North to South

 Many thanks and all the credit goes to Kelly Cole for allowing this blog entry to take place! Seriously.  I’m on a plane right now flying over the Atlantic Ocean between Frankfurt, Germany and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and I only had about 10% battery life left in my laptop.  Luckily, Kelly found an American style outlet hidden between our chairs that fits my laptop charger’s 3 prongs perfectly! My device is now happily charging away.

I left off on a bit of a cliff hanger in my last post!  Day 5 was probably the warmest day of the whole trip.  The day started off warmly during our tour of Nazareth.  However, despite our wonderful guide and the re-enactors who brought the site to life, I still struggled to imagine the village as it actually was 2,000 years ago when Jesus lived.  We walked through an area of the city of Nazareth which is essentially a large park now and we made stops at different sites where the guide explained how people of that day made a living and what life would have been like back then.  But if you looked up and around beyond the park, it was surrounded by taller, more modern buildings and it became harder and harder to believe that Jesus really walked there. It’s interesting to me that some of the places we visited during the trip immediately felt significant, others were not necessarily significant at face value but with a small push became that way, and still others simply did not have much of an impact at all.

Our next stop was another National Park called Bet She’an (or Beth Shan as it is listed in my tour book).  Today there are only ruins scattered across a valley, but historically the place was a huge Roman city. Above the uncovered ruins of the city stands a tall hill which visitors can climb to the top of (at the expense of climbing 169 steps!).  Making the climb is well worth it if you are “fleet of foot” as Jeremy says.  

The view of the uncovered city from above is amazing! If memory serves me right, part of the city lies within the hill and archaeologists have identified approximately 22 layers of civilization there but have decided not to uncover them yet.  As I walked amongst the part that IS uncovered I was amazed by the enormous size of the marble pillars, some of which are standing and some which fell to the ground during past earthquakes. At my best estimate, some of them are 4 feet in diameter.  

Another thing which impressed me was the advanced nature of their various construction projects.  For example, the Romans had figured out a way to make the floors of their bathhouses heated by building two layers of floor supported by little barrels and then channeling the heat from fires in between them!

After lunch we boarded the bus and drove to the Qumran Caves which is where the Dead Sea Scrolls were first discovered!  For those that don’t know, the Dead Sea Scrolls are ancient documents that were discovered in the 1940’s by some Bedouin shepherds.  They had happened upon the scrolls inside some pottery jars which were located inside caves by the Dead Sea.  When the scrolls were analyzed, it was discovered that they were early manuscripts of the Bible dated back way before any that had been found until then.  The fact that the words have not changed and the meaning has stayed the same for that many years is extremely significant! I know I’m not doing the explanation justice because there are entire books on the details of the find and so much speculation on the meaning of the scrolls but you get the idea… They are often referred to as the greatest archaeological find of the 20^th century.

Young Israeli Army soldier who boarded our bus
by the Dead Sea and instantly became famous!

From the caves at Qumran, we drove down the road and arrived at our hotel for the night.  But the day wasn’t done!  As soon as we got to our rooms we changed into bathing suits and spa robes and hiked out to the beach across the street.  We were ready to swim in the Dead Sea for the first time!!  With strong warnings from Jeremy floating in our minds reminding us of the safest way to swim in the sea, which if not heeded would surely end in death (!), we waded out to test the waters.  At first it felt normal.  But as we headed farther and farther out, I noticed the water beginning to become denser.  By the time I had waded in up to my waist the water was trying to float me already!  Being careful not to splash or place my face anywhere near the water, I lowered my body in up to my shoulders and was immediately picked up and laid flat on my back! Without holding my breath or even trying to float, I was lying on the surface of the water.  It felt so strange! But also quite incredible. 

When I got a bit braver I tried turning over onto my stomach and the water immediately flipped me over and pulled my legs up so that my knees were bent and my feet sticking straight up out of the water at a 90* angle!  The entire experience made it feel like I was flying.  The scenery around me was a mix of high rise hotels and palm trees with giant brown desert mountains filling in the background.  It was truly surreal.  I did NOT want to get out but it is advised that one not stay in longer than 30 minutes because the body is not used to being immersed in water which is 9 times saltier than the ocean!  I finished the night off with a quick dip in the hotel hot tub to take the chill off from the cold sea water. 

With that, I went to bed having checked an item off my bucket list that I didn’t know I had and with softer skin than I expected.