February 2019 – A Traveling Fool

February 24, 2019February 24, 2019

Washington, DC Revisited

For a fall 2010 tour of the US Historic East, including Colonial, Revolutionary, and Civil War sites, I had an early morning flight from Minneapolis to Chicago. I do dislike early morning flights. But I would rather take one when going to a domestic destination and have a decent amount of time on my first day than taking a late flight and not getting to see anything before the tour begins. This tour, the flight from Chicago to Washington’s Reagan National was delayed by a thunderstorm. After getting a good late lunch at the hotel, I set off to explore the area around it.

I was upgraded to a suite on a special floor where you had to use your room card on the elevator when selecting the floor in order to get there. Unlike Amman, Jordan where I had a suite but couldn’t use it, I had two full nights at this hotel. After getting back to the hotel from my exploration of the neighborhood (the hotel was roughly a block from the White House), I checked out the VIP room for the people on my floor. I found bottled water, fruit, pastries and small bottles of sparkling wine. Trying not to be too much of a pig, I hauled a few items back to my room. I wasn’t going to need to go anywhere for dinner that night.

We had about 45 people on the tour. Since it had to do with US history, there were several Americans. We also had a few Canadians and a couple of Brits. Our Tour Director was named Scott. At our meet and greet that evening, I met a couple of ladies (Judy & Gaye) from Louisville, Kentucky with whom I often sat for dinner or lunch.

The following morning, we began our tour with a walk to Lafayette Park and the White House. However, we were fairly quickly asked to leave as the President and his family were walking from the White House to the church on the other side of the park (St Johns) to attend Sunday morning service. So we walked back to the hotel, jumped on our tour coach and made our way to Arlington National Cemetery.

The first thing we did was to visit the graves of President Kennedy, Jackie, Bobby & Ted. Then we looked at some of the Civil War graves before heading to the Iwo Jima Memorial. The land upon which the cemetery stands was originally owned by the Custis family. These were the descendants of George Washington’s wife, Martha and her children by her first husband. Martha’s great-granddaughter married a fella named Robert E. Lee.

When he resigned his commission in the US military and took the reins of the Confederate army (actually the Army of Northern Virginia at that time), Lee stationed his army on his property. This was way too dangerous for the Union. So once the Union managed to remove Lee and his forces, they took over the property. It wasn’t widely used as a cemetery until after the war ended, although a couple bodies were buried on the outskirts once the other cemeteries in the DC area filled up.

The Iwo Jima Memorial is actually dedicated to the US Marines. This was not a memorial that I saw on my first trip to DC back in 1999, so I was glad to see it. We then visited the Korean War Memorial, which I find to be very haunting. Next came the Lincoln Memorial (one of my favorites) and the Vietnam War Memorial. The son of one of our neighbors back in Dallas, where I grew up, died in the Vietnam War. We had enough time there for me to look up his name and find it on the memorial.

We drove by the Capitol, only stopping for a photo from across the lawn. That was okay since I had been able to go inside on my last tour to DC. I had other plans for my free time in the afternoon. We were dropped off at the Smithsonian National Gallery of Art to get lunch and set off on our free time. We could either return there later in the afternoon for a pickup or make our own way back to the hotel. I chose to make my own way back.

After lunch, I walked to Ford’s Theatre. During my last trip, I had been able to see the museum in the basement of the theatre, but not the theatre itself. It had been closed due to a performance of a play. After paying for my admission, I walked up the stairs and entered the theatre at the balcony level. I was retracing John Wilkes Booth’s footprints at that point, but then I departed the path he took to walk down to the front row of the balcony and sit down to soak it all in.

When I was in college, I had designed the costumes for a play which ended up traveling to Ford’s Theatre as part of a competition for play productions from universities around the US. Since I wasn’t actually in the play that time, I didn’t get to go. Just my costumes. I stared at the stage for a while, imagining my costumes moving about down there.

Although you can’t get into the Presidential box itself, you can see right into it from the same perspective that John Wilkes Booth had in the small hallway right behind the presidential box. I managed to get a pretty decent photo from there without reflections. After spending as much time in the theatre itself as I wanted to, I went downstairs to the museum and explored that again.

