Israel episode 8 part 3

Israel episode 8 part 2

Israel episode 8

Goodbye Tel Aviv, hello Haifa. Loaded up and off we go for a day of exploration. First stop, Caesarea. Herod built a quite impressive port in the 1st century here. Yup, more Roman ruins. Our 5th amphitheater so far. Those Romans were every where in this part of the world. Loved their entertainment venues. Gee, somethings have not changed in 2000 years... just saying... ;). This huge complex had a hippodrome too. Not just for chariot races, lions pitted against defenseless Christians and gladiators fought each other. Some hockey games today, have not changed too much... The Roman Empire fell by the 3rd century, to which this port city was taken over by the crusaders. When they left, it fell into ruin. Today, one can stroll the evidence of its remains. Next stop was a home visit at a olive farm and lunch hosted by a widowed fascinating Hasidic Jewish woman, Shoshi. We were employed to work at bit to make one of the dishes for our lunch. Cooking pita bread with toppings in a traditional Bedouin oven, a tandir. Quite tasty. Shoshi regaled with the history as to how her family generations immigrated to this land and how the farm came to be as it is today. Very very interesting. Fully sated and a bottle of her olive oil, off we went to Haifa. One of the two major port cities of Israel. Our bus hauled us up Mount Carmel to a breathtaking view of the city and the Baha'i Gardens. Evening was spent in our new hotel's happy hour. Only wine for adult beverages, which was nice. Mark and I set off to find some local lager. No surprise, it was a success. 😋🍻. Note, we are in Israel during Purim. Not uncommon to see all sorts of costumed people walking around. This celebrates- "they tried to kill us, they did not kill us, let's eat". Tomorrow, Safed, and much more. Come back!

Israel - Tel Aviv episode 7 part 2

Israel - Tel Aviv episode 7

Enjoy a few views of this most interesting city. Our city tour today took us to Jaffa, an art museum, the beach of the Mediterranean Sea, the market, home hosted lunch by a woman who is a Christian, Arabian, Greek Orthodox, Palestinian, Israelite (who knew) ending the day at a home hosted dinner with an ultra conservative Hasidic Jewish family. It was all very interesting. The best part was finding a cold beer, sitting on the beach to drink it. Ah.... tomorrow Haifa,

Jordan to Israel episode 6

New day and a new country. We bade farewell to our guide, Samir and hello to Alon. It took the entire day to make that happen. We saw Petra from the north side, traveled through the mountains, and over to the Dead Sea. The brand new road was a single lane with multitude of switch backs. One of our travelers just about jumped out of her seat. Did not help she was on the drop off side of the bus. :) We stopped at the shore of the Dead Sea. Beautiful but a bit briny. Just try not to float... woofed down our lunch on the bus. Not able to take food across the boarder. That was the most unique box lunch ever. A small turkey sandwich, an apple, a whole cucumber, a whole tomato, an apple and yogurt. Complimented with a napkin but no service ware. Doubtful if anyone figured out how to eat the tomato. The cucumber served dual purpose as a spoon for the yogurt. Now, that's a first! Boarder crossing took 3 hours and 2 jigsaw puzzles to complete the transfer from Jordan to Israel. Not sure what was the problem. We were elated to see and meet our new guide. One of the best parts, there is wine and beer here!! Cheers!! Tomorrow, city tour of Tel Aviv. Check back!

Jordan Petra episode 5 part 4

Jordan Petra episode 5 part 3

Jordan Petra part 2

Jordan Petra. Episode 4

Petra. Wow. Nothing can prepare you for the experience walking through the mammoth mile long slit through the sandstone & limestone mountains to reach a once was thriving city called Petra. It was established possibly as early the 4th century BC as the capital of the Nabataean Kingdom. It is an important location due to its proximity to the trade routes and establishing itself as a major trading hub. Inhabitants over the centuries began as the Nabataeans, to Serbs, to Greeks to Romans. It's population peaked around the 1st century AD at about 20,000. Romans annexed and renamed the Kingdom to Arabia Petraea. It's importance declined so after. The 363 AD earthquake severely destroyed many structures. By 700 AD, the city was abandoned. Walking into Petra is truly a memorable experience. Who knew you would be walking through a cemetery. Tombs dots the sides of the precipices all the way down to the city central. Facades ranged from the most intact, the treasury (the signature feature of this historical site) to just the hole carved into the mountain. Sandstone is very soft and very vulnerable to the elements. 90% of the city of Petra remains unexcavated! We walked through the ruins of the column and shop lined street that lead us to a 6000 seat amphitheater. There is a picture of it with this episode. See if you can find it. Another surprise is the constant dodging around camels, horses, donkeys, mules, goats, cats, and dogs. It was like herds of all sorts of animals everywhere. The Bedouins currently live here using these animals to take every tourist possible back up the several mile climb — for a fee, of course. So there are lots of camel pictures. They spit, you know. Tea at one stop mid way and lunch at the bottom of the hill were special treats. What a day! What an experience! Oh our aching feet! About 8 miles and 20k + steps. Found a beer to quench our thirst. Not an easy thing to do here.... tomorrow we say goodbye Jordan and hello Israel. Stay tuned!

Jordan episode 4 part 2

Jordan episode 4

On the move today. Said goodbye Amman and hello Wadi Musa just outside of Petra. It was a full day in the little bus on the Kings Highway and lots of stops to explore along the way. Our highway has been an international trade route for the last 5000 years. Our first stop was to view the magnificent Jordan river valley from the top of Mount Nebo. Moses was said to have seen the land of Canaan, milk and honey, before he died from this pinnacle. Fascinating to think we walked the same ground as Moses. On a clear day you can see the Dead Sea, Jericho, and Jerusalem. There is a photo of our travel group and one of our guide, Samir, attempting to move a stone used as a door. New meaning to a rolling stone.... We loaded up and off to Madaba to poke into St George's Church. Notable in this area are the striking Byzantine mosaics. The mosaic on the floor of this church is from the 6th century and the oldest known map of the holy land. Of course every organized tour has one of those "let's learn how they make something and lead you into the sales room". The mosaic workshop was no exception. Ya, I bit. Bought a small one after quite a bit of negotiation and bundling 3 people's items together. Of course the one I really liked was 1000 - not dollars, denars... which still is about $1400 USD. I just about choked. Lunch treated us to vista views of the Jordan River valley from our table. On our way to Petra in the afternoon we stopped at the overlook to the Mujib Valley. Absolutely breathtaking. Last stop before the hotel was to take lots of pics of a fortress built by the crusaders in the 12th century. Do we remember the name...nope. Arrived at our hotel in Wadi Musa. It is so cool. Our arrival was in the dark to maybe will have pics in the next episode. Tomorrow Petra!!

Jordan episode 3 part 3

Here is our armed Tourist Policeman. So cute! And assuring our safety. Although, it does feel quite safe here.