Jerusalem and Greetings from Jordan

Our Middle East trip has almost ended. It’s bee a great tour, thank you Spiekerman Travel. It was a warm day but now at 7 p.m. it is 75 degrees and so pleasant. I’m sitting on a veranda listening to the call to prayer and watching some fireworks. Anne is recovering from a real tough walk,, but more about that a little later.

Sunday 10/9: We saw more of Jerusalem. The cemeteries are outside the city walls. The Arab cemetery was next to the wall. On the other side of the valley was the Mount of Olives, the Jewish cemetery. At the foot of the Mount of Olives is Gethsemane. We walked to a site commonly believed to be the site of the Last Supper outside the city gate. We said farewell to our guide Ettie as we drove to Bethlehem where we met our city guide George, an Arab Christian. He told us that 100 years ago, there were more Christian than Muslim Arabs in Bethlehem but the population has changed. We visited the supposed site of Jesus' birth. No one knows with certainty where these events took place. We visited the church built above the site, which is where Midnight Mass is televised around the world each Christmas Eve. It was decorated with flowers everywhere for a wedding a little later in the day. Inside a group of Koreans were saying the rosary (I'm assuming because of the cadence). It's amazing to see so many Christian Asians and Indians here. Then we said goodbye to George and returned to our nice hotel in Jerusalem. Anne and I both saw those 3 limos again with the heavy police escorts. I hadn't noticed in the morning, but at least out of the last police car, there were some kind of rifles sticking out of all the windows. There are incidents often; they all don't make the American news reports.

Monday 10/10: Hello again to Anneke. Her toe healed a bit, and she took us past the Knisset, the parliament building. We went on to Yad Vashem, the heart-breaking Holocaust Museum. We also walked through the Children's Memorial, which is hauntingly stunning. We said our final goodbye to Anneke.

Tuesday 10/11: Today is the start of Yom Kippur, the most reverent time in the Jewish year. Another beautiful morning. We took an early drive to the Allenby Bridge for our tour in Jordan. It's not unusual to see Beduoin with his herds, and we see a number of them this morning. There was a long wait to cross the bridge, and it was important to get across it because they were closing it ‪at 9 a.m. because of the holiday. Farewell to our driver Achmed. We enjoyed his smile and his easy-going way. We made our convoluted way through immigration and customs and met our driver Ziad and guide Hassan. Here we are in Jordan with another alphabet, unable to read the language. But the Arabic is more familiar to us than the Hebrew was, thanks to Dearborn and our Middle Eastern restaurants. Hassan thanks us several times for coming to Jordan. Tourism is very important to this country, and tourism is down even though it's a stable kingdom. The early afternoon is hot. We traveled to a site where St. John baptized Jesus. Yes, we saw the baptismal sites in Israel, who is to say which it was. Pope John Paul I I visited this site, so... And Hassan says THIS is THE place. Throughout Israel we saw Christian and Orthodox churches, and we are still seeing them in Jordan, predominately Greek Orthodox. I meant to mention that even young construction workers welcome us to Jordan. Come Visit! But be sure to visit while you're young and in good shape. We drive on to Jerash , an ancient Roman city. Google it, hopefully there are some great pics. What a place! Built between the mid 1st thru 2nd centuries, it is so impressive. Hadrian's arch, a hippodrome, temples, a huge open square, tall columns, just awesome. Around 300 C.E., the area was damaged by an earthquake. Our hotel was located in Amman (a.k.a. Philadelphia). Nice hotel, very nice salmon dinner. No, salmon is not a local fish -- but it was on the menu. We had a very small balcony off our room. The call to prayer is heard throughout the day.

Wednesday 10/12: The CRNA'S visited a large hospital in Amman, and we went along for the ride. Then we went to Madaba to see the ancient mosaic floor in the Greek Orthodox church. The art of mosaic is still practiced and taught here. Off we went to Mount Nebo where Moses died. But Hassan believes Moses was on an adjacent mountain range due to its strategic location. We see many Beduoin herds men. Our night is spent at the Petra Guest House. We've seen this often in our travels: there is always an arrow pointing toward Mecca in our hotel room. Sometimes it's on the ceiling, on a tabletop, or in a drawer. Our hotel has a lively village around it.

Thursday 10/13: We have learned this is the year 1438 in the Arabic calendar. Hassan is very knowledgeable and has a great sense of humor. He knows so much about life in the USA. His brother lives in North Carolina. But he would like to return again to Paris, a city he loves. He does speak it fluently. Today we walked through Petra. What an incredible experience. Remember ‪Raiders of the Lost Ark? But Petra is so much more, it's awesome. The Nabateyans carved this sandstone for 13 centuries. Water, wind erosion and earthquakes have left their mark, but seeing it still leaves you with your mouth hanging open or with a huge smile on your face. You walk for hours into the canyon, going downhill (just remember that whatever goes down has to be walked back uphill). Your eyes go wild trying get to see all the carved spots. Most are just huge, some more decorated than others; some vibrant natural colors and patterns show. But you have to always watch your step due to uneven surfaces and donkey/horse/camel poop. There are lots of trinket sellers and offers for donkey-, horse- and camel rides. We walked for 3 hours with Hassan telling us about many of the buildings, passing the Treasury, the Theatre, the Great Temple and along the Colonnade Street. We had a lunch break, and then Anne and 3 other younger people decided to walk another 600-800 steps up to the Monastery. The rest of started to trek back through The Siq to the hotel except now we were doing it in hot sun. There were plenty of rides for sale, but most of us toughed it out. Several hours later our hero returned to the room, now with charlie horses in her thigh and blisters on her toes. One of the gals tracked the total steps/elevation, but I didn't write it down. My walk was tough enough; Anne's strong, we all know. It's now ‪9 p.m. We've had dinner, and I'm sitting on a patio outside enjoying the cool breeze and the sounds from a village festival, watching some fireworks. Anne is probably sound asleep in the room.

Tomorrow we go to Little Petra and then head back to Amman. Sadly the tour is ending, we will all head to the airport ‪Friday around midnight for our early ‪Saturday morning flights home. Anne will visit her cousins in Poland, and I had better be heading to a snowless Osturna to spend more time with Thom and Perun. The tour of Israel and Jordan has been an experience we won't forget. (Pictures from Jordan in next blog post)

View of the walled city of Jerusalem