Israel - back in time

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Arrived in Israel yesterday - its like going back in time in someways but overlaid with a modern city. Hired a car and drove from the airport to Jerusalem (on the other side of the road) and managed to find the hotel somehow. It is like there are no road rules here or at least no one uses them! Chaos! The car horn is like another word in the Hebrew language and used more frequently.

The old city areas of Jerusalem are incredible, got lost in the old quarter that was home to Hassic Jews, all walking and totally ignoring the car - no wonder the road toll in Israel is so high. The old streets and houses could have been out of an old movie set in biblical times and we have not even visited the old walled city (used normally as a part of the city). That is for today. It was built thousands of years ago. We saw it from above yesterday and it is incredible - will post some photos in the next blog.

Beza continues to find shops to brouse but has enjoyed visiting the museums as well. Yesterday we visited the Israel Museum and saw parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the shrine of the book - pretty amazing. They also have a very large model of the old city as it was when the second temple was still here. Again will post some photos tommorrow.

The Holocost Museum here was very moving and was very welll designed as a memorial for those killed and interned. There is a room where they have every known name of those killed (still adding as names come to light). With over 6 million names you can imagine the scale of it much better when it is individualised like that.

Today we go to the old city (on foot this time). Tomorrow its off to Masada on the Dead Sea where we are staying at a spa resort for some relaxing days by the pool and a float on the highly salty water (300 feet below sea level).

Until the next blog

Steven and Bza

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