We made prior arrangements with Cleopatra hotel for our transportation back to Amman. They have minibuses running to Amman about every hour or so. Just let your guesthouse know what time you plan to leave, and they will usually ask one of the buses to stop by the guesthouse, and pick you up for the journey back to Amman.

Getting back to Amman, we were dropped at a bus station. Not having the best clue of where we were, and E being somewhat intimidated by the taxi drivers, we asked the police at the bus stop for the bus to Madaba. We did manage to get on the right one, and ended up in Madaba bus station one hour later. We then transferred on a taxi, that brought us to Mariam Hotel . It was definitely a great call on E’s part! Although it was marketed as a two-star establishment, it definitely felt like more than two-stars. A family-run establishment, it definitely had a very, very homely feeling. We walked into a lobby with a Christmas tree, and a very nice, welcoming seating area with comfy-looking sofas. Rates were decent, and we paid about 90 USD for a triple room (this was near Christmas, btw), and this included breakfast. Apart from the welcoming lobby, I also loved the rooms and the floor we were on (3rd, I think). It was painted in yellow and orange, and gave a really warm feeling. The rooms were clean, and big, and had a little balcony. In addition to all that, they have really reliable drivers, who charged extremely fair rates for driving us around. We signed up for a tour of Bethany-beyond-Jordan and the Dead Sea with them for the next day.

After settling in, we took a walk to the city of mosaics – Madaba. We visited St. George Church, an orthodox church, I believe. It is most famous for the mosaic map on the floor, which is supposed to depict the Holy Land. We definitely needed some help with identification. After that, we just kinda walked around Madaba a little, and checked out some of the architecture around town. We then proceeded to buy stuff for our dinner to take back to our hotel, and this included an excellent roast chicken, and some of the famous Jordanian sweets, for our little potluck dinner in our room. I love the small town of Madaba!

Triple Room in Mariam Hotel

St. George

Mosaic Map in St. George

Hanging balconies of Madaba

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