We docked at Port Ashdad and after breakfast we were called to be checked out
by the Israeli customs before leaving the ship. These are no nonsense ladies carrying
large guns, they come aboard ship and requisition a room to check all the
passengers. The visa for Israel is stamped on a separate piece of paper as we
travel to Turkey next.
After we had the ok we boarded the coach for the hour and a half trip to
Masada. Our guide for the day David said there had been a flash flood a couple of
days ago, this area of the desert was covered in flowers and grasses, it was so
pretty.
Masada is on top of a mountain so we travelled up by cable car, with a bit
of lurching and wobbling. They don't recommend climbing up the
Snake Path unless you start at around 4.30am due to the heat. However we had to
walk up the last 100 steps from the cable car to the summit. King Herod built
Masada to escape from the Romans, and it took them three years to build a
ramp up here to batter the gates down. When they eventually got into Masada all
the Jews had committed suicide, rather than become slaves.
There was a desert haze today so we couldn't see much from the summit, usually you can see right across the Dead Sea all the way to Jordan. King
Herod's temple is simply built and very lovely. His bath is huge, the servants
had to carry the water halfway up the mountain from their water cisterns to fill
it. His sauna is something else, it has a domed ceiling and a false wooden floor
held in place by stone column supports underneath. Fires are lit below these and
as they warm the room steam forms. As the steam rises to the ceiling it turns
back into water again and runs from the ceiling down the walls,
where benches surround the walls allowing you to sit underneath for a shower.
How about that for technology? The kitchen area was huge, with walk in
cold larders within the fortress walls, I can't believe they did so much that we
couldn't manage till several hundred's of years later, it is a fascinating
place. As we walked around a school trip of children of about 14 years old was
in front of us, I was horrified to see that they all carried guns over their
shoulders.
The coach then took us to the Dead Sea, where David told us we were 300 metres below sea
level - the lowest point on earth. We had lunch at the Spa Resort, then got changed and off into the Dead Sea, this was unbelievably cool, you
really do float, whatever you do. It's a brilliant feeling, I had trouble trying
to stand up, great fun. A man was lying in the sea with a knotted hankie on his
head reading a newspaper!
We went to the mud baths next, excellent fun covering each other in mud and behaving like kids! When we were both completely
black, we took photo's of
each other. Later we had a sulphur shower to rinse off the mud, this stings
like hell when it gets in your eyes, don't do that bit, keep the eyes shut! We
went back into the spa for a long soak in the hot sulphur bath - we floated
in that too, it's so relaxing. Andrew said that my face lit up in there, must
have been the glow from the sulphur. We meandered around the gift shop and bought a camel for Riz and
mud toiletries for my Mum. We travelled back through Jerusalem a lovely looking city, I would have
liked to spend some time here too, but
wouldn't have missed today's trip instead.
We were startled to see a statue of Elvis in his famous white suit appear
before us in the middle of the desert. Luckily this is a scheduled stop so we
could take a closer look. The Elvis Inn {a tribute to Elvis} sells Elvis memorabilia of every sort
imaginable. How cool is that? We had coffee and bought a book on The Holy City
for Fiona {on Jerusalem not Memphis!!} We reached the ship in time
for another four course dinner, and regaled Clive, Amy and co. with our days
events as they had all gone to different places, Jerusalem and Nazareth trips
both sounded really good too. A brandy at the Belvedere rounded off our day as
usual.
