Holy Land and Egypt

Africa » Egypt
February 25th 2016

Published: February 27th 2016

Edit Blog Post

rferrebee

IMG_7508

Dead Sea

We left Jerusalem bright and early. Our usual routine one this trip is up by 6:30, breakfast at 7:00 board bus by 8-8:30. Today we were up at 5:30, breakfast at 6:00, bus pulled out by 7:10. This was going to be a long day. It took 5 hours driving time to get to the border of Egypt. We drove down by the Dead Sea and then off in the desert of Israel. There weren't many places to stop. We did however stop at a kibbutz that was a dairy farm and got to have ice cream. It was very good. I had Dulce De Leche, Ferrero Rocher, and Time Out candy bar.....all very good. It was interesting because we were able to shop in a small grocery store and have sandwiches made. Typically we have eaten at our hotel.....buffet style for every meal or at a restaurant selected by our guide, again buffet style. So this was a treat.

On our journey we passed Masada and could see it off in the distance. I had the opportunity to visit there on my last trip to the Holy Land. We also saw the place that was Sodom and Gomorrah. This

IMG_7515

is where Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of Salt. There is a large rock there that symbolizes that event. We also stopped at Eilat where the Eilat stone is mined. This stone is beautiful and is only found in Israel.

Once we got to the border we had no trouble getting out of Israel but we had some trouble getting into Egypt. It wasn't because of us but because of several Israelis' He and Bill Dawson knew one another from an earlier trip so it was a homecoming for them. We also had an armed guard and a police escort through the desert.

St. Catherine's Monastery in Egypt was our ultimate destination but sadly we arrived after dark and it was too late to go into the monastery. We did get to see the outside which included the well where Moses met Zipporah(Exodus 2) and the site of the burning bush (Exodus 3). St. Catherine's is out in the middle of nowhere...no internet, no way to contact anyone. I did call Terry but didn't chance calling anyone else because I had no idea what it would cost. It certainly wasn't the fanciest hotel but it was