Israel

Having bid good-bye to Jordan, we crossed the border at the Arava Border control...which is much easier than the Allenby Bridge Crossing. In fact, we were the only people at the time we were there. Security is strict on both sides..but you never feel strange.

Upon entering Israel, we went thru security again, got into a taxi for the short ride to the airport in Eliat...and boarded our short flight to Tel Aviv. We were meeting friends for one night to enjoy the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra before heading to Jerusalem. Kurt Mazur was supposed to be guest conducting, but due to illness, he was replaced by a young man who was wonderful. It was a lovely evening, and quite a change from the Wadi Rum desert.

The next morning a taxi picked us up and we headed towards Jerusalem...about an hours drive. Not having been in Israel for over 30 years, we just told everyone we had never been there before. It was a lot easier than trying to equate what was then to what is now.

We checked into the King David Hotel, the iconic masterpiece of a historic hotel in Jerusalem. Built in the 1930's, it has been the place to stay for visiting dignitaries the world over. The hotel was bombed when it housed the British Headquarters in 1946, and after being re-built, they added two top floors. These two floors have been newly remodeled and are incredible! We were lucky enough to be able to stay in a glorious suite..overlooking the Old City. What a way to be in Jerusalem. They did a wonderful job of retaining the antique feeling, while updating the bathrooms and interior space. We even had a flatscreen TV in the bathroom mirror!!!

Anyone who goes to Jerusalem should try to experience this magic property. The soul of this hotel abounds in every corner....and on our first evening we had dinner on the patio overlooking the Old City with a wedding going on around us, and a small Russian delegation having drinks before dinner with Joseph Leiberman....the head of the conservative party. Talk about exciting!!

In Israel, you travel back in time through layers of history. And even if you are not a student of history, you are still fascinated by it. And it is amazing what you do remember when you hear names like Herod, Heroditus, Caesar...well, you get the point.

On our first day, our knowledgeable and personable guide, Irma, took us to the top of Mount Scopus. It is a wonderful way to get an overview of the Old City..and an orientation of Jerusalem. Irma is a retired teacher, and she shared with us so much of the past so that we could try to understand the present and relate all of it to the future. It is difficult in Israel, because everyone has an opinion, and everyone expresses it. But we dove into the pool, as it were, and became awashws in the daily life/politics.

When you stand on Mt. Scopus and see the Old City, the most important places for the three major religions in the world, your breath is taken away. The Western Wall of Judaism, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Christianity and the Dome of the Rock, the third holiest site in Islam. You know very quickly why there is such a struggle for power here.

How do I explain the next two weeks? We dove in and out of history, in and out of modern times. We would visit the Western Wall...and then tour the museum. We would see ancient sites, go through tunnels and excavations, and then see modern shopping malls. The juxtaposition was staggering , and at times I felt as if I couldn't absorb another thing.

We went to the Israeli Philharmonic in Tel Aviv, an opera at the Sultan's Pool (an outdoor venue much akin to the Hollywood Bowl right across from the Old City) , a concert at a church in Abu Ghash outside of Jerusalem...and then the most amazing of all....we saw the opera Aida at the base of Masada. How is that for a diverse bit of culture??. And inbetween, we saw Yad Vashem, the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Israeli Museum, the Hecht Museum at Haifa University .

I need to clarify for myself a bit of the history of the Holy Land. Maybe it will help a bit to understand why this trip is so important on so many levels. And it is a trip that everyone should take. I rarely say that about places, but I feel very strongly about Israel and what is in this small piece of land.

Palestine was ruled by the Romans for many centuries, and there are remains all over to see the cardos and the amphiteatres that still are amazingly intact. The Byzantine Era came after the Romans, and was short lived. So we will pass that. Then came the Prophet Muhammad from neighboring Arabia, who was to change the face of this region again because he brought with him Islam, which was soon to conquer this land.

