Last Day in Israel

Wednesday, March 10th was a very long day for us. It was a free day so there was no early morning wake-up call but we only managed to sleep until 7:30 a.m. After breakfast Bob strolled down to the Red Sea. However, it was 27 degrees Celsius in the morning and the temperature only got hotter, so Bob didn't stay out too long. Here are a few photos of the sea.



This is not the hotel we stayed at. It was a couple of blocks away.

About noon we took our suitcases to the luggage room because we had to check out. We had lunch and visited with our group until 2:00 p.m. when a bus took us to the Eilat airport. Because our luggage hadn't been with us at all times since we packed it we were subjected to a thorough search in case someone had added something to the luggage. They looked in every compartment. However, we eventually got on the plane and flew Arkia airlines to a domestic airport in Tel Aviv (Dov Hoz). The plane had luxurious leather seats. We had now come full circle to where we first came to Israel. A bus was waiting and drove us to Jaffa. Half of our group had walked there the first night we came but some of us had not been there yet. Because it is the port that Jonah sailed from there is a statue of the big fish which swallowed Jonah. I love the satisfied grin.

It seemed to be an evening for weddings. The custom of some of the Jewish groups is for the bride to have a ritual bath the evening before the wedding and then fast and pray until the wedding the next evening. We saw several brides praying as we walked the streets of Jaffa. Below is a bride praying (a bit blurry).

Jaffa is now the artistic quarter of Tel Aviv. Below is a sculpture of a tree sprouting from a seed. It is really suspended about three feet off the ground, although you can't tell that from the picture.

Here is a photo of the shop of Frank Meisler, one of Israel's famous artists. He came to Israel about 1960. We saw some of his works as we traveled around the country.

This gate is Egytian from the 13th Century. It was excavated about 50 years ago.

And here is a more modern statue.

The following is a picture of St. Peter's Monastery marking the place where Peter had a vision about spreading the gospel to the gentiles as well as the Jews. There are two Mormon missionaries who died from Malaria buried in the church yard, but tourists are not allowed in. (I believe they were buried there in the late 1800's.) It was party because of these burials that the church was allowed to build the BYU center in Jerusalem, because the graves proved that the church had a presence in Israel very early on.

From Jaffa we traveled to Abu Ghosh. In 1947 and 1948, the road to Jerusalem was blocked by the Arabs and passage through the hills surrounding Jerusalem was crucial for getting supplies to the besieged city. Of the 36 Muslim-Arab speaking villages nestled in these hills, Abu Ghosh was the only Muslim town that remained neutral, and in many cases proved friendly and helped to keep the road open. We had supper at a restaurant there and the chicken shiskabobs were delicious. We had good food on most of the trip, but the chicken here was above and beyond anything else we had.

From Abu Ghosh we returned to the Ben Gurion airport. We arrived at 9:20 p.m. thinking we had plenty of time to catch our 1:00 a.m. flight. Not so. We stood in line for 45 minutes to get interviewed and have our luggage x-rayed and some of us had the suitcases searched. Then we got in line to get boarding passes and it was plain Chaos. It took us 1 hour and 45 minutes to get our boarding passes. Then we still had to go through security, so we made it to our gate with about 10 minutes to spare.

Stopping in Toronto we had just enough time to make our flight to Calgary and we arrived in Calgary at 10:30 a.m. Thursday. Edward took an early lunch and picked us up and we went out to Taco Del Mar and had lunch with him before driving home.

In order to punish us for leaving home for three weeks our toilet developed a leak the morning after we got home and we had to call a plumber and have the 50 year old toilet replaced. The plumber assured us that the new toilet would not last as long as the old. We now have a white toilet, blue sink and blue bathtub. Although the plumber suggested we replace the tub and sink to match the toilet we thought we should wait and get our finances in order after blowing the budget on the trip. Besides the whole bathroom needs renovation. Always something!

Back to Israel

We left Jordan yesterday and are now in Eilat, Israel on the Red Sea, across from Acqabah, Jordan. Saudi Arabia and Eqypt also border this part of Israel.
We arrived here about 10:00 a.m. Here are some views from our hotel room.

Bob went to an undersea observatory to look at the coral and the fish. If you like fish here is a movie of the fish. Actually there are some awesome looking fish!

Taybet Zamen Hotel

Our hotel in Wadi Musa, which is the town closest to Petra deserves it's own post. It was built on an old village in caves on the mountain side. It was spacious, had stone floors and the wall was plastered. Here is the door to our room.
The walk in front of the room.

The view from our room.

Inside the room:

Another view from the hotel:

Petra

Leaving Amman at an early hour we headed south across the desert towards Petra. It was a three hour jaunt but we had one rest stop at, you guessed it, a shop selling all kinds of clothing, rugs, vases, souvenirs etc. Here I am outside the shop while Bob is taking pictures of the cars and gas station.
Our first view of Petra:

The site of Petra was inhabited during ancient times including Paleolithic and Neolithic periods. The biblical Edomites occupied the area about 1200 b.c. Petra achieved its greatest glory under the Nabateans, who were an ancient people who originally came from Northeast Arabia. The Romans conquered the area about 100 a.d. and added the roman touch. The Christians, Byzantines and Crusaders followed before Petra was deserted.

During our time in Jordan we had an armed tourist policeman on our bus with it. He was there supposedly to make sure the tourist sites were available during the times they were supposed to be. They had tourist police in Petra, some of them riding horses around the site.

There are dams at various places along the trail to control flash floods. The following picture shows one of the dams which forces the rain water into cisterns.

The walk into Petra is 2 miles. For the first mile a horse and cart could be rented for $30. and Bob insisted I take a cart. I think I would have rather have walked as it was a bumpy ride.

There was a huge tomb which is misnamed the treasury. People originally though there was a buried treasure there, but it was not so.

When we had rain in Israel, they had rain in Petra and part of the trail washed out. There was some heavy equipment to help fix the trail. Some of the natives had jobs moving rocks by hand.

Everyone didn't merit huge tombs. Here are tombs of the commoners.

Below the roman influence is shown in the forum.

Now we see the modern period.

Jerash and Amman

The decopolis is a group of 10 city states that were important in Roman Times. We had previously visited Beit Shean, one of these cities that was in Israel. On Sunday afternoon drove north through Amman and up to Jerash, another of the decopolis cities.

As we approached the ancient theatre we were certainly surprised to hear the strains of bagpipes. These pipers played Amazing Grace and then Scotland, the Brave.

There were chariots at the hippodrome and for $20.00 you could go for a ride.

We drove to Amman in time for supper. Below is a view from our hotel window.