Jordan: Saturday and Sunday, September 11 and 12: Mt Nebo, Madaba, Herod's Palace, Dead Sea,

Saturday morning we left early. The men were up and showed us around the property, really an amazing amount of fruit trees and animals on a relatively small property. They picked pomegranates and grapes for us to take with us. 

Our first stop was Mt Nebo from which Moses viewed the Promised Land. 

 Madaba, a city about 20 miles southwest of Amman, known for its Byzantine and Umayyad mosaics, especially a large mosaic map in the floor of the early Byzantine church of St. George.   

Next we went to the Archeological Park where we saw more mosaics and part of a Roman road.

We had lunch in the Jaw Zaman Restaurant, a historical property and some of the best food on the trip. 

Our next stop was Mukiwir/Macherus where we walked up a hill to the ruins of Herod’s Palace where John the Baptist was beheaded. The palace had been built on top of the hill and had a fabulous view of the Dead Sea in the distance.

Then back to Mujib Chalets where we had stayed before and more swimming in the Dead Sea. This time we bought some Dead Sea mud and coated ourselves with it. We went swimming 3 more times, once when we got there, once at sunset and once the next morning. It was windy in the evening, and we discovered that the waves created by the wind made things more difficult since the salt does not at all feel good in the eyes. We learned that if we had our backs to the waves, they avoided our eyes.  It was a great discovery.