Day 28: Petra - Amman, Jordan

Fairmont Amman

19 January 2026

We all awoke pretty weary this morning after our Petra experience, but still had to be up, packed and on the bus by 7.30am. We had a long drive ahead of us to our next stop - the ancient Roman town of Jerash, on the outskirts of the capital, Amman.

Our trip was about 4 hours, but it was broken up with a toilet/coffee/shopping break half-way through.

We arrived at Jerash around 11.30am, which was once an important Roman colony.

It was quite an impressive place, with an enormous structure called Hadrian's Gate, a lovely Forum, several temples, a small theatre, a public fountain and some well-preserved cobbled streets. I think we would have been really impressed if we hadn't just visited the most amazing ruins the day before. However, it was still a lot of fun and we were taken on a tour for an hour and then given free time to wander about.

It was one of those sites where you were allowed to roam at will, so I had a lot of fun going in and out of ruined shops on the main street and exploring the temples. It was fascinating to see ruts left by carriage wheels in the street, just like in Pompeii, and there were manholes to the sewer below and lots of other interesting sights.

The oddest thing was the three former members of a military band who spend their days in the theatre playing the ancient Iranian instrument - the bagpipes. (Apparently, the Iranians invented them, the Romans stole them and took them to Scotland.) These band members were playing some kind of Arabic music until we arrived, whereupon they launched into Amazing Grace, followed by Yankee Doodle Dandy - all very off key. There was a large box labelled 'Tips' in the middle of the theatre and the Americans in our group all obligingly put some notes in.

My favourite thing about Jerash was the cat I encountered on my way out - just nonchalantly sitting on an ancient Roman pillar.

We went from Jerash to a nearby Lebanese restaurant for the usual Arabic lunch of dips, olives, pita bread, salads, pickled vegetables and meat on skewers. It was actually quite nice, but I think I've had my fill of Middle Eastern food for the moment.

It was then about a 45 minutes trip into the centre of Amman to our hotel. This is by far the most high class hotel we have stayed in. The room is large with a foyer, a little study, an enormous bathroom with a separate bath and shower and a king-size bed. It is absolutely quiet here. You can't hear traffic or the neighbouring rooms.

We said our farewells to our tour companions, gave the tour guide a significant tip and thankfully made our way to our room. We felt quite weary and ready for the tour to finish. After a rest, we went down to the bar and had a drink and some nibblies, before going back to the room and to bed. We didn't bother with dinner after our late lunch and snacks.