Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Holy Land Tour Day 15

Farewells - Amman

The Grand Mosque - Amman
All the pilgrims were happy to have a sleep in and a lazy start before our final few hours together o the tour. After the usual peculiar "Jordan style" breakfast we headed for what our guide called "a panoramic of the City".

Amman is a city of over 3 million people, in many places it feels like it is half constructed. It is not at all pretty but a lot of money is flowing in to the country via the entrepreneurial attitude of its King of whom they are very proud. There are currently elections due and thousands of poster are decorating the streets with portrait pictures of candidates. The city is also festooned with national flags and pictures of the King.We stopped at a couple of spots including the Grand Mosque for pictures. After that a long stop at the obligatory tourist souvenir "handcrafts" centre where apparently "the locals shop!" (We heard oinking sounds overhead as the guide made this comment!)



Farewells after final lunch
 We returned to the courtyard of our Hotel "Al Fanar" where we had falafel sandwiches followed  by prayers and goodbyes.

Peter Tuohy made an impromptu speech expressing his appreciation to both the group for their fellowship and to Ray and Glen for their leadership.

We left Peter, Judy and Di at the Hotel for another night and the rest of us headed for the airport. We stopped on the way for Ray & Glenys to buy a new suitcase, to replace their injured one wheel suitcase!

So after 15 fantastic days the Group of 18 went in different directions -  party of 10 returning to Melbourne; 2 to Sydney; one to Hong Kong and Ray and Glenys off to Egypt.

We hope you have enjoyed reading our Holy Land blog and we thank Carmen of Mission Travel for her work in putting this pilgrimage together.

We wish our readers every blessing.

Ray & Glenys

1 comment:

  1. I have been enjoying your posts about your journey. Thanks for sharing it with us. We are trying to plan a trip of our own and ran across a cool service I thought I'd pass along to you. You may want to check it out while you are there or keep in mind for future trips. Holylandbus.com is a unique service that is the first, and only, hop on-hop off service in the region AND it offers safe transport, reliable accommodation and side trips, accompanied by well-traveled, educated guides. It's an amazing way to enjoy your adventure in the Holy Land & definitely worth taking the time to check out!

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