How do they all get along?

City walking tour with the guide presenting his uniquely Jewish take on the history of the city in terms of the religions and politics which was good in a way because we were aiming to get the palestinian version on a separate tour tomorrow.

Won't dwell on all the details of everything we saw. This is not exactly an exotic location lacking information and its history is littered everywhere so not for me to regurgitate (a polite way of saying I don't have the time to write all this stuff down!). In essence we meandered our way through the Christian and Muslim quarters through to the wailing/western wall and into the mount area. Some people it's clear are not keen on following instructions. No bibles or non Muslim texts means that your crucifixes etc are begging to be confiscated. Trying to be belligerent about it only makes one's situation more precarious as we saw in one of the other tour groups. On our side we only had to get some of the guys to dress with something longer than their board shorts on the day.

.

.

.

.

Jerusalem Orientation

Toured around the main religious areas with Sandeman free tours I believe. A very good way to get a taste of sites before deciding on what to do next.  Our American transplant Jewish guide had as much of an open, objective take on the goings on here as possible.
- Did the church of the sepulcher where to date there are still religious heads getting into fistfights over what belongs where.
- A brief walk along the way of the cross and out to the dome of the rock to look out onto the mount of olives which was going to be a more detailed tour tomorrow.

.

.

.

.

Hassle free in all the wrong places

Today was to collect my Egypt visa and for us to head out to Israel
First there was the car that refused to use his meter and then refused to agree to the usual
price that we had paid for taxis the past few days. That conversation didn't end well after
we stopped and got out.
The next  Driver was clueless and decided that stopping
for fuel on the other side of town was his prerogative on our time. Given the tight schedule
that we were on, it was best to sit back and hope that once the wrap around scenic tour was
over that we would make it to our destination. We had to tell him in the end where the
consulate was. Go figure!

Crossed the bridge and made it to Jerusalem without any trouble. Quite surprised
actually that it didn't take too long at the Allenby bridge crossing given the horror stories
of having every item searched and being questioned at length. For us it was most likely
just luck of the draw as we were a comparatively small group crossing and all appeared to be
more tourists than locals. The waiting time in the end was for the bus to fill up so we could
be on our way. Now to explore this holy city.


View Larger Map

Try and try again.

Early start in Petra for the 3 hour drive back to Amman
Went to apply for an Egyptian visa in the hopes of avoiding more detours on our trip by
having to head to different ports of entry. Having already done everything here, nothing
more to do in Amman except walk around and relax today and hit the juice stalls.

12 Grinding but rewarding hours of Petra

Indiana Jones scenes aside it's easy to see why people misunderstand how large this archaeological site is. It really should be done over the course of two days to really be immersed in it. If you are on a schedule and only have one day though, then a 12 hour march can also get the job done. Eat lots, drink more!

Al Karak and crusader chronology

The small museum here was interesting in that it gives a good timeline of the crusades and how the different religions interacted (or didn't)

The not-so-dead Dead Sea

Drove around to more of the ancient sites to where John the Baptist touched Jesus.

Moses' Mt Nebo

Baptism Font

Interesting border here to Israel

.

Made a trip down to the Dead Sea which was surprisingly richer in colour than was expected. Did the usual float and relax before the clouds rolled in.

Looking across to Jericho

Afterwards headed to the hot springs