There were numerous skirmishes before the first of a series of crusades happened. The Crusades were holy wars coming from Europe to regain the rule of Christianity, and they spread over 200 years. The Crusades were supposed to recapture the Holy City from the followers of Islam, and reinstate Christianity as the only religion. All over Israel and Jordan there are remnants of these holy wars...and the fortresses that these crusaders built. There was constant fighting in the name of religion and in 1291, the last to fall was Akko. The crusaders were no more.
As an aside, Akko laid buried until 1996, and when it was discovered, it was the find of the century. It was so well preserved....just in pristine condition.

Now came the Marmalukes..a dynasty of slaves from Egypt, who ruled from there, and who were now in control of the Holy Land . At that time Jerusalem declined in importance. It was where people were sent who fell out of favor.

So then the Jews started coming. The Turks had defeated the Marmalukes (whew!) and the Jews felt they were safer under Turkish rule than European scrutiny. The defeat of the Moors in Spain gave rise to the Inquisition, and 100,000 Jews fled to the Holy Land. Most went to the Galilee, around Tiberius and Safed...and those places are still heavily Sephardic Jewish communities.

Turkish rule in Palestine ended in 1917, when General Allenby and his British troops took control of Jerusalem. This was to last until Partition. The Arabs were so upset that the British had to recognize Trans-Jordan as an Arab emirate, and it became independent in 1946. King Abdullah, the brother of King Faisal was confirmed as king, and his son rules today.

Still with me? Good. When Israel was created in l948...war broke out and Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq joined together to defeat this new country. In 1949 armistice was declared and no country held all of Jerusalem. Jordan held the Old City and East Jerusalem... Israel had control of West Jerusalem. It would take 20 years before the city was whole again.

In l967, fear of the encroaching borders by all sides, lead the Israeli army to launch the infamous 6-day war, taking the Golan Heights from Syria, the Gaza Strip and the Sinai from Egypt and the West Bank from Jordan. They also captured the whole of Jerusalem..never to be given back again.

In 1973,in a "save-face" campaign, the Israelis were caught off guard on Yom Kippur eve ,and Syria launched an attack. Nothing changed from the Six Day war in terms of territory. It did, however, open the doors for peace talks with Egypt and Israel wound up giving back Sinai.

All of this in such a short time... 63 years.....but when you see the Galilee and visit the Golan Heights, it begins to make sense. Moses lead his people out of Sinai into the Holy Land.... Jesus walked this land, and was baptized in the waters...only to be crucified and later rise to heaven from the Temple Mount. And Mohammad preached peace and humanity...but there is no peace.

In between all of our travels, we needed a couple of "down days"...so we retreated to the Carmel Forest and spent a night at the Carmel spa. What an amazing place. It was built as a place of quiet and contemplation, and was offered free of charge to any survivor of the Holocaust to come and relax. The forest itself is a lovely place, and the tranquility was surely needed.

Time to resume our travels, and we continued onto the Haifa and the surrounding areas. We visited a Druze village, and went back into time again. The Bahai religion has roots in Israel..and the gardens were amazing.

We visited the town of Rosh Hanikra, which lies on the border of Israel and Lebanon. On the road to get there, we had a major traffic jam. Someone had reported a mysterious bag on the road, so the bomb squad was called out. A tank-like vehicle pulled up, a robot came out, and the said robot detonated the bag, and returned to the vehicle. Turned out not to be a bomb...but you never know. And then the traffic resumed, and we all moved on. Just another day in Israel. But even with this daily occurrence, you feel amazingly safe in Israel. Safer, in fact, than in many cities we have experienced. Maybe it is because the Israelis know what to do....and when. Whatever...you do feel safe, and don't even think about it.

After so much history, we headed to the secular city of Tel Aviv, which was built 100 years ago on sand dunes north of the Arab city of Jaffa. Talk about stunning. This could be any major European seaside city, lined with gorgeous beaches and storefront shops and cafes. And the Bauhaus architecture of the buildings lining the main part of Tel Aviv is dazzling...4000 examples, to be exact.They were built in the 1930's by architects immigrating mostly from Germany and give the city a splendid feeling of opulence with modernism.