I had been pretty much all by myself in the theatre and had purchased the ticket to see both the theatre and the Peterson House across the street. Back out in the street, there wasn’t any line in front of the Peterson House at all. I went in and found that I had it pretty much to myself too. The challenge with photographing the bed on which Lincoln died, is that it is completely surrounded by glass. So getting a photo without reflections is difficult. But I don’t think I did too badly. He was too tall for the bed and had to lie diagonally across it.

On my way back to the hotel, I went by Madame Tussaud’s, so I decided to stop in. In addition to the usual actors, singers, etcetera, this one had several historical figures and presidents. Not all of the wax figures are great likenesses of their subjects, but they can give you a good general idea of what someone looks like – especially height and build. Since you can walk around among them, you can stand toe to toe.

That night, we went to Georgetown for a delicious seafood dinner, followed by a visit to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. I sat with Judy and Gaye at dinner. They were delightful company.

A World War II Memorial had been built in 2004. We visited it too and took photos from there of the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Memorial and Capitol. The WWII Memorial was quite beautiful at night. It has memorials for both the European theatre and the Pacific.

Next time – we set off for Alexandria, Mount Vernon, Yorktown, Jamestown, and Williamsburg.

The White House
Arlington Cemetery
Iwo Jima Memorial
Korean War Memorial
Lincoln Memorial
Statue of Lincoln
Capitol Building
Vietnam War Memorial
Ford’s Theatre
Presidental Balcony
Interior of Presidential Balcony
Pistol used to assassinate Lincoln
Peterson House
Bed on which Lincoln died
Kennedy Center for Performing Arts
World War II Memorial
Lincoln Memorial
Washington Memorial
Capitol Building

February 18, 2019February 18, 2019

Amman

Evidence of habitation in Jordan’s capitol city dates as early as 7250 BC when it was called Ain Ghazal. During the Iron Age, it was called Ammon and was the capitol of the Kingdom of the Ammonites. During its Greek and Roman periods, the city was called Philadelphia, becoming Amman once it became part of the Ottoman Empire.

We were given an overall tour of the city prior to visiting the Citadel, which mirrors the city in the number of ruins and artifacts from different historic periods. The oldest site on the Citadel that I saw was a Bronze Age cave dating to sometime between 1650 and 1550 BC. No Greek buildings remain, just pieces of pottery.

The Temple of Hercules is the main structure from the Roman period on the Citadel. It was built in roughly 162 to 166. Much of the marble used for the temple was reused for the later Byzantine Church.

A colossal statue of Hercules was once part of the temple. All that is left of it are three fingers and an elbow. It was likely destroyed during an earthquake. Just below the Citadel is a large Roman Theatre.

The Byzantine Church is all that remains from that period, but the early Islamic Umayyad Palace is thought to have been built over another Byzantine building in the beginning of the 8^th century. The palace is mainly in ruins, but the entrance chamber has been restored. Near the palace is a cistern from the same period. The remains of a mosque are also nearby.

In the Archaeological Museum are artifacts from all over Jordan, dating from prehistoric times to the 15^th century. At the time of my visit in 2010, the museum was located at the Citadel. In 2014, a new museum was opened not far from the Citadel (near the Roman Theatre). The new museum was built because the old one had become too small and they couldn’t expand on the Citadel.

In addition to some of the Dead Sea Scrolls (including the only copper versions yet found), the museum also has some of the oldest statues of human figures in the world, dating from when Amman was Ain Ghazal (roughly 7250 BC). Not only could we see these items, but we could photograph them as well.

When we checked into the hotel, we found that we had been upgraded to suites. However, since I had a 2:50am flight from Amman to Frankfurt, it was pretty much useless to me. I did take advantage of the large, jetted tub before dinner. But one of the couples and I were leaving the hotel at midnight. So only two hours between dinner and our pickup time.

Once we arrived in Frankfurt, we found we were grounded. The Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajokull (don’t ask me to pronounce it), after a pause of a few weeks, had started erupting again. Fortunately, our delay was only for about three hours and not overnight. The couple was heading to Toronto and I was flying to Chicago. Upon arrival in Chicago, I needed to re-book my flight to Minneapolis as I had missed the one I was supposed to have been on. By the time I got home, I had been up for nearly 48 hours.

Next time — the start of a tour of the Historic Eastern US.

