Happy New Year! Welcome to a new decade…the roaring ‘20s! Whoa right? Today was Day 4 of touring, a slower day tour wise so we could breathe a little, not walk quite so much, (only 7,000+ steps for me today!) and get back to the hotel a little early to nap and maybe do some laundry, in the sink/tub…no laundry facilities for us to use. Always an adventure! The day started out with breakfast, I thought I’d give you another glimpse of some options at breakfast.
Pita with hummus, veggie quiche kinda thing, stuffed mushrooms, the egg in spaghetti sauce option, and either sweet potato of some kind, or something in the squash family, with a cheese something on top. They were also serving the cheese and fish bar as usual, salad bar stuff, and fresh pancakes hot off the griddle and eggs made to order. We are so not starving around here…
Next we jumped on the bus for a trip into the country. Down the hill toward the Dead Sea valley. We took the road that is built on the tradition road into Jerusalem. This is where the story of the Good Samaritan would have taken place. Our first stop was Masada, Herod the Great’s fortress on the Dead Sea. Next we went to Qumran, or Qumeran as it is sometimes spelled. This is where a shepherd boy from Bethlehem found the Dead Sea Scrolls in a cave in 1947. Last, we visited the Dead Sea itself for a quick swim.
I promised I would try to remember to take a picture of the necklaces that Evan and I got. We both got crosses with Eilat stones in them. Eilat is the national stone of Israel. It is blue and green, and it has been said that the colors resemble the colors of the earth as seen from space. Here’s Evan’s:
A Jerusalem, or pilgrim cross. Here’s mine:
Not a super clear picture, sorry about that. I was trying to get close enough for you to be able to see both the blue and the green in the stones. Very cool, I like it!
We also saw two fighter jets flying over the Dead Sea. This would be them flying directly over the border with Jordan. Neat to see. We also saw a large herd of ibex, and a herd of camels:
Ibex, like a deer with big horns.
A few of a good sized herd of camels.
And a shepherd on a donkey minding them.
I also wanted to show you this picture of the Dead Sea. It is VERY low nowadays, Mike says. The Jordan river, which flows into it, is drawn from for water heavily upstream, so it is not filling. It is so low, that I took this picture of some of the exposed land, that’s not usually exposed, and the Jordanian side has built a bridge out there into it now. I asked Mike about how the Jordanians would handle that area if one were to walk out there, and he said it would be ill-advised as it would be surely land-mined. Pastor said one could walk out there and meet Jesus in person. OK, good tip!!!
The last picture I wanted to share here is this sign for En Gedi. Mentioned in the Bible more than once…this is the area of Saul and David chasing and running. This area is one that David speaks fondly of, certainly his old stomping grounds. Very cool to see the terrain and the very land where this stuff happened. Gives a vivid mental picture of Biblical lands.
Next up is Masada, a non-Christian site having nothing to do with the Bible, but pretty freaking interesting historically.