Tel Aviv was, as I said, built as a modern city...but because of the proximity to Jaffa, and to the other ancient cities, it holds a wonderful mixture of old and new. And because it is a secular city, stores and restaurants are open all the time!!!

What more can I say about Israel? When our friends, Sharon and Richard invited us to come visit them, and to experience their home away from home....we put it on our list, but something else always came up. I can only tell you to bump Israel up on your list. It has everything that you want in a vacation. You can experience hospitality at the highest level.....food is a wonderful blend of old and new....the beaches are as good as anywhere in the Med, the history is fascinating...the culture is astounding...the hiking is exceptional....Israel has everything. I really don't work for the Chamber of Commerce....but after being in the travel business for a long time, I can tell you that it has everything. And if you want anything.....it is here for the finding.
Aida on Masada was the drawing card....but it was just one of many fascinating experiences we had during these two weeks. I am so grateful to have been able to do this trip...physically, financially and emotionally!!!! I only hope more people could experience what we did. Maybe then people would understand, and there could be hope for a peace in this land.

Jordan

Jordan...the name conjures up so many things. Most people who go to Jordan only go to Petra.But we were lucky enough to be able to spend a couple of days in this Hashemite Kingdom. We used the Four Seasons hotel in Amman as our pivot point of touring, and it was fabulous to come back every afternoon and enjoy the pool! It was HOT in Jordan.
On our first day, we drove around the city, looking at the old sites and the new...the luxurious and the not-so-luxurious. In Amman, there is a law that says all buildings must be faced on all sides with limestone (which is what Jordan is composed of).So the city is gorgeous. It is also clean....has no graffiti and is very safe. As our guide said "Jordan is ruled by the Hamarabi code...so no one steals...or their hand get cut off. Very effective, I must say.

We saw the King Hussein Mosque, which was built in 1924 , on the same site as a mosque erected in AD640. Then we went to the Citadel which has ruins from the Temple of Hercules.It is a huge complex which includes a collonaded street, a racetrack like in Spartacus, and a huge theater.
The most obvious ruin in Amman is the roman theater, which dates from AD170. It seats about 6,000 and is in amazing shape.
The Oil Money side of town is spectacular...and the houses look like many in Beverly Hills. Only, there isn't the land in Amman like in Beverly Hills.. BIG houses, tho.
Our guide was quick to tell us not to lump Jordan in with the other Middle East countries like Syria and Lebanon. They are pleased with the peace treaty with Israel, because they are getting lots of tourists and Israel is supporting their economy. Most of the tourists are going to Petra...but people are also going to the hotsprings of Hamat Main and the Wadi Rum desert.

Ancient history thrives in Jordan with the Roman city of Jerash, which was built by Hadrian and looks today much like what it must have looked then. It is much better than the ruins of Pompeii It is truly one of the best preserved and most original Roman city in the Middle East..so I am told.
We then went to the city of Ajloun, which houses the defensive Mamluk Castle on the mountain.
Jordan was ruled by the Romans, the Mamluks and the Crusaders...and then the Turks. All of these civilizations are built on top of the other...but many fabulous spots remain.
In the town of Maadaba, we saw the 6th century Byzantine map of the Holy Land on the floor of a church that is in perfect condition. Madaba was a Moabite city that was conquered by the tribes of Israel. ( trying so much to remember my Bible) It changed hands many times , flourished under Rome, survived the Persians and Muslims and then went into decline under the Mamluks. It was abandoned in the 16th C...later occupied again in the 19th C. We also went to Mt. Nevo where Moses brought the Children of Israel and looked across the Jordan Valley into the Land of Canaan....and was denied entry.
We floated in the Dead Sea...on the Jordanian side...only later to be on the Israeli side. And we saw the place where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.
All of your bible stories come rushing back into your memory...flooding the gateposts...making you wish you had studied more and skipped Sunday school less. However, at my age, I most likely wouldn't have remembered much more anyway, no matter how I had studied.
Each day, after 7 hours of touring, we would retreat back into the hotel, and try to put into some kind of perspective, what we had seen. It was all overwhelming. But we were getting a good sense of Jordan..and it was all very positive.
On the next day we drove south the the amazing Crusader Fortress of Kerak. There were 3 crusades...and these fortresses (the one at Shobuk as well) were destroyed and then rebuilt as each new group wandered in and needed a vantage point for protection
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We then headed to Petra, the Nabatean city that is one of the new 7 Wonders of the World and a major archaeological site. Many civilizations have lived in Petra, but before the Nabateans, it was nothing...just a small blimp on a trading map. But then, these incredible people built this magnificent city and made it the centre of the vast trading empire on the spice route. Rome annexed it in AD106, and then Christianity arrived. The Muslims came in the 7th C and the Crusaders (again) came thru in the 12th. Then Petra lay abandoned until 1812, when it was rediscoved by a swiss explorer, Ludwig Burckhardt. Hard to imagine that this city of tombs and temples with facades carved into pink sandstone lay abandoned...but it did. You could easily spend days exploring this place..and find something new every day.