An Amman mansion
Amman from the Citadel
Bronze Age cave
Temple of Hercules
Hand of Hercules
Roman Theatre
Byzantine Church
Umayyad Palace
Palace entrance hall
Cistern
Mosque
Ain Ghazal Statue
Dead Sea scroll
Copper Dead Sea scroll

February 10, 2019February 10, 2019

Petra & Little Petra

Indiana Jones has got nothing on me. He traveled through the Siq in Petra, Jordan to find the Holy Grail. I traveled through the same Siq to see the Treasury (the building used in the movie as the location of the Holy Grail) and the rest of the ancient city of Petra. It is a two hour walk into Petra and two ½ hours uphill back out again.

Petra is believed to have been settled as early as 9,000 BC with the Nabateans settling in and expanding the city in the 4^th century BC. The Nabateans grew wealthy through trade in frankincense, myrrh and spices, and are considered to possibly be the “wise men from the east” who traveled to Bethlehem shortly after the birth of the baby Jesus.

On the way to the ancient city, we passed the mountain (Mount Hor) where Moses’ brother, Aaron, is buried. The photo is a little fuzzy, but you can see a white building at the top of the mountain.

We were at Petra (which had been known as Raqmu by the Nabateans) when they opened. We weren’t the only people there or the first people there, but it wasn’t nearly as crowded as it would be later in the day. It also wasn’t as hot as it would be later.

The first structure encountered, once entering the area, is the Obelisk Tomb. It definitely has strong Egyptian influences. Shortly after passing this building, the Siq begins. It is a very deep and narrow gorge. Here and there it widens a bit and Roman paving can still be seen in places. The Roman eventually took over the city. Then earthquakes in 363 AD destroyed much of the city. Changes in the trade routes also meant that the city declined until the middle 7^th century, by which time it was finally abandoned. That’s when the Bedouins moved in.

At the end of the Siq is a very tantalizing glimpse of the Treasury (Al-Khazneh) shortly before emerging from the Siq to fully see the building. The Treasury was built in the beginning of the 1^st century AD as a mausoleum. The name “the Treasury” came later when people thought that pirates had hidden some treasure in the urn on the façade. Significant damage can be seen on the urn from when the Bedouins shot at it.

There isn’t anything inside the Treasury and you can’t go in it either (at least we couldn’t in 2010). But I went up the steps and took a photo inside through the opening.

Veering to the right of the building and along the road there, it doesn’t take long to get to the Street of Facades. This has loads of buildings carved into the rock on numerous levels. We took a lunch break there. The dog of the owner of the café where we stopped for lunch decided that I was his buddy and he lied down with his head on my foot to take a nap. Fortunately he did decide to get up and go about his business before we needed to leave.

From the Street of Facades, we continued on to the Theatre and the Royal Tombs (the Urn Tomb, the Silk Tomb, the Corinthian Tomb, and the Palace Tomb). Then we had the Nymphaeum (fountain), the Colonnaded Street (the central market of Petra), the Great Temple, and another temple called Qasr al-Bint.

It would have been a long, steep climb to the Monastery and would have taken me too long (I can do mountainous climbs just fine when I have time, but not too well in a hurry). So I chose not to make the climb. Nobody else in my group did it either. I spent my time exploring the main part of Petra. I visited the restroom and bought a couple more bottles of water before beginning the 2 ½ hour uphill trek back through the Siq. It was pretty warm by then. I downed 3 ½ bottles of water along the way (and sweated it all out again).

I had noticed several people with donkeys or camels for rent on the way down into Petra, but not on the way back. I had my collapsible cane with me, so I used it much like a staff. It really does help to have a cane or a walking pole of some kind during these types of hikes. I usually take the cane since it is light weight and folds up to fit in my camera bag when I don’t need it. I have taken walking poles on other trips when the hiking has been pretty extensive.

Emerging from the Siq and looking for a restroom and a place to get some ice cream or fresh-squeezed orange juice, a young Jordanian engaged me in conversation. To make a long story short, he wanted me to adopt him and take him to the US. It wasn’t that many years earlier that I would have had a proposal of marriage. But then, I wasn’t in my twenties or even my thirties any more.

The next morning, we got up at 5am and left the hotel at 7am. This was for an extra visit that wasn’t on the itinerary – Little Petra. At the time we were there, it was thought to be roughly 400 years older than the larger city and had been where the Nabateans lived before creating Petra. But current archeologists feel that it was created about the same time as the larger city as a type of suburb, possibly for travelers to Petra.

