Israel & Jordan 2023: The rest of our last day in Jordan

We left the Amman Citadel just in time. We could feel the displeasure in the demeanor of the driver. We were probably a few minutes over the agreed time. On the drive down from the hill, we passed by the Roman Theatre. Undaunted by the driver's scowl earlier, I asked if he could stop a moment, since the theatre was located on the main street and all we would do is get out of the taxi and point and shoot. And he agreed. If you don't ask, you don't get, right?

Street scene in front of the Roman Theatre.

More brave now, I asked if we could go to a souk (bazaar or marketplace), but apparently I didn't know what I was talking about, because there were many different souks. The driver said he could drive us to the nearest souk here which will not cause us that much delay in going back to the hotel.

Turned out the nearest souk here was the jewelry souk, which I was not interested in.

This installation just showed that everything is a #hashtag now, anywhere you go in the world.

Since today was the last day here, my husband realized that we had not tasted the Jordanian national dish called mansaf. And that omission was not for lack of trying. All the hotel's we stayed in this country served Continental dishes and even the local buffets we went to did not serve it. So the husband asked if we could stop by a restaurant that offered it so he can buy and taste. His trip would not be complete without it. The driver surprisingly remarked that we were just a couple of shakes away from the restaurant that specialized in the dish and if he were going to try it we better get it fromm there, because it's the one he patronized and could vouch for the dish's authenticity.

The cutleries that came with our take-out order were real ones, not plastic. If you ask, I could not remember how it tasted, except that it came with so much rice. As a treat, we also bought a meal for our driver and he was happy about it.

After the lunch in the hotel room, we had the afternoon to ourselves. On the drive here the day before, we saw a large building that looked like a department store a few blocks away. We easily could walk to it. It was on the opposite direction from the path we took last night.

We passed by and entered a produce store, like their version of Whole Foods or Sprouts, and the produce are varied and so fresh.

You can't tell from this photo, but the cabbages were humongous.

The building that we thought was a department store turned out to be a modern grocery store that had multiple stories.

We did not feel compelled to buy anything since the items were quite familiar to us.

And so we decided to walk back to the sweet shop where we were to purchase cookies and sweets for family and co-workers.

This guy was fixing our order, then he shrink-wrapped it so it would remain fresh and safe from through plane ride.

Another one that we got. We bought a few.

Some of their other pre-packed offerings.

Before walking back to the hotel, we decided to get some coffee and people watch.

That night, we had our cocktail hour, aka Farewell Party inside one of the restaurants in the hotel.

A variety of hors d'ouvres and wine or cocktail were served.

A last photo souvenir with Hussein, our tour director.

The flight back made a stop at Heathrow and this was photographed while the plane was nearing it.

This was an incredible trip (enriching physically, spiritually, emotionally) that I was blessed to take during "peace time". Again, travel period was Jan 14 - 27, 2023.