This is one of my favorite places in Amterrdam: the Concergebouw, or Concert Hall. One warmish autumn evening, I arrived early enough to enjoy the sunset end-of-day energy on the Museumplein (across the street), the park around which are arranged most of Amsterdam’s most famous museums such as the Rijks, Van Gogh and Stadelijk Museums, before entering the hall. Ah, the joys of being based in a place where live performances (again) happen and are readily accessible.
I think with Jerash, I’ll try to to post photos in roughly the sequence in which I saw them, since it’s a reasonably compact but still quite large area with an awful lot of stuff, and this way I’ll remember what things were so I can name the photos files correctly. 🙂 Above: looking south at the hippodrome with its arches as the south end, and the dramatic Hadrian’s Arch entrance (viz Jerash.2) to the left, and the hills of Jordan and the contemporary city of Jerash beyond. Below: more of the same :-).
Amman is full of hills, and home to many ancient ruins. The Citadel is in the heart of the old city, with its oldest ruins dating to the Romans, and the dramatic lovely domed audience-hall dating to the Umayyad dynasty. That building with the dome is the most intact structure remaining. Since we have so very many photos still from both Jerash and Petra to work our way through, I’m going to be doing larger posts with more photos from Amman. It has a reputation among some as being a “boring” city in the Middle East. I think boring might be welcome to many residents of other cities, but what do I know?
So Jerash is certainly not as enormous nor as awe-inspiring as Petra, but it’s pretty darn big and has a remarkable number of fairly-intact structures, and simply gazillions of gorgeous columns, beautifully weathered (as in below)and with lovely hilly backdrops (ibid). As an intermezzo before your armchair tour-guide returns you to Petra, not too shabby, eh? Oh,and btw, as in Petra, succeeding generations of empires also built stuff here, so you’ll see some Byzantine churches, and some of the shot below is Byzantine. But note, in the shot below, that you are also seeing Hadrian’ Arch, which is the entance to the whole complex — it’s near the middle, just left of the tall column. I’ve conveniently placed another photo taken from inside, but closer, so you can look for the right roofline profile :-).
smw, slt decided to give you all a break from Petra so that you can hopefully build up an appetite for the amazing sights still to come, from the final seven hours I spent there. So instead we’ll be showing you photos from a lovely day exploring first Jerash (“the most intact Roman city in the Middle East”) and then Amman. I’ve slipped in a few from Amman in recent posts, and one from Jerash back in September. Hope you’ll enjoy, and o course our regular other series will carry forth, because with al the fall foliage to be enjoyed, I’m still taking more photos than I can find time to sort and post. Let me know if you grow weary of it all and I’ll scale back…
Based in A’dam, one has easy rail access to lots of other cities, towns and villages one might explore over a weekend, or even just a half-hour train-connection stop. 🙂
I think with Jerash, I’ll try to to post photos in roughly the sequence in which I saw them, since it’s a reasonably compact but still quite large area with an awful lot of stuff, and this way I’ll remember what things were so I can name the photos files correctly. 🙂 Above: looking south at the hippodrome with its arches as the south end, and the dramatic Hadrian’s Arch entrance (viz Jerash.2) to the left, and the hills of Jordan and the contemporary city of Jerash beyond. Below: more of the same :-).
(so much world, so little time....) 