On our way to Little Petra, we could see part of the larger Petra from above. We also saw the “back door” to Petra for supplies and staff. Nobody was at Little Petra when we arrived. We were able to enter the buildings there. We spent about an hour exploring and then set off to return to Amman. On our way, we stopped off at a place with a lot of antiques. I bought a curved dagger.

We also stopped for lunch at an authentic Jordanian restaurant. We didn’t encounter any other tourists. Several people were smoking from large water pipes. The first course was a variety of of dishes, most of which I had no idea what they were. What I could identify included humus, babaganush, sausagues, veggies, pita, and olives. The main course included lamb cooked with rice and yogurt plus a mixed grill with lamb and chicken. Dessert was watermelon. This was all washed down with a lemon mint drink.

Next time — we finish our time in Jordan at Amman.

Aaron’s Tomb (white building at top left)
Obelisk Tomb
Along the Siq
A wider area of the Siq
End of the Siq
The Treasury
Treasury interior
Another view of the Treasury
The Street of Facades
The Theatre
The Urn Tomb
More Royal Tombs
Another view of Petra
Little Petra
Another building in Little Petra
Entrance of a building
Inside of a building
More buildings in Little Petra

February 3, 2019February 3, 2019

Introduction to Jordan

We arrived at Queen Alia Airport in Amman via Royal Jordanian Air quite early in the morning and were met by our Tour Director, Rabbi, and our driver, Samla. The tour coach was not quite large enough to comfortably hold 16 people plus all of our luggage (which was piled rather precariously on the back seats of the vehicle instead of inside of a luggage compartment in the rear or underneath). There weren’t any overhead bins either. So Rabbi arranged for a larger coach to meet us at Madaba. Then he threw out the planned itinerary for the day, which was to have included Um Quais (ancient Greek ruins), Bethany (supposed to be the actual site where John the Baptist baptized Jesus), and Lot’s Cave (where Lot and his daughters lived after fleeing Sodom) as we made our way to Petra.

I have had tour directors on other tours switch a schedule around or add something in as an extra treat. I have also had them substitute something when we couldn’t go to what had been planned. But I’ve never had anyone just throw out the entire schedule. Instead we headed for Mount Nebo (which was on the schedule for our return to Amman after visiting Petra). Since Madaba was also on the original schedule for when we came back up to Amman, it appeared at first that we were just traveling in reverse. But that proved not to be the case as we never did see the first day’s sites and also didn’t see a few that we should have seen coming back up either.

I am awfully glad we went to Mount Nebo. This was the mountain where Moses was shown the Holy Land and then died before he could enter it. Jericho can be seen straight out from the point where Moses supposedly stood. They say that Jerusalem can also be seen on a clear day. I could see Jericho, which already existed at the time that Moses was up there. Joshua and the Israelites had an adventure there not too much later. On Mount Nebo, there were some churches, a museum and a memorial to Moses. The memorial was closed due to renovations when I was there in 2010 and was reopened in 2016. We spent some time in the museum before heading on to Madaba.

We rendezvoused with our new transportation shortly after having lunch. Then set off for the church that has a 6^th century Byzantine mosaic map of the Holy Land on its floor. The church is dedicated to Saint George and has a very large painting of him slaying a dragon on its wall. The painting is similar to the hand-painted icon I had purchased in Bulgaria in 2009. Madaba is known for its mosaics and the map is quite famous as it is the only surviving 6^th century map of its kind. Scholars worldwide refer to it when studying that era. I managed to get a couple fairly decent photos of it.

Since we weren’t going to the Kerak Crusader Fortress, Rabbi said he would take us to the Shobak Crusader Fortress instead. It was built in 1115 by Baldwin I of Jerusalem and was captured by Saladin in 1189 after a long siege.

We began climbing in the mountains on a very narrow road with nothing to stop anyone from flying off of the mountain. As we rounded one “corner” where the fortress came into sight, a car came zipping around from the other direction. Our driver veered quickly to keep from a collision and we ended up quite perilously on the edge. One of the wheels was barely still on terra firma. This scared the portion of the group that wasn’t already scared quite thoroughly. Then we found that we weren’t actually going to visit the fortress. This look across from the mountain we were on to the mountain it was on was as close as we were going to get.

We continued on our way down to Petra and checked into our hotel. For maximum time at the ancient Nabatean site the next day, we were going to have an early start. We would be one of the first groups there in the morning when they opened. We would be spending the entire day in a very beautiful and mysterious place.