Author Archives: Tiim & Kathy

Petra is an historic site that is over 2000 years old. It is an entire city carved out of sandstone. It was inhabited by the Nabateans and it prospered in the 1st century BC through the 1st century AD. The Nabateans were traders so the city was situated along a major trading route. I’m going to post some of Tim’s photos because my descriptions will fall short. The walk in and out was about seven miles.

Our tour leader grew up in Petra. Bedouins inhabited the caves in Petra until the mid 1980’s when Petra became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. His family lived in one of the caves until he was 12. His mother would send him out to pick capers. He also rode the donkey to school each day.

This post could be very long with all the photos that Tim took. It was an amazing and unique site.

We travel along the Kings Highway with our ultimate destination of Petra. But we had a few interesting sites along the way.

Our first stop is Mount Nebo. This is where Moses stood and got his view of the Promised Land as noted in Deuteronomy 34. Moses was not allowed to enter the land, God gave him the view. Moses died in the land of Moab at 120 years old. It was special to stand where he stood and view the Jordan River, Jericho and the Dead Sea. We could also see Jerusalem.

The original church on Mount Nebo is from the 5th century. A mosaic dated from 530 AD was found in perfect shape. It was an amazing work of art.

Our next stop is the town of Madaba. It has a fairly high population of Christians. It is the home of Saint George Orthodox Church. The church contains one of the oldest maps of the Holy Land on a mosaic on the floor.

I think this is in Greek. The locations on the map were labeled in Greek allowing the experts to figure out the map.

Part of our tour was to experience a meal with a local Jordanian family. We had a lovely time at the home of Ahmed and Lena. The family was very welcoming and their children were a delight to visit with us.

About one hour north of Amman is the city of Jerash. Just outside the city is an amazing archeological site of the Roman city from around the second century. It is a very large site with well preserved ruins.

Beginning our tour we enter through Hadrian’s Arch, built in 129 AD. Next we explore the ruins of the hippodrome where the Romans games took place.

We enter the city through the South Gate into an oval forum surrounded by columns. From here you can see the Temple of Zeus on the hill.

The Roman Theater is amazing. Here are some photos.

There are the remains of several Christian churches from the 5th and 6th century with nice mosaics on the floor.

We continue to climb up to the Temple of Artemis with its Corinthian columns.

Typical of Roman cities is one Main Street called the Cardo Maximus. This one contained the original stones and you could see the ruts from the chariots.

Dinner last night was at a Jordanian Restaurant called The Windmill. The first course is always salads, which includes hummus, baba ganoush, a yogurt sauce and others. There is vegetable salad, pickled vegetables, a parsley salad and others.

Fruit juices are part of the Jordanian cuisine. We were delighted to try the lemon juice with mint and fresh pomegranate juice.

There are also some type of flat bread included. This lady was cooking bread in the Bedouin way.

The day begins with a lovely spread of breakfast at our hotel, The Crown Plaza. After meeting with our trip experience leader, Mahmoud, we head out for our tour of the city. Most of the buildings are made of limestone, making for a very white city landscape.

We spent the morning at Amman’s Citadel Archaeological Site which is a blend of Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic ruins.

After exploring the Citadel we walked around the older part of the city including walking through the old vegetable market.

Since Jordan is a Muslim country there are mosques.

We finished our walk with lunch at a Chicken Shawarma place.

We are leaving Friday for our new adventure to Jordan and Egypt with Overseas Adventure Travel. Ever since we went to Israel in 2009, I have wanted to go to Jordan and see Petra. Tim promised that we would return and he is making good on that promise and what a treat to see all the wonderful sites in Egypt, also.

We have 22 hours of air travel ahead of us. We land in Amman, Jordan on September 2. We have three nights in Amman and then to Petra for two nights. We’ll be back with photos and adventures in a few days.

Today we all took a drive south to the Umbrian city of Orvieto. It is a hill town with its own personality. We began with a fun funicular ride to the top of the hill.

Orvieto is dominated by its beautiful Duomo with a facade of mosaics and sculptures telling stories from the Bible.

Orvieto is a lovely town to just wander around and delight in the views and the cute walkways and of course discover more churches!

We begin our drive on a foggy morning to discover the valley around the Orcia River. It is called Val d’Orcia. We come upon a castle from the 1300’s called Castelluccio.

The first city we come to is Bagno Vignoni. This city has natural thermal water and the main piazza has a large pool. There were many hikers and bikers here as it is on a major hiking route.

Our next stop is Castiglione d’Orcia, a lovely little town way up on a hill.

We drive on to San Quirico d’Orcia. This is another lovely medieval city with ancient city walls.

We leave San Quirico and somehow take a wrong turn and end up in Buonconvento.

We enjoyed touring these lovely ancient medieval hill towns. Each unique in their own way.

#Vald’Orcia, #SanQuiricod’Orcia, #Castiglioned’Orcia, #Bagnivignoni,

We began our day trip to Florence with a one and a half hour drive from our Agriturismo to a parking lot in Scandicci where there is a huge parking lot. We then took the tram to the heart of Florence. Thank you to Rick Steves Guide Book for this excellent advice.

Our first sight is the amazing Duomo.

We walked on to See Orsanmichele Church to look at the sculptures on the exterior. The first one is of four Christian sculptures martyred by Emperor Diocletian.

Next to Piazza della Signoria, the main city square.

We walked across the bridge to the Oltrarno, the other side of the Arno River and found a nice place to eat lunch in the Piazza di Santo Spirito.

We spent the rest of our time wandering and shopping in a few markets. We ended up at the Santa Croce Church.

The church is full of art and monuments to important people like Galileo and Michelangelo.

This was a quick overview of Florence for us all.