High Altitude

Sunset over Petra mountains

Jordan has speed bumps. Everywhere. Every time you think you can get moving, there's another speed bump. Even the highways are so bad that it feels like constant speed bumps. Nevertheless, after a day of driving, we have arrived in Petra for the night.

We began in Jerusalem, where we loaded up after one last breakfast as a full "Brown Bus" group. Half of our group headed to Tel Aviv to go back to America, and the other half loaded the bus to head to the Jordanian border. We were joined by one member of another group, and the less said about that person the better. We crossed into Jordan at the Allenby Bridge (also called the King Hussein Bridge), a process that took longer than it seems it should have. Once through, we met our new driver (Mohammed) and our new guide (Michel). Then, we headed off to our first stop.

Bethany Beyond the Jordan (the other Bethany) is prominent for two events. This was the place, it is said, where Elijah ascended to heaven in a chariot of fire. We visited Elijah's Hill, where a bird flew out of a cistern and nearly scared me to death! Someone asked how we "know" these are the locations, and while no one can be 100% certain, we do have long traditions of these locations being where believers worshipped. The older the remnants (earlier churches), the stronger the tradition because they were closer to the actual happening than we are. They knew, very often, where "it" happened. We also went down to the Jordan River here at Bethany, just across from where we celebrated Baptismal Renewal a few days ago. We could once again see to the other side (though today, there was no one on either side) and we touched the water to once again remember our baptism.

From the Jordan Valley, we made a long trek up into the Nebo mountains—from far below sea level to far above sea level. We stopped in Madaba, where an ancient mosaic map has been found under a Greek Orthodox Church. Sadly, a lot of it was damaged in the construction of the church, but this map gave archaeologists their first idea of how cities like Jerusalem and others were in ancient days. Another interesting thing about this map is that, unlike our maps today, East is at the top and West is at the bottom. Today we always put north at the top.

We walked through the city of Madaba (very dirty, lots of trash lying around, which reminded me of Cairo) to a wonderful new restaurant called the "Food Basket." Basically, it was like a woman inviting us into her dining room. She made us a dish called "Upside Down," called such because once they cook it all in a pan (chicken plus lots of vegetables and rice), they turn the pan upside down to put it out for eating. It was so good even Christopher ate it! That plus wonderful appetizers made for very full travelers!

After lunch (did I mention how good it was?), we headed further up the mountain to Mount Nebo and the "memorial of Moses." Moses died here, according to Deuteronomy 34, after God had given him a supernatural view of the Promised Land. From the top of the mountain, now protected by the Fransciscans, you can see quite a distance. We could see Amman and, had it been clear rather than hazy, we would have been able to see the Mount of Olives. We spotted Jericho and the Dead Sea—all places we had been in the last few days. I could see Moses being content to "go home" from this high altitude; it is beautiful and breathtaking.

We also made a brief stop back in Madaba to learn how modern mosaics are made. After so much time on this trip seeing and learning about mosaics, it was fascinating to learn about the process. This place, Mount Nebo Handicrafts, also does etchings on pottery. Beautiful stuff! Expensive stuff! I avoided buying anything, however.

The rest of the day was spent in our bus, driving south here to Petra. We checked into a beautiful hotel just in time to see the sunset over the mountains (all of our rooms have mountain view). We are weary from the travel but excited to go to Petra in the morning.