Another Manic Monday

Today in Israel was our "day off" or optional tour day. Still, about 30 people chose to go to Masada and the Dead Sea. We were total tourists today, which is a special day since it was the Memorial Day where the country remembered fallen soldiers since its independence and present. See the half-mass flag on Masada above the Dead Sea. So Masada was a palatial refuge for Herod, whom I am learning was everywhere. It is a ginormous plateau in the middle of nowhere aka the Judean Desert. It dates back to at least AD 74. We took a tram up and down. The thing that amazes me at all these ruins was the engineering and construction involved so many years ago. At Masada, there were detailed bath houses, water cisterns and and churches. The mosaics are amazing too.

After our hike at Masada, it was off to float in the Dead Sea--set in the lowest dry land on Earth. It is so filled with minerals and it is so dense that people can set down and float--and since I'm writing this you know I didn't drown! It was a cool experience, and after floating we gave ourselves mud baths, and with all the good stuff in the mud, it was just like a spa treatment!

Those were our scheduled stops of the day. Next stop, roadside camel rides! I was the first in our group to mount up---just a little taller than a horse! I freaked out when he stood up and kneeled down. The ride was fun, but those beasts are stinky!

On our way back to Jersalem, we made an another unscheduled to climb a point that overlooks the Valley of the Shadow of Death (Psalm 23), and it was beautiful!

One thing that I'm still amazed by are the small communes along the road called bedwins. Families live in tiny shacks with their livestock. I tried to get some roadside shots.

Tomorrow is our final day, and we will fly home Tuesday night, get home Wednesday, so it might be a day or two before I finish telling my story.