Day 60
Sleeping location: Al-Houriat Hotel, Amman, Jordan
Distance (km today/total): 32 / 5486
Estimated climb (m today/total): 400 / 46500
Areas of Amman that are flat: none
Day in three words: Proper Middle East
After passport control and the (very spenny) visa purchase I sat down near the luggage carousel to wait for my battered boxes to arrive. Rebecca had amazingly come out to the airport to greet me at 3am and she was waiting the other side of the big green doors, but I couldn’t get to her until my luggage arrived. I waited in the oversized baggage section until almost everyone else had gone, then Rebecca mentioned that there was another place “at the back” where they had put her bike. True enough, both boxes were sitting in a dark corner, both upside down, both looking worse for wear. After a beautiful reunion Rebecca’s two Jordanian friends/admirers manhandled the massive boxes onto the top of the seats in the back of their minibus and we drove off to our nearby hotel apartment thing.
After getting everything up in the lift we were still a bit excited to see each other and didn’t go to sleep until 5ish, which meant not waking up until 11. Conveniently checkout wasn’t until 1pm so we had time to put our bikes back together. Rebecca’s bike Corelli had been bashed around a bit and needed some TLC to wrench the brake lever back into position. I opened Maggie’s battered box in fear, but she turned out to be in pretty great condition. Maybe a bit of misshape on the back wheel but nothing serious. As a bonus, after I dusted, greased and refitted the pedals the clicking sound had disappeared. Fingers crossed it stays away... This was all too good to be true so I had to mess something up myself. The back wheel wasn’t seated right and when I pumped the tyre back up it pushed against the brake pads. This forced the pads apart and messed up the cable, stretching it out unnaturally. It was an easy fix once I figured out what was going on, but the brakes are a bit loose now. I’ll pull the cable through and hopefully that will help.
After some 2pm breakfast, including Rebecca magically cooking eggs in the kettle, we set off into Amman. It immediately felt very Middle Eastern, dry and dusty with lots of rock and sand under a cloudless sky. We even saw some camels hanging about in a field. There were a lot of friendly hellos although some of the kids seemed a bit aggro. We’ve heard stories of stone throwing out in the countryside so it might be time to invest in a big stick. Amman itself is sprawling and very hilly, with lots of big busy roads, so it took a while to get through our 30km into the city. We found a decent enough hotel at a decent enough price and went for it. I think Rebecca will useful for negotiation in Jordan as the men here seem very interested in her, obviously because of her wit and intellect and not because she’s blonde and cute and wearing lycra.
After checking in we went out for a little wander and some food. Amman seems interesting enough but not amazing. We went to what seemed to be a tasty little hummus and falafel restaurant, but after receiving the hummus, bread and salad the falafel never arrived, despite multiple requests. One request led to an omelette being delivered for some reason. Eventually we gave up and left falafelless. After a nightcap of juice and non-alcoholic “beer flavoured drink” we headed back to the hotel. On the way back we stopped to look at some impressive Roman ruins and the caretaker came over to unlock the gate and let us in. There was an inevitable request for tip but he was happy with 1 JOD and it was fun walking around on our own. So far Jordan seems interesting but I think getting out into the wild is going to be much better.
Distance (km today/total): 32 / 5486
Estimated climb (m today/total): 400 / 46500
Areas of Amman that are flat: none
Day in three words: Proper Middle East
After passport control and the (very spenny) visa purchase I sat down near the luggage carousel to wait for my battered boxes to arrive. Rebecca had amazingly come out to the airport to greet me at 3am and she was waiting the other side of the big green doors, but I couldn’t get to her until my luggage arrived. I waited in the oversized baggage section until almost everyone else had gone, then Rebecca mentioned that there was another place “at the back” where they had put her bike. True enough, both boxes were sitting in a dark corner, both upside down, both looking worse for wear. After a beautiful reunion Rebecca’s two Jordanian friends/admirers manhandled the massive boxes onto the top of the seats in the back of their minibus and we drove off to our nearby hotel apartment thing.
After getting everything up in the lift we were still a bit excited to see each other and didn’t go to sleep until 5ish, which meant not waking up until 11. Conveniently checkout wasn’t until 1pm so we had time to put our bikes back together. Rebecca’s bike Corelli had been bashed around a bit and needed some TLC to wrench the brake lever back into position. I opened Maggie’s battered box in fear, but she turned out to be in pretty great condition. Maybe a bit of misshape on the back wheel but nothing serious. As a bonus, after I dusted, greased and refitted the pedals the clicking sound had disappeared. Fingers crossed it stays away... This was all too good to be true so I had to mess something up myself. The back wheel wasn’t seated right and when I pumped the tyre back up it pushed against the brake pads. This forced the pads apart and messed up the cable, stretching it out unnaturally. It was an easy fix once I figured out what was going on, but the brakes are a bit loose now. I’ll pull the cable through and hopefully that will help.
After some 2pm breakfast, including Rebecca magically cooking eggs in the kettle, we set off into Amman. It immediately felt very Middle Eastern, dry and dusty with lots of rock and sand under a cloudless sky. We even saw some camels hanging about in a field. There were a lot of friendly hellos although some of the kids seemed a bit aggro. We’ve heard stories of stone throwing out in the countryside so it might be time to invest in a big stick. Amman itself is sprawling and very hilly, with lots of big busy roads, so it took a while to get through our 30km into the city. We found a decent enough hotel at a decent enough price and went for it. I think Rebecca will useful for negotiation in Jordan as the men here seem very interested in her, obviously because of her wit and intellect and not because she’s blonde and cute and wearing lycra.
After checking in we went out for a little wander and some food. Amman seems interesting enough but not amazing. We went to what seemed to be a tasty little hummus and falafel restaurant, but after receiving the hummus, bread and salad the falafel never arrived, despite multiple requests. One request led to an omelette being delivered for some reason. Eventually we gave up and left falafelless. After a nightcap of juice and non-alcoholic “beer flavoured drink” we headed back to the hotel. On the way back we stopped to look at some impressive Roman ruins and the caretaker came over to unlock the gate and let us in. There was an inevitable request for tip but he was happy with 1 JOD and it was fun walking around on our own. So far Jordan seems interesting but I think getting out into the wild is going to be much better.
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