Dead sea, Masada and Petra

June 12 2009 Tiberius: The Sea of Galilee





Kris was pretty stressed out about a work situation today, so we didn’t do too much. Around noon we left Haifa and traveled towards Nazareth and Tiberius. We of course got lost on these crazy Israeli roads and ended up at a dump. It was pretty funny. Kris is a good navigator though and we were able to find a main road that was on our map. It was easy from then on. We drove through the mountains and enjoyed a beautiful scenic drive. We took the long way to Tiberius to drive through Nazareth. It is definitely not the city of Christ’s time anymore. It is a large city with a lot of development. A lone church serves as a reminder that he spent some of his years there. It is somewhat sad to me that a church seems to be built over every little sacred site. It makes it difficult to envision what it was like. A lot of them charge money to see as well.
We drove through Nazareth to the now popping town of Tiberius on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. It is incredibly hot here, but the place is breathtaking. We are lucky enough to enjoy a little room with a balcony that affords a view of the sea and the Scottish Church next door. Kris’s ancestors would be so proud. We lucked out in getting a room here; it isn’t advertised since it is some kind of guesthouse. The Casa Nova Franciscan Guesthouse to be precise. Our guide in Jerusalem, Sam, hooked this up for us. It is very affordable too only about 60 a night. When we arrived we had trouble finding it, and the locals had never heard of it either. When we did eventually find it an Italian man who spoke no English greeted us. I was wondering if he was going to let us in when an English speaking Italian man came and helped us out. We are right on the board walks as well, so once we settled into our room we went and got dinner their overlooking the sea and took a swim. It was very refreshing. Kris had to take care of some stressful work business so we spent the rest of the evening on our balcony enjoying the pleasant view and nighttime air.

June 13 2009

We took off this morning at the early hour of 10 o’clock. ;) We head for a drive around the coast and made our first stop at the mount of the Beatitudes. It was a beautiful place and I didn’t even mind paying the 5 sheckles to get in. It has a beautiful overlook of the sea. I can understand why Jesus would want to come here to preach. It is beautiful and peaceful.
Sermon on the Mount location

We continued our trek around the coast stopping again for a fish lunch at Ein Gev. I ordered the Jordan Trout, which was very good. Kris ordered the St Peter fish, which we discovered later, is a Tilapia. We laughed about that one. Well mostly I laughed at Kris for ordering a fish that eats poo. After lunch we were eager for another swim so we found a beach that seemed to be popular among the locals and got in the water.
Kris relaxing at The Fish Restaurant on the Sea of Galilee

Jenette swimming in the Sea of Galilee

We also say the place in the Jordan River where John the Baptist is said to have baptized Christ. There was a long line of people waiting to be baptized there. I considered taking a second dunk myself... Okay not really. Now we are relaxing at our great place on the boardwalk. This is completes one week of our six week adventure. I am surprised that I am not homesick yet. It has been a relaxing, educational, insightful, and fun vacation so far. I would definitely come back.



June 14 2009 Sunday The Dead Sea and Beth Shean (Scythopolis)

We departed the city of Tiberius this morning and headed south towards the Dead Sea. We found a neat place to stop off called Beth Shean (Scythopolis). This ancient Roman town in ruins was once a thriving center point of the ten cities of the Decopolis. It also has one of the best-preserved amphitheatres of that time. Kris loved it all. I was really hot, but still found it interesting. We then entered into the west bank region of Israel and drove down to the Dead Sea following the Jordan River, and the Jordanian border. It made me a little sad to see these people in such conflict with one other.

floating in the Dead Sea

Kris as a Roman Statue in Scythopolis

The scenery gets drier and drier as you head toward the Negev Desert and the Dead Sea. It is a barren dessert wasteland. We were able to sea some antelope on the hillside which really excited Kris. For the record I was the one who spotted them! They blend in really well. We hope to see and Ibex before we leave the Desert. Finally we pulled into town and found a nice guesthouse on a ridge called Ein Gedi Kibbutz in Ein Gedi. It had botanical gardens, a spa, and a swimming pool that overlooks the Dead Sea. We are cheap so we went down to the public beach for a swim in the Dead Sea. It was incredible too! We entered the water expecting it to behave like all other bodies of water, but you don’t sink! It is very hard to submerse yourself since the salinity of the water is so great; the water is denser than you are. It was fun to float effortlessly, but also slightly painful as if you have any cuts or sensitive skin areas (which we all do!) it burns quite a bit. We hung out there for a while and then headed back to out hotel pool for a swim and relaxed by the pool reading and enjoying the view. This concluded our day over being 1300 feet below sea level, the lowest place on Earth!



June 15 2009 Monday Masada



What an incredibly HOT day! We got up and drove the short distance to Masada. Masada is a city in ruin on a plateau next to the dead sea. We hiked for just under and hour up the mountainside in the 100 degree temperatures. This made us a sweaty mess, but it was worth it. The city was built originally by King Herod and was one of the last strongholds to fall to the Roman Empire. The place gave a great view, and it was interesting to see how they developed a city there with some clever engineering. Afterwards we hiked back down and drove the 2 hours to Eilat. Eilat is a town on the gulf of Aquaba. I think it is the destination of choice for most Israelis, and while it was very hot, there were many people out and about. At night, however, the place really comes to life. We walked the boardwalk and looked at all the fun shops. Kris found a silly captians hat that he had to have,. ;) We had diner at a little burger bar and headed back to the hotel for the night.




June 16, 2009

Today we got up early and took a cab to the Jordan border. There we went through several Israeli and Jordanian checkpoints before catching another cab on the other side to Petra. We saw quite of bit of desert scenery on our drive, including the outskirts of Waddi Rum where Lawrence of Arabia was made famous. We are staying at a very nice hotel at the mouth of Petra called the Movenpick. We were too early to check into our room so we went into Petra a had an amazing look around. This place is fascinating! It amazes me how much effort these people put into carving these buildings into the canyon sides. We will do some more exploring tomorrow.
Definetly a place to come see!