Joe Abroad

After leaving Petra we continue our journey to the Dead Sea. It’s about a 3 - 4 hour drive to our hotel situated on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea, which is preferred over the Israeli side because of the nicer beaches.

Today we sail to 2 interesting places. The first is Edfu. Our ship set sail at 3:30am and when we woke up were in the city.

Today we start our journey with a visit to Masada. The mountain fortress was built by the Romans and King Herod. The 960 Jewish rebels were besieged by the Romans, and according to historians, they committed suicide rather than surrender.

Continuing on our journey through the old city of Jerusalem, we begin the Via Dolorosa. The Via Dolorosa is the path that Jesus would have taken, forced by the Roman soldiers, on the way to his crucifixion. There are 14 stations of the cross, 10 inside the walls of the city and 4 outside the walls where Jesus was ultimately crucified.

After yesterday’s walkathon, we are looking forward to less walking today and more sightseeing. We start off our day with a visit to the Machane Yehuda Market or Shuk as it is known. This is a local open air..

Now we are headed to another major bucket list item, Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus. For those of you who don’t know, Bethlehem is located in the West Bank, which is controlled by the Palestinian authorities, ie: Hamas. Getting into the West Bank is not a problem but getting back into Israel is a much bigger challenge. In any case, we enter into Bethlehem to find a much different place than Jerusalem.

After we left Masada, we traveled back towards Jerusalem. On the way we make one of our most important stops to see where the Dead Sea Scrolls were uncovered. This area known as the Qumran Caves.

Today we will be saying goodbye to Israel. After a light kosher breakfast, our driver picks us up and we head to Tel Aviv to get our flight to Istanbul. It’s a nice drive and somewhat relaxing after 3-1/2 weeks of nonstop touring. And then we get to the airport…