Touring Israel: Part 2 of 2

Most cities of Israel have that special postcard look from afar.

The photo above would make a good jigsaw puzzle, eh? 

Up close, however, there's a tremendous amount of trash (Israel and Jordan) which was very disheartening. Their government officials need to get serious about this problem.

The beast (above photo) and the beauty (below photo, Vicki near Masada).

With exception of the photo above of my sister Vicki which I took with her camera, Vicki took all the photos in my posts about Israel and Jordan (coming up next).

We traveled with a small group for the month of October 2018. 

     We were an intimate small group of travelers; making life-long friends with most of them. Eating together at charming boutique restaurants was always delightful. In fact, that guy wearing a black tee-shirt (our tour guide Dan Brubaker) is our eighth cousin! Small world . . . 

We made a quick visit to the Mount Hermon look-out . . . where the Israeli Army congregated.

      And a quick visit to the Golan Heights where the boundary wars took place (photo above shows bunkers) with Syria in 1967. That area is still filled with tension.

A quick visit to ruins of an old Roman corridor . . . 

. . . below painting shows what it looked like two-thousand years ago, a corridor lined with retailers.

     Even today, streets and alleys of Middle Eastern villages and cities resemble those same corridors (without the columns) of two-thousand years ago. Millions of independently-owned trinket, repair and craft shops and restaurants line streets and alleys almost everywhere we went in both Israel and Jordan.

     After leaving Jerusalem we crossed into Palestine which is technically not a country for Muslims but is viewed as such. Depending on your religion, it could be called an Israeli-occupied prison for Muslims (map above shows dotted line of Palestine’s technical border, but click here for better explanation of its complex border). 

     While we were in the Palestine areas, we visited with a Palestinian family at their home. Skirmishes on an ongoing basis have cast a pall over any possible resolutions.

   

     Being in Palestine reminded me of the movie “Casablanca” where everyone is trying to escape to America while enduring a transient life in a German-occupied port city with a cynicism and sarcasm to help humor the dismal situations. The Walled-Off Hotel captures this cynicism and sarcasm perfectly. Welcome oh weary traveler . . .

The hotel is a historic building that was remodeled and decorated (funded by Banksy the anonymous Britain-based street artist/activist, you may recall last year’s Sotheby’s million dollar Banksy artwork that mysteriously deteriorated/collapsed into shattered pieces). We stayed at this wonderfully funny hotel for one night.

Yes, those are Michelangelo's angels with oxygen masks. The piano played itself; very nice touch. And to get to our room upstairs, we’re given a magic key to open the bookshelves (on left of photo above). Loved it! The bookshelves swung to the side; on the other side a stairway to the second and third floor rooms (no elevators).

The hotel is the epitome of cynicism in Palestine. The cat and birdcage are at the front desk.

In the dining room, instead of deer trophies on the wall, there are surveillance camera trophies. And instead of mounted antique rifles, there are sling-shots.

Meals are served with 1930s dinnerware.

The hotel lobby is straight out of a 1930ish hotel, but with a sarcastic decorating touch. See the painting on the wall, "Portrait of Race Horse"? 

     This is our bathroom (above). It’s perfectly normal to ask another guest to see their room. One lady in the hallway asked to see our room because each room is a work of art. The hotel also has several rooms of artwork on display.

The Palestinian wall outside the hotel has been decorated by street artists for several decades. There are shops that will help you design and paint a section of the wall.

These two are my favorites; a flower-bouquet thrower instead of a grenade thrower, and the Middle Eastern staple, hummus. 

     But violence can erupt anytime anywhere because of what the wall represents. According to stories told by our various guides, each side eggs each other on . . . little skirmishes happen everyday between kids, adults, civilians, military personnel. No one is “right” and no one is “wrong.” The wall sort of invites everyone to escalate the skirmishes and egg each other on.

So what does the world make of all this? I can only speak for myself. I’m sure glad Jefferson, Washington and the other writers of our USA Constitution separated the church and the state back in 1787 with a magnanimous view of religion.

 One morning we took a gondola ride.

The scenery changes dramatically as we get closer to the Dead Sea.

The Dead Sea is on the border between Israel and Jordan. We stayed at a beautiful oasis along the Dead Sea, the Ein Gedi. Our