Blogs from Masada, South District, Israel, Middle East

The reason I got up so early this morning was that today is a day for rejuvenation and learning! I booked a tour to visit Masada and the Dead Sea. Visiting the lowest point on Earth at 1400 feet below sea level was worth it on so many levels (pun intended). The bus picked us up at 7:30, and then ran through Jerusalem to pick up a few more people, before heading towards the Jordanian border and the Dead Sea. On the bus ride, I met a great group of people: 2 other Vermonters, a Houstonian, 2 Canadians, and a couple Californians. I spent the day bouncing between them for conversation and entertainment. First we stopped at a private beach on the north shore of the Dead Sea where we dropped off a few people that ... read more

We were out of the hotel at 7:30 this morning and off retracing part of our route from yesterday. Nadav did some teaching about the status of different Arabs in Israel - Israelis, West Bank, and the special status for East Jerusalem. Then as we headed down along the Dead Sea he taught about the geology and environment, especially about the reasons the water level in northern Dead Sea is getting lower by 5 feet (maybe it was meters?) a year. Where the sea is shallow, that can mean losing dozens of meters of shoreline. This has been clear on all my trips to Israel, as the locations in norther Dead Sea from which one can go "swim" in the water add more paved road and trams down to reach the water from the changing rooms ... read more

We started our trip today with Matt, Nikki, Daniel, Ralph and Dorothy. We stopped at Qumran to see where the Dead Sea scrolls had been found in 1947. Can I say Ho Hum? As we left the best part of our trip was about to begin. We were on our way to Masada. This was one of the reasons I had wanted to take this cruise. Masada is a U.N.E.S.C.O. World Heritage site. Driving alongside the Dead Sea we saw beautiful views around every turn to our left. The colors were turquoise and white from the salt. To our right were rolling hills. All of a sudden, the hills flattened out and we was what looked like a ship in the desert. It was Masada and even at a distance you could tell it was enormous. ... read more

I must first mention this evening that I am sitting in my top floor hotel room in Old Town Jerusalem, beverage in hand. The Sabbath is in full effect here, as it is every Friday night at sundown, which means that the town almost falls silent. Earlier a large group of us congregated up on the roof as fireworks echoed around us, but the lack of crowd noise and the background noise of cars once per week is such a contrast to the norm. But something must be open a few floors beneath me on the street, as I can still hear the din of a crowd socializing. Saxophone, of all things, wafts up through my open window. Jerusalem never seems to disappoint or fail to surprise. The final day of our trip down south was ... read more

MASADA AND THE DEAD SEA Regent offered all of the world cruisers an extensive tour of Israel with an overnight in Jerusalem. We had a choice of a tour with a Christian focus or a Jewish focus. We opted for the Jewish tour because of the places that we would see and especially because we would be able to swim in the Dead Sea. We started our two day exploration of Israel early on a sunny morning. Our guide, an Israeli woman named Nurit which means ”Buttercup" in Hebrew, would be sharing her knowledge and love of her homeland. As we drove across Israel we were astonished by the agriculture. This country is the world’s leader in developing irrigation and water conservation techniques thereby turning desert wasteland into a bountiful breadbasket. Fruit trees, tomatoes, melons, vineyards, ... read more