Kings Highway- en tidsrejse

Today we headed back to Aqaba via the Kings Highway, which winds through the mountains. But it also means that the driving time is significantly longer, so you need to have plenty of time if you choose this route. Along the way, it is possible to turn off to both the Desert Highway and the Dead Sea Highway. Kings Highway is like traveling back in time. There are many historic stops along the way, so as well as stunning scenery, there are also many things to see. Mount Nebo is the mountain that overlooks the Jordan Valley and Israel. According to the Old Testament, this is where Moses was shown the Promised Land. However, we skipped this attraction to spend more time on the winding mountain roads that really give a great view of the area. Karak is the town with the old castle ruins where both Mamluks and Crusaders were housed. Many people choose to skip this attraction in favor of Petra - and it is highly recommended. We didn't think the ruins were anything special. We have visited Petra before, so we stopped at Karak. Petra is in a completely different category to Karak, which is just a single castle ruin. Petra, on the other hand, is actually exciting and consists of an entire city carved into the rocks. Indiana Jones filmed a movie here. Petra MUST be seen :o) Dana Nature Reserve offers hikes of varying lengths. It is an area of 308 km². The area consists of beautiful mountains and valleys with rare plants and animal species. The winding mountain roads take a really long time to get there, so we had to skip Dana. After Karak, we turned onto the Desert Highway, which goes straight through the desert. This was necessary if we wanted to get back to Aqaba before dark. The locals tend to park in the strangest places. Not all cars have the same amount of lights, which makes driving in Jordan even more difficult :o) Luckily, we made it back before dark, so we were able to return the car to the car rental company, Thrifty, without any scratches. We had dinner at a seafood restaurant, Floka, which is close to the Captains Hotel in Aqaba. We only ordered 2 starters and 1 main course. However, the portions were so gigantic that we could only eat half. It tasted good, but unfortunately we both had some stomach problems the next day. We ended the evening at an Irish bar, which is also close to Captains Hotel. It was a different concept :o) Only one Irish beer and the staff were all from Russia or White Russia, so neither the staff nor the decor was very similar to other Irish pubs.