I got up with the sunrise, having had no more than four hours of sleep at best; though I think in truth it was less than that due to the noise of traffic. It’s not something I'm used to hearing these days. I knew it was going to feel like a long day after having gotten in so late, but I’d got four miles to run today before a half day tour I’d be picked up for in a few hours time.

As I left my room, I checked the door as I always do. It wouldn’t lock. I tried a few times, but nothing I did worked. I didn’t really want to leave it unlocked, but I needed to get reception to sort it. Nervously I dashed down there, and they followed me back, and they decided the batteries in the lock were flat. I asked what I should do with my luggage, half expecting them to suggest I’d need to change rooms, but they insisted I leave it there, and it’d be safe.

With the time lost, and not being keen on leaving my luggage unattended, I decided to run just 1.5 miles.

Breakfast at the hotel was a buffet, with very few choices. I ate what I could and then got ready for the day ahead. Whilst I was out running it’d started to rain, and had gotten heavier by the time of the pickup for the tour. The rain pelted Amman in a way that would make the United Kingdom proud, water flowed down the road in places, but nothing as severe as I’d seen in Cyprus last year.

Yousef, the driver, decided the best thing to do was to start the farthest away and to work our way back to give the rain a chance to subside. This sounded like the best idea under the circumstances. Whilst passing through Amman, I noticed the older parts were reminding me of Egypt. I guess it was down to them being of similar design, and some being in a similar condition. One difference though was that we saw young children herding goats along this major road. Okay, I’ll say it: kids herding kids.

Some time had passed, the rain had mercifully stopped, and we were less than fifty kilometres from the Syrian border according to the road signs. It was a surprise for sure, and I wondered how close we were going to get to that. I didn’t see any more signs though before we turned east along yet another long desert road. At the end of this one it had a startlingly different road sign. We could turn left towards Iraq, or right towards Saudi Arabia. That’s not the sort of choice you expect to make. Underneath the main road signs there was a further sign to indicate to the right we would also reach Azraq, which is where the first of the desert castles is located. Forty klicks from the Saudi border.

Here we were likely to see cars from neighbouring countries. It’s easier for these countries to visit Jordan than it is for Jordanians to visit them as it is believed Jordanians would go to these places for work, so they require a visa for them. Maybe this wouldn’t be true for Syria though in the current climate.

The first stop was Qasr al-Azraq, and due to our change in order it meant I had this castle to myself as other tours had maintained the usual route. Once inside it was mostly a massively open courtyard with a couple of very small buildings towards the centre. Most of what could be seen were in rooms that lined the walls. There were plenty that had stairs you could go up, but you couldn’t always go anywhere from there. At least not without risk anyway. There was one set of stairs that were a little precarious with holes in, but then at the top they just stopped, and you can see into the room below. If you’re brave you could probably jump across to the next doorway and look through there, but from where I was standing it seemed pointless. With my camera in my hand it would have been a bigger risk too. Health and safety doesn’t quite have the same meaning here.

One of the impressive features of this castle is the double stone doors at the entrance, and then a very large one elsewhere inside. They are big slabs of stone but then have cylindrical pegs above and below which it’d use to hold it in place as it turns. I did try the big stone door but it was too much for me alone.

I was conscious I’d not been given a timeframe for visiting here, but I zipped around it as quickly as I could. It only took me thirty minutes at the most, and I think with company it wouldn’t have taken that much longer. It was then thirty minutes down the road to Qasr Amra, which looks a lot less like a castle, and more like what it actually was - somewhere for caravans to rest and get water during their arduous trips across the desert.

This building had three horizontal cylindrical parts to the roof of the main building, and then a small building just in front that was for a well. The ruins at the side of the main building had once been a hammam as well.It must have been a very welcome stop for those early traders.

Unlike the previous ‘castle’, this one had quite a few people looking around so most of the fifteen minutes I was there were spent waiting for opportunities to take photographs with nobody in them. This gave me time to picture what it may have been like in its heyday, with camels waiting outside whilst traders relaxed inside.

Yousef was surprised at how quickly I was back at the car, I think he wanted enough time to get a tea from the tent there. I didn’t want one, but I would have waited. Instead we got going again, another fifteen minutes to Qasr al-Kharrana, arriving just ahead of a coach load of tourists. Realising this I made an effort to make sure I was ahead of them so I could get as many photographs as I could before they’d be blocking them.

I really took my time here exploring the two floors of the castle. When the group of tourists arrived it helped me to spend a little more time here when I needed to wait for photographic opportunities. Even with taking my time, and looking around the Bedouin tent outside, it took me only twenty minutes. The tent had various souvenirs, including some fossils I decided looked too perfect to be real. The majority of the tent was seating for people to eat and drink, and a log burner was keeping it warm.

