Hello from Jerusalem!


 
We are still looking pretty good in spite of being in transit from Vancouver, Portland and Bend for over 24-hours. Our traveling group is Teresa, Scott, John me and Pat.  


We have a nice view of the old city from the roof of our motel!


We left home at 2:45 am on Wednesday. We flew from Portland to Denver and then on to Montreal. The final 10.5 hour flight but us into Tel Aviv at 10:15 am local time on Thursday. There is a 10 hour time difference.  We cleared customs and found out that Teresa’s suitcase was vacationing separately in Canada.  We travelled by van to Jerusalem and arrived at the motel in the early afternoon.


We got settled into our rooms at the King David Jerusalem motel and had an early dinner in their restaurant.  I’m a big fan of Mediterranean cuisine, so I had a side dish of  Freekah, because I liked the name. It was delicious.  Sorry, no food pictures yet, I’m sure they will be coming in future blog posts!  


After dinner, we all collapsed happily into our rooms and I slept hard for six hours.  I’m now wide awake at 2 am local time, but I should be able to get a few more hours of rest and adjust my body clock.  Tomorrow we are tourists!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Western Wall and Bethlehem

Image
 Well darn it, my body clock hasn’t adjusted to the ten hour time difference, so here I am wide awake at 4 a.m. It must be time to add to the blog! Visiting the Western Wall aka the wailing wall was one of the highlights of our first day in Jerusalem.  It was inspiring and touching to see people of so many faiths praying shoulder to shoulder in accordance with their beliefs. Praying at the wall is segregated by gender.  The men go to the large sunny area on the left.  Women have access to the much smaller area on the right that was in the afternoon shade during our visit. The guys put on the required head covering before approaching the wall. Here are Scott, John and Pat at the wall. Tradition holds that you write your prayers on a small scrap of paper and tuck it into a crevice on the wall.  I must say every crack is well chinked! Teresa cleansed her hands in preparation for her prayers at the wall. You are supposed to face the wall and back away after you pray...
Read more

Pyramids Are Worth The Journey: Part I!

Image
 It’s very awe inspiring to see the pyramids in person, even though you share the experience with hundreds of other tourists.  We started the day at the Saqqara necropolis.  The walk through hieroglyph covered burial chambers made Teresa and Scott jump for joy in front of the Step Pyramid.   Pat and I remained a bit more grounded while John babysat the “lollipop while our guide ran errands.   The next stop was the Great Pyramid of Giza. We opted to take the low-ceilinged uphill trek to the center of the pyramid to see the burial chamber of King Khufu.  It was hot and I’m going to have a few sore muscles, but it was well worth the hike. We are all smiling about our pyramid day and it’s not even lunchtime. Also out of time and Wi-Fi, so these pictures count as 1000 words and I’ll continue later.
Read more

Exploring Petra

Image
Our group lined up single file in the Siq, placed a hand on the shoulder of the person in front of us and shuffled forward with our eyes closed. Our guide Ahmad played the theme song from Indiana Jones as we gazed in awe at the Petra treasury building.  Some corny fun to start a day of exploration in the archaeological marvel that is Petra. The ancient ruins of Petra are astonishing in their size, they are amazingly well preserved, and they go on forever.  I would like to go back someday to take in the side trails and attempt the steep walk up to the monastery. To get to Petra you walk a mile down through the Siq, a narrow slot canyon that protected Petra from invaders. We looked at temples and ancient shopping malls.  Bedouins provide camel and donkey rides back up through Petra for people who get tired of walking. We walked. A lot. The Not Dead Yet Tour does Petra! The tomb area was open for exploration. Pat and Teresa are in the doorways. Another tourist photo bombed m...
Read more