Petra

In case anyone is asking, it is possible to tour Petra in a single day. 

You have to leave your hotel at 5 am, take a 6:40 flight to Eliat, walk across the border into Jordan,

Drive 2 hrs to Petra, walk 6+ miles (according to FitBit) inside Petra and then reverse.  

Was it worth the trouble?  Absolutely YES!!

Petra is one of the most unique places that I've ever been to.  We've all seen "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" so I was sorta, kinda prepared for the Treasury building but it was more than I expected.

I was not expecting the colors of the sandstone

the long gorge that serves as the entrance into the city

the number of carved structures

or the theatre

Petra is definitely on my recommended places to visit list.

Tomorrow is the long flight home.  Getting through security with both Egypt and Jordan stamps in my passport should be fun.  

Jerusalem and Bethlehem

This was the best day of touring so far.

The sites were incredible but the best part was listening to both sides on the Palestinian-Israeli story.

Our driver picked us at the hotel and drove us to Jerusalem to meet our guide.  The driver is Palestinian, a resident of Israel and a citizen of Jordan.  He lives in Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives which is coincidentally where we started the tour.

Here is a picture of the old city from the Mount of Olives.  It is hard to miss the Dome of the Rock.

All buildings in Jerusalem are the same color as it is the law that they are covered in limestone.  Mr. Pine would not survive here.

Our guide gave us the history of why Jerusalem is an important city and we walked down from the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem just as Jesus did.  There are churches erected near all the important sites.  My favorite church is the one near the place of his arrest by the Romans.

We then entered Jerusalem through the Lion Gate and walked all the stations of the cross and saw all of The Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

During the tour of Jerusalem, our guide gave us her point of view of the Palestinians and the wall around the West Bank.  She thinks the wall is a good idea until Palestine can find a leader who can control his people.

After Jerusalem, we wanted to go to Bethlehem to see The Church of the Nativity.  The only problem is that Bethlehem is inside the West Bank.  Israel forbids Israeli citizens from going to the West Bank so our guide cannot take us there but our driver can.  As we start driving to Bethlehem, our driver gives us his point of view on the wall. Palestinians hate it and feel like prisoners.  He was excited to tell us that John Kerry had just visited and that the Americans are trying to help but he feels that there will never be peace with Israel and that they continue to steal the land of Palestine.

I don't envy John Kerry his job.  After talking to both people, I don't feel there is a clear winner.  All I can say is that everyone should visit Jerusalem and see the situation for themselves.

The Dead Sea

"Swim in the Dead Sea" - another bucket item list crossed off.

Swim is not really the correct word.  You actually cover yourself in mud and then float around.  Just float. You can't actually swim because your arms and legs will not stay under the water. The ocean is about 3% salt.  Contrast that to the Dead Sea which is 33% salt.  I cannot describe what it feels like to just float.  

For people who are planning a trip, go to a real spa. We went via the tour from the hotel which included a stop at the Mineral Beach.  The facility was on the yucky side - not exactly third world yucky - but one notch below the bathrooms at JFK.  

Here is a picture of the beach. Notice the people in the background covering themselves in mud.

The trip to the Dead Sea includes a drive past the West Bank. Here is a picture of the famous wall

Masada

Today's tour was a drive to the eastern border of Israel to visit Masada and The Dead Sea.

Masada is a fortress on a mountain in the Judea desert built by King Herod. King Herod has been described as both a madman and the greatest builder in Jewish history.  When he wasn't murdering people, he built the port city of Caesarea, the Second Temple and Masada. 

The cable car ride up to Masada

Masada reminds me of Pompeii but, you know, on a mountain.

The views are breathtaking. My pictures do not do it justice.  That's the Dead Sea in the distance with Jordan on the far side.

Another day. Another world heritage site.

Drove up the all the way up the northern coast of Israel to the border with Lebanon.

Visited sites of the Romans and the Crusaders.

Acre, the world heritage site of the title, was both a crusaders city and an ottoman stronghold. Napoleon was stopped here on his attempt to capture the Holy Land.

Caesarea Maritima is a city and harbor built by King Herod.  

Here is a picture of the hippodrome and gladiator arena.

The most interesting things about these places is that you see the layers of history.  The crusaders building on top of what the Romans left and so on.

