Cars, motorbikes, and go-karts - oh my!

Today I finally made my wife's love of cars a priority and we headed over to the Royal Automobile Museum. I'd been meaning to take her for some time, and today, with the afternoon sun warming the air, it seemed as good a time as any to check it out. We knew that King Abdullah loves his Harley-Davidson, and had heard that his father, the late King Hussein, was an avid car enthusiast, but we weren't really prepared for the size and quality of the collection or the museum.

As the museum's website describes, it was built to showcase automobiles from the royal collection as a vehicle to illustrate the life of King Hussein, and to a lesser extent, King Abdullah and modern Jordan. We were pleasantly surprised to find that, as 'diplomats', we got free admission. Granted, the 1 JD ($1.40) price for residents was cheap, but it's always nice to find free entertainment when we can.

The museum was laid out in a winding path which took you past various cars from Jordan's history, in a more or less chronological way, surrounded by large photos from King Hussein's life and the official events in which the cars were used. I must admit that I am woefully ignorant of the history of my host country, so this was a good crash course on the highlights of Jordanian history. (There was one brief mention of the 'troubling times' in the early 70's on the placard of the vehicle in which King Hussein survived two assassination attempts).

Another realization moment for us was that King Hussein was only 18 when he assumed the throne - and this was after his time at Sandhurst in England. Forced into great responsibility at such a young age, it's only natural that he'd need some boyish outlet, and fast cars became his.

As to the museum itself, it was in excellent condition, and all of the cars had surprisingly well translated English descriptions. There were none of the usual misspellings and heavy grammatical errors that so often accompany things like this. We wondered, as we strolled among these expensive and often exceedingly rare cars, how the average Jordanian would reconcile the notion of the government buying such lavish things while the majority of the country gets by in impoverished conditions. While Amman is never a good gauge, the people we toured with all seemed to be genuinely impressed with the status of their King and country. Maybe the escapist nature of ooohing and aaahing over some expensive cars brought a welcome relief from everyday dreariness. Or, perhaps, some pride in the collection of vehicles, many of them gifts to the King, or restored by the Mercedes, BMW, and Rolls-Royce companies gave them a sense of pride in their rulers.

Either way, it added up to a fun few hours for us, and a chance for Susan to indulge in her love of cars. Not being a car guy myself, I was just happy to be spending some carefree time on a Friday afternoon with my wife. Maybe next time we'll pony up the 3 JD to get the audio guided tour. Maybe even try it in Arabic for some listening practice!