My flight to Amman was scheduled for Monday evening on March 31st. I’d slept well after the Pyramids tour day, but I was still a bit tired and my knee had not completely recovered. The morning started slow and easy: I packed my bag, published a post and wrote a couple draft of blog posts. (Yes, I know that I am nearly a month behind on these updates. My vacation, my timing). My flight to Amman was scheduled for 7 pm that evening. My plan was to hang out in my room until checkout time and then hang out in the lobby until about 4 pm when I’d take the hotel shuttle to the airport. I wrote, packed then headed for reception around noon where they told me that I was welcome to stay in my room until it was time to catch the hotel shuttle to the airport at 4 pm. With my room key re-validated, I went back to my room to enjoy the quiet and write. I did not write postcards as I’d intended, but read, wrote in my journal and drafted more blog posts instead. So I have a lot of postcards from the countries I’ve been in to mail… Maybe in Jordan. 

Housekeeping came to my room in the afternoon to partially prep my room for the next guest. Dina was her name and we had a delightful time chatting about the Cairo she knew. Dina looked like she was 29, but was actually 39 and a grandmother with plenty to say about life in Egypt, Cairo and New Cairo. I also found an article via Apple News on traveling in retirement (https://www.cntraveller.com/article/the-golden-rules-of-retirement-travel); I completely agree with most of the points though I’ve never had a toilet paper problem in Europe nor now in the Middle East. Besides toilet paper is bulky to pack and I can be sure to find some to my liking at a local store as long as I’m in first or second world countries.

I was the only person in the hotel shuttle for the airport so I arrived at the international departures terminal with plenty of time to get thru Security and Immigration. I did check my bag; I’d paid for an upgrade to Business class  on this flight. The trip to Amman was not part of my RTW air fare and I’d booked coach initially. Actually, the upgrade was supposed to be an auction-like process where one submitted a bid on an upgrade. I’d bid $5 below the minimum upgrade and got the upgrade. The flight wasn’t very full so I might have gotten it for less. The flight was uneventful though I did wonder if the plane flew over Israel or took the southern route across the Suez, over Saudi Arabia and then north to Amman. The southern route is more likely, I think. I’d paid for Meet and Greet thru the Grand Hyatt Amman and the fellow was there at the jetway from the airplane to guide me thru Immigration and Customs. Since I had purchased the Jordan Pass, I already had an entry visa to use, in addition to discounts on sightseeing. My greeter, whose name I did not catch, was able to get me thru Immigration and Customs, pick up my luggage and find the driver I’d booked online all within 25 minutes of arriving at the terminal. Once again I say: Meet and Greet is worth every penny! I said farewell to the greeter and headed off with the driver to his very slick EV – an Ioniq 5, I think he said. It was a fast quiet trip to Amman; the driver did not try to talk to me – his English was pretty basic and my Arabic is nonexistent. He did stop to buy me a bottle of water to drink on the way to the hotel. I realized that there were a lot of little roadside shops open late in the evening for people needing water and drinks after the days’ fast for Ramadan.  It was after 11 pm on the 31st when I arrived at the hotel. I was checked in and escorted to my room in good order. I unpacked just enough to go to sleep.