We arrived in the upper city of Petra at about 2 and checked into the Movenpick hotel. I had heard that there was a "light" show in Petra at night, and thought it would be fun. Dick and I had been to sound and light shows in India and Egypt...so figured this would be amazing.
Little did we know that the walk down to Petra was 21/2 kilometers each way....and doing it in the dark is one of the craziest things we have ever done. The path was lit by votives in small paper bags. And you are climbing thru a river bed and then a split in the earth, which created caverns and rifts. I kept thinking "the end will justify the means"...but I was terrified that either one of us would take a header on the slippery rocks and have a catastrophe.
We finally got down to the Treasury Building in Petra (which I will explain later how it got its name) and there were rows of chairs set up and hundreds of bags with votives. There was a man playing a flute in front of the building...and that was all she wrote!!! BTW, if you remember the Harrison Ford "Last Crusader" movie...it was filmed right here, in front of this site. It was AMAZING...but not worth the climb down....nor the thought of the climb up.
We were exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel, and had a pizza at a little restaurant on the street.
Undaunted, our guide met us at the hotel at 9Am...ready for us to really explore Petra....so down we went again. Only this time, it was light out, and we were able to see what had merely scared us to death last night. This time we were just shocked at what we had done the night before. We walked down the access thru this deep ravine, which is called the Siq. You pass thru the Obelisk tomb and the Nabatean pavements, thru the water channels and the various niches. And then you come around a bend, and your eyes pop out of your head. Ahead of you is the Treasury Building....in all of her glory.
That is when you say "WOW".....Petra is AMAZING!!!!
Petra is comprised of the Monastery, which was a Nabatean temple..later to become a church; the royal tombs, the theatre , the street of facades and of course, the Treasury. The Treasury of the Pharoahs was the magical creation of a wizard who was supposed to have deposited a large treasure inside the building....hence the name "The Treasury". Never has anything been found there...but the name remains. It was the backdrop of the Indiana Jones "Last Crusader" movie...for those movie buffs who will remember the scenes there.
We walked to the end of the Roman city, and then began the SLOW ascent back up. Another few climbs like this, and we will be ready to tackle a 10 incline on the treadmill!! Many people spend the day down in this incredible ediface. Was it a city...or just tombs? Did people flourish here...or was it so unimportant that it could lay undiscovered for 2000 years? No answers...just questions.
On our last day in Jordan, we drove south to the spectacular Wadi Rum desert. We took a jeep ride thru the dunes and saw many fabulous mountain formations. We climbed up one to see some lovely cave drawings. And we went to a bedouin village and visited for a while. By then it was time to leave, as we had to be at the Arava Border control crossing into Israel in time to catch our plane to Tel Aviv.
The crossing was simple...just a few dinar to leave...walked thru "no-man's land" and crossed into Israel. After security, we got into a taxi to the commuter airport in Eilat to catch our plane. Our head is filled with the sites of Jordan....and we are off to the next part of our historical adventure. So many facts....so many civilizations....so much to absorb. But we are loving all of it, and look forward to the next chapter.