Beyond this wall is Lebanon

Hotel Zico - learn from the master

Last week I was in Mountain View.  Every hotel in the Mountain View area was booked solid and the only room I could find was at the Hotel Zico for $300 per night. For those of you who have not been to Mountain View, "urban sprawl" is the best description.  $300 per night is an outrageous sum of money for a hotel in Mountain View. Was the Hotel Zico worth $300 per night? Absolutely not. The Hilton Garden Inn is half the money and twice as nice.  My room had a wonderful view of highway 85 and I had to crawl under the desk to find a plug for my laptop.  When I checked in, I asked if they had a Google discount and the response was "not for the room you booked." Seriously?  You want to piss off Google? In Mountain View? I don't play the Google card often but you can't swing a dead cat in Mountain View without hitting a Google building let alone a Google employee.

Fast forward to the Crown Plaza in Tel Aviv.  Not only is it a nice hotel and they offer a Google discount but they adorned the lobby with a flag

and left gifts (cookies, t-shirt, laundry bag) in the room every night

Hotel Zico take a lesson from a real hotel.  

Jerusalem - Part 3

We've all heard the bible stories. Jesus was born in Bethlehem and was crucified in Jerusalem. However, those are stories and I never thought of them as real places.

I was really surprised to learn that you can walk the stations of the cross in Jerusalem.

The stations are marked like this

I saw some of the stations on Sunday. Val and I are going to go back to Jerusalem to walk all of them.

According to the Roman Catholics and many of the other Christian branches, this is the tomb of Jesus and the site of the resurrection.  That Resurrection. You know. The important one.

This is inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  The Church contains the last 5 stations of the cross including the actual site of the crucifixion.

I know what you're thinking.  Wasn't the crucifixion on a hill... like outside...?  The Church was built 300 years after the crucifixion by Constantine's mother.  As you can imagine, this leads to all kinds of controversy:
- is this the actual place? Some branches of the church consider the tomb to be in another location entirely.
- which branch should control the church?  There is an elaborate agreement among the branches over which parts of the church are controlled by which branch and the Muslim family (not kidding) across the street has the actual key to the church.

At any rate, even though I am hardly a practicing Catholic, I found this place profoundly moving.  Val and I are going to go back on Saturday and spend more time here.  I will enclose more pictures then.

Jerusalem - Part 2

The Western Wall.

The Temple Mount was the site of the Second Temple making it the holiest site in Judaism.

There are 2 reasons that Jews do not pray at the Temple Mount:

1. They are not sure of the exact location of the temple and do not want to risk stepping on the really holy parts.
2. The Temple Mount is the third most important site in Islam making it the most contested religious site in the world.  There is a very precarious peace brokered between the Jews and Muslims.

Instead Jews pray at the Western Wall which is the remaining part closest to the holiest part of the temple.

Men and Women pray separately. The men's section is bigger. Go figure.

The custom is to insert slips of paper with notes to God into the cracks in the wall.

Google Cafes

Living in NYC, I am rarely surprised by cultural differences with respect to food.  While I expected the food here to be Kosher, I did not expect the cafes themselves to be Kosher.  There is a cafe for dairy and vegetables and another one for meat and vegetables.  Never the twain shall meet.  Also, if the cutlery is removed from the cafe then it has to be thrown away.  They provide plastic cutlery if you have to eat on the run.  And if you are wondering... the food here is top-notch. I just had a wonderful chicken stuffed with rice and pomegranate.  

Jerusalem - Part 1

Visited Jerusalem on Sunday.

It did not disappoint.  There is no place on Earth like it. No place that is so important to the 3 major monotheistic religions.

We visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Western Wall.  More on those sites later.

We did not go to the Temple Mount or the Dome of the Rock.  Even though the Dome of the Rock is in Jerusalem and Jerusalem is controversially in Israel, the Dome of the Rock is administered by Jordan. Non-Muslims are given very limited access to the Temple Mount.

Here is a picture of the top of the dome taken from below the Temple Mount and in front of the Western Wall

Arrival

I'm in Tel Aviv.

Travel was easy except that the flight from JFK to London was so bumpy that even I could not sleep. According to Foursquare, I set a new record -- visit an airport 4 days in a row.  SFO Wednesday, JFK Thursday, JFK Friday, LHR Saturday.

It's official.  After JFK and SFO, Heathrow is my most visited airport.  I can't quite maneuver it with my eyes closed but there is something very familiar about those long walks following the purple "Flight connections" signs.

Security in the Israel airport was fast and easy.  Google gave us invitation letters to keep the questions down to a minimum.  The security person asked me the name of my father and the name of my grandfather. Really? I don't know either of my grandfathers. I wonder if she actually knew the answer.

Visiting Jerusalem tomorrow.  Jerusalem is easily in my top 5 places to visit list.

Here are some obligatory hotel pictures.

View from the room

Some unique options on the hotel room control unit

Start

Off to Israel and Petra...