After breakfast, we boarded the bus for the ride south to Masada. Almost the entire trip, the Dead Sea was right alongside the road. And the further south we rode, the more desolate it became. We enter the Visitors Center at the base of Masada; I had no idea that Masada was so close to the Dead Sea; I thought it would be even more remote than it is. If you want, you could hike up the path to the top; we wisely chose to use the aerial tram, 3 minutes to the top. I did take video but still have to figure out how to link it to the blog - working on it:) although I doubt Ginger even wants to view the tram ride, oh well.
Masada is essentially 3 levels of living quarters, storage rooms, a synagogue, hot baths, and of course a palace or two for King Herod, not to mention huge cisterns for storing water. From above, you can see for miles and miles and you can still make out the outlines of the Roman army camps as well as the ramp the Romans built to get to the top. If you don't know the story, after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70CE, the remaining Zealots and their families fled here and the Roman army laid siege to Masada for over 3 months. When the ramp was finally completed and they reached the top, they found that all 960 inhabitants had committed suicide rather than surrender to the Romans. You cannot imagine the sweeping views from the top - even the pics don't do it justice, a real WOW moment. We took the tram back down for some serious shopping in the store at the Visitors Center and then headed for the Ein Gedi Beach on the Dead Sea
FYI - the Dead Sea has a salt content of 35% not to mention a lot of other minerals which apparently make it (and its mud) good for skin and complexion; lots of skincare products are sold at the Visitors Center. The Dead Sea is the lowest point on earth, 1385 feet below sea level. In fact, when we were on the top of Masada we were actually at 0 feet sea level, go figure. I chose to simply wade into the Dead Sea, while 3 of us actually dove in for the full experience. Air temperature was about 106 degrees, water was not warm, though not really cool either. But the stuff left on your skin after going on really feels uncomfortably slimy, because of all the other minerals in the water. My flipflops are still icky to the touch. And the actual walk down to the beach was dangerously slippery.
We then re-boarded the bus and headed back north to Jerusalem. Along the way, you could see countless hills with caves. Even though we didn't stop, we did see the actual caves at Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, very cool!!
We headed to the 3 Arches YMCA in Jerusalem for lunch with Bassem Eid, Executive Director of the Palestinina Human Rights Monitoring Group. I can'e begin to tell you how rounded our overall experience of Israel has been - we have had the opportunity to speak with a variety of sides and points of view - Jewish, Christian, Arab and now Palestinian. It just goes to show how difficult the political situation is in Israel and how elusive a solution that addresses all sides can be. The discussion was eye-opening, how dis-united the Palestinians are, not that any other group is. The biggest disservice we could do is assume any group, Arab or Christian or Jewish, are all united on all fronts or to lop all people into 'one size fits all' categories. It just doesnt work - there are Palestinians who are happy to live in Israel and those who arent, there are Palestinians who work in Israel and other Palestinians who resent any other Palestinian who associates with Israelis. And the same goes for all sides - this is a multi-layered country that demands a multi-layered solutions to the problems that exist. Very very complicated!!
The lunch itself was definitely the low point for food - very poor service, long waits for very mediocre (and that is being kind) food. We even skipped dessert, better that we didn't even try it. Ugh! I am sure Linda has crossed this place off the list for future visits.
Once we returned to the hotel, actually check that, everyone else rode back to the hotel. Jeff and I struck out on our own and walked back through the Jaffa Gate into the Old City. There we re-visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where I got the chance to take all the pics I missed out on the first time when my camera died. This time, however, I got the chance to really notice the people so there are a few human interest shots as well. I think that is something we all do - when we visit somewhere for the first time, we focus on the big picture - the building, the view, that sort of thing. When you go back, you get the opportunity to focus on the people and what's going on. We then headed to the Arab Quarter for more shopping and haggling. You learn things like the bagel man with the pushcart apparently has interests in several local shops as he just left the cart and ushered us through a number of shops. I think this is the time Jeff bought his hookah - this is how it works, you do some small talk (where you from? Chicago, oh yes Wheaton College! huh??, you pick out something you like, and then you "talk" price. Such a beautiful sensory overload walk through all the little alleys and paths. I bought a couple of scarves, but only after Jeff had brought down the price on the ones he bought!!!
We went back through the Jewish Quarter as well and saw the Wailing Wall again. Such an emotional experience to stand there touching the wall and slipping slips of paper into its cracks, hard to put words to the event. From there we made our way out the Zion Gate, I think, and "eventually" found our way to the Church of Notre Dame for 6:30 Saturday mass. What a true experience. I told everyone, only in Jerusalem, can you go to Notre Dame for Mass with a predominately Filipino and Indian congregation, with American and British lectors, where the 7 foot tall French priest does a homily about Opus Dei (really, 7 foot - Judy had to raise her hands over her head for communion), and, in the midst of saying the Canon in Latin, he gets to the Consecration and you can hear the Muslim call to prayer through the windows. WOW!!!
After that, we did a bit of shopping in the Church's religious store; the place also houses kind of an international religious hostel. Esther and I cabbed it back to the hotel where I proceeded to crash for the night.
No comments:
Post a Comment