Jerash and Mt. Nebo....and 29!

I'm 29 today....argh! We woke up fairly early this morning, and had a breakfast of cold pancakes in the hotel before tackling the journey to Jerash. We only went in the wrong direction once (not bad going) and eventually made it to Jerash which is north of Amman. The driving is completely crazy here -- nobody seems to stay in lanes so there can be cars going at varying speeds all over the roads. I won't be sorry to give back the car when we get to Aqaba.
We spent about two and half hours wandering around the ruins of Jerash, which has been described as a "Rome away from Rome". It is considered one of the largest and most well-preserved sites of Roman architecture in the world outside Italy and there are plenty of colonnaded streets, baths, theaters, plazas and arches to see. My personal favourite was the Oval Plaza, a huge oval space surrounded by columns. It was an overcast day, but it's still a stunning place -- it's just a shame there wasn't a blue sky for the photos.
We had a late buffet lunch in Jerash and then headed back South towards Madaba, and then on towards Mt. Nebo, which isn't far from Madaba. Mount Nebo is one of the most revered holy sites of Jordan, as it is where Moses is buried. Unfortunately it was extremely hazy so we see what is supposed to be a great view, as far as the dead sea on a clear day. We had a wander around the church but I think the day of travelling yesterday was catching up on us, as we were both very tired and headed back to the hotel for a rest.
Later on, we had dinner in the same place as yesterday, before going for a wander around Madaba. Hopefully tomorrow will be a clearer day, as we plan to go to Bethany-beyond-the-Jordan and the dead sea.

London -> Budapest -> Amman -> Madaba

When the alarm went off at 5.30am this morning, I really found it hard to be excited about going on holiday -- but I should be 'cos we're off for three weeks, and plan to spend about 10 days in Jordan followed by the same in Egypt. We checked into a hotel near Heathrow last night, and ended up having quite a late dinner (typically Matt underestimated how long it would take to get from Cheshire to the hotel) so I was completely exhausted when I woke up. By 6.30 am we were at the airport having checked out of the hotel and dropped back the hire car. Terminal 1 was pretty busy so it took a while to check in, then we had to go and pick up some currency, get through security, pick up some last bits in duty free, grab some breakfast and then get on the plane. I was glad to sit down when we finally got to our seats. The plane was about to be pushed back when there was a problem with the bridge.........they couldn't get it off the plane! That meant the flight was delayed by an hour waiting for an engineer. After that the flight was uneventful and the stopover in Budapest went fine. We met a nice couple who have a holiday home in Aqaba, who gave us a few tips on visiting Jordan.
On landing in Amman, we sorted out our visas and had our passports stamped. Our bags arrived pretty quickly, and the guy from Reliable Rent a Car was waiting for us. He showed us to a fairly battered looking automatic Peugeot 307 and checked our passports and credit card details (not driving licenses!) before handing over the keys.
We were nervous enough heading off as driving in Jordan is supposed to be a nightmare, but we found the way to Madaba quite easily. We might have looked a bit stupid when we stopped for petrol just as we came to the town and asked how far it was to Madaba, but there were no signposts and therefore no way of knowing we'd arrived. Finding the hotel was a different matter. We drove around for ages without a clue where we were. Some locals directed us to a completely different hotel, but at least that meant we got our bearings and finally found the Mariam Hotel where we're booked in for the next 3 nights.
For dinner, we found our way to Haret Jdoudna, for some local cuisine. It's meant to be one of the best restaurants in Jordan, with live music and a nice atmosphere. The food was lovely, and cheap at only 16JD for the two of us. Tomorrow we're planning on going to Jerash....if we can find the way!