Jordan Day 2

 Whoops, I go these pictures a little out of order, but you'll get the idea...we went to an amazing ancient roman-style city called Jerash, which is one of the most popular sites in Jordan, because the city is so well preserved. This is a distance view of a huge marketplace.

 I took the picture of King Abdullah II from the bus...his picture is everywhere!

 Some scenery from the hills of what used to be called Gilead, looking down into the Jabbok river canyon.

 At one point in the bus, we came across this traffic jam, which was simply too many cars parked on the side of a road for picnicking.  We travelled with a Jordanian policeman, and he got out of the bus and directed traffic so we could get moving again.

 Ian is perched up on some stones of an ancient pleasure palace we visited. It was out in the middle of nowhere.  Do you remember the character Tobiah that messed with Nehemiah when he was trying to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem? A guy from the Tobiah family built this palace...they were an Arabian family that was always trying to take over Jerusalem.

 I swear these kids just can't stop climbing.  This is Jake on top of the same palace:)

Friendly kids, waving at the bus as it went by in their small town.

Here we are at the site of ancient Amman, next to the modern-day huge capital city of Amman (which is a modern thriving city of 2.5 million people)  This was yet another pagan temple - the Hercules temple.

Steven and Liz were the first to conquer these ruins.

The ancient site of Amman was a fortress city...here we are looking down from Amman (see the center of the picture) at an ancient Roman theater, because when the Romans took it over they expanded the city all around it and down into the surrounding valleys.

Here's our Jordanian Tourist police officer...We had a BIG surprise today on the bus, when Dr. Wright arranged for a quick stop at the largest Starbucks in the world (it had 3 stories) and we all got lattes!!

This is the entrance to the city of Jerash...they built this entrance for Hadrian, just for his visit to the city.

This is 'Rami', our Jordanian Tour Guide and his 4 year old daughter. He was just great.

Yes, that's me next to a soldier guy...he was pleased to pose with me for this picture but wanted a tip afterwards...I didn't have any Jordanian Dinar, but he was please to take an American dollar:)

Another photo from Jerash. Look at the looooong stair case, going up to a temple...unfortunately a pagan temple, I think he said to the goddess Diana.

Another temple at Jerash from a distance.  This place was huge and so spread out.

This was an immense fountain.The water came out of holes in the wall, and splashed into a huge bird-bath shaped fountain. It provided a meeting place, and water-noise for all the people to enjoy.

Looking up at some huge ancient columns.  Be sure to watch for my posting for Jordan Day 3, I went to PETRA!! It was soooo amazing.