This was the last of the castles, so the final stop would be a cave somewhere in the outskirts of Amman. I’d noticed a fair bit of wind during the morning, especially at Qasr Amra, and now on this desert road it was billowing sand out across in front of us. It started like a fine haze, but it got denser in waves to the point of barely seeing in front of the car. Oncoming cars would seemingly appear out of nowhere.

The clouds of sand didn’t last though, and after almost an hour we were back in the city and parked up for the Cave of the Seven Sleepers. The legend behind this cave is that there were seven Christians who were persecuted and escaped to this cave. They slept there for 309 years, and awoke to find the world had changed. I’m sure I’ve seen that as a storyline for some science fiction shows. I think after last night, I could see where they were coming from with wanting to sleep for that long.

We had to wait ten minutes as the prayer on this holy day was still taking place. The people filing out of the mosque meant the cave did get busy, as many would visit this too, but I was patient and was able to get some photographs whilst the driver went into the mosque to pray briefly. There are a few ruins outside the cave, and the cave itself has a carved front that reminds me of one at Mahabalipuram in India. Inside it is quite small with three alcoves of sorts. Two of them look like they could have been tombs, but I had no idea if they were.

When I was done it was almost an hour to reach downtown Amman. Rather than being dropped off at the hotel which was further away, I asked to be dropped off at Amman Citadel - it’d save me time and money. I’d not yet paid a penny to view any of the sights, and that continued on through using the Jordan Pass to enter here.

Since arriving back in Amman, it’d clouded over and looked like it could rain at any time. It was cooler too. I walked around the citadel eating a late lunch to start with, and by the time I was done I’d reached the pillars of the Roman Temple of Hercules, and the archaeological museum. Inside this there are a few artefacts to see, but it’s not a very big place so there wasn’t really a great deal.

Around the back there are many more ruins to see, and a colonnaded street. The best part of this though is the Byzantine church which has been partially reconstructed, and the wooden roof restored. It’s a cavernous building.

Once I’d done at the citadel I’d got a couple of hours until sunset, so I started walking to the King Abdullah I mosque. It was a bit of a trek, and made worse by it starting to rain within minutes of me leaving the citadel. I walked up and down numerous hills, but didn’t stop as the rain wasn’t about to either. The only shelter I had on this journey was when I found a shop that sold a few bits that would be suitable for sandwiches for the next few days. The person in this shop, just as every other person I’d met so far had been, was incredibly polite. They asked where I was from, and asked if I could stay for lunch so they could practise their English. I politely refused and carried on walking to the mosque, photographing a Coptic Christian church over the road from this.

The tourist entrance for the mosque is through a shop and it costs two dinars to go in. Before you can go inside there is a mat for you to take off your shoes first. It was my first time inside a mosque, and the carpets in this one were incredibly soft. I wasn’t sure what the etiquette for taking photographs inside was so resisted until I saw others doing so. I was still careful to make sure I didn’t photograph any people. I then walked a lap outside, finding the reflection of the blue dome and the dual minarets on the wet ground to be impressive.

It would have made sense for me to get a taxi back to the hotel once I was done, even though it wasn’t raining now. It was five kilometres to walk back, but as I didn’t have an internet connection here to book an Uber I decided the best choice was to walk. I could have used the local taxis, but I wasn’t confident enough that I’d understand what the prices were going to be and could easily get overcharged. The route was so simple though that I only needed to look at a map on my phone once.

When I got back to my room I found the door was now locked thankfully. You would think this would be the end of the problems there, but no. The room now wouldn’t unlock. I went back to reception and they assumed it was my key that needed reprogramming. I doubted it, but I then went back to the room to try it again. Nothing. This happened one more time, and on my third trip to reception they asked me to wait there in the lobby. This time someone else went with me, and got me to try the card again, and agreed it didn’t work. Rather than trying to reprogram it again, they disappeared off and came back with a screwdriver and a key. He used the screwdriver to lever off part of the handle to reveal a keyhole, and used the key to unlock it. He then fiddled with the battery for the door again, and this time was able to fix it. For the first time since I’d checked in, the door was fully functional as a door.

I rested briefly, and found a toe nail had cut into the adjacent toe and had bled a little. This explained why that walk back from the mosque had been uncomfortable. It was around 17:30 and I decided that an early meal wouldn’t be a bad idea so I could relax a little this evening, and perhaps sleep early. Unfortunately I found the hotel restaurant didn’t open until 19:00, so after one more brief trip back to my room to get my coat, I decided the only option was to go to McDonalds. It’s not somewhere I’d normally eat, and other than once upon a late night return from Italy, I hadn’t eaten in one for quite a number of years.

I’d usually have chicken nuggets, but decided to try something different, but simple as I doubted I could ask to not add mayonnaise to a burger. I decided to have chicken pieces, but without cutlery they were very difficult to eat. It hadn’t been a very good meal, but I could at least go back to the hotel to relax now.