Jordan March 27

I have to admit flying isn't the thrill it used to be. Just checking in is a pain. The new automatic kiosk are designed by sadists. You have to put in your passport. The picture clearly shows photo up. After trying 4 machines I finally saw someone get in. I asked, and he showed me that it's photo down. I could almost hear the laughter of the gremlins in the machine.

The flight to Vienna was uneventful. One interesting point. The seat next to me was occupied by a dog...a real dog. There were actually two dogs on this flight. Another first for me.

There were several small children on the flight to Amman, from Vienna.

I preferred the dogs.

Once I arrived in Jordan everything went smoothly. I was at my hotel by 3 in the afternoon.

I spent the rest of the day wandering around Madaba, my first stop. It goes back to Biblical times, and was ruled by the Greeks, the Nabateans, the Romans, and finally Muslims.

It lay abandoned after 900 AD, until a small group of Christians, Greek Orthodox, and Catholic resettled it many hundreds of years later. The interesting fact is that the old, central part is almost 100% Christian, while the suburbs are all Muslim. They outnumber the Christians almost 10 to 1.

During an 900 year span, from 100 BC to 800 AD,  Madaba was the centre for making mosaics, and the main tourist attraction right now are the mosaics. The best known is a map of the entire area, covering Jordan, Israel, and parts of Egypt. The geographic accuracy is amazing. It shows all the gates of Jerusalem, as they are still today. It identifies 150 cities and towns, also the River Jordan and the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean

It was originally 16 by 6 meters, and consisted of over 2 million pieces. What is left still lies in the floor of St. George's church, where it was created in the 6th century.

I did a some walking, and it was interesting. The streets are dirty, lots of garbage, full of small shops. The largest supermarket I saw was about the size of a small 7-11 store.

The varieties of female fashion is great. The majority wear the full length dress, but I only saw a couple of cases where the face was fully hidden. Don't get me wrong, some of the long dresses are beautiful, and quite sexy. It's fun seeing a bunch of female students, some in jeans, some wearing the traditional dress.