, a real treat of culture, great food and friendly people.

So, to start off with my catching up I thought I would share some photos from our holiday- hope you find them interesting!

Downtown Amman is a very interesting place to visit, with a Roman Theatre dating back to Biblical times....

Zoomed in you can see pictures of key members of the Jordanian Royal family...

We went to visit the Citadel, one of the highest of Amman's seven hills, it is home to some wonderful Roman ruins, such as this...

 

 

The view of the city from this hill is incredible, so many things to look at and wonder about...

Loved this flight of steps painted in all the colours of the rainbow...

This is the tallest free-standing flagpole in the world, the Jordanians are very proud of their country...

 

A lovely old palace, sits amongst the Roman ruins...

 

 

We were also able to visit some interesting caves and tombs in another part of the city...

 

 

Spring is such a lovely time to visit the Desert Kingdom as it offers a few short weeks of spring weather...

 



 

All of this exploring certainly works up an appetite...

Lemons from a neighbours tree, lovely with a cup of black tea..

Knafeh, best dessert in the Middle East - fact!!

 

These are totally yummy too...

 

 

And this slice of Napolean Cake was a very welcome refreshment...

 

 

All too soon it was time to get back on the plane to come home, but this cheered me up in the airport...yes, a Formula One Ferrari...

Flying to Jordan we experienced very severe weather, quite a rollercoaster ride, with the plane pitching and dropping, mega-turbulence, not very nice at all, even the pilot sounded fed up when he gave his pre-flight announcement, but on the way back things were much calmer thankfully...

Mountains in Anatolya...

And even had time for a bit of plane spotting at Vienna Airport.  We flew from Heathrow via Vienna on Austrian Airlines, who, I have to say, gave fantastic customer service.

All in all a wonderful but very tiring trip!  Then it was straight back to work, which has been, to say the least, very intense.  Oh well, it is half term soon!!

Have a lovely Sunday, Helenxx

Into the Valley....

...betrothed and divine...oh for the heady days of 1977!!  I'm sure those of you of a "certain age" will remember a band called The Skids who came up with those lines.

But the Valley I went into on my holidays was the Jordan Valley.  I had never been there before and was amazed to see how wonderfully green it all was

After driving on for a little while we came upon the ruins of the Roman city of Pella.  It was one of the 10 Cities of the Decapolis.  Such a stunning location, tucked into the hillside...

Just had to take a photo of this sign, it made me smile.... reminds me of my days as a graphic design student when, after hours of painting 8pt lettering by hand a spelling mistake was spotted....

I loved these gates, they marked the entrance to an ancient mosque and graveyard

And just as we were about to bid farewell and head off back to base we were treated to this wonderful sunset

I so loved my time in Jordan, and just can't wait to visit again.  One of my relatives flew out there this week, wish I could have hitched a ride!!

Have a great weekend. Helenxx

A country of many contrasts

Hi everyone, Friday at last!

My last two posts have probably done quite a lot to promote Jordan as a desert kingdom - and indeed, it is.  Over 3/4 of the country is desert or desert-type steppe.  BUT it is a country of many contrasts, many colours, many terrains.  All of them beautiful.

The day after the Khamsin the morning dawned bright and clear.  Beautiful skies, a light breeze and bright sunshine.  Everything felt refreshed.  So we headed north up to Ajloun, where this amazing sight greeted us:

This is Ajloun Castle, another fortress built during the Crusades, but this time by a relative of Saladin.  I have visited this castle twice before, it is very impressive.  On this particular day we sat outside and had a picnic, but didn't go inside as the place was awash with school kids on trips - you may be able to spot on of their buses in the photo.  And as a teacher I didn't really relish the idea of 1,000 young girls on a school jolly sharing my relaxing holiday time!  All the young visitors were school girls.  The air rang out with the teachers shouting "Banat!!  Yalla!!"  ("Girls!  Lets Go!").  It was rather nice not to be the teacher on duty that day!  And anyway, we had set our heart on visiting the Ajloun Nature reserve.  The countryside around Ajloun is green and lush during the spring.  The north of Jordan gets the most rain and even snow in the winter.

This cheeky fellow greeted us as we drew up in the car park

I had never been to the nature reserve before, it was beautiful

This is one of the trails we followed

And this tree fascinated me, I don't know the species though

And just to round things off I found these flowers - stunning:

After we got back to the car we read a sign that said there are actually wolves and hyenas wild in the reserve - fortunately we didn't come across any!!

Back soon with photos of our visit to the Jordan Valley and a Roman City.

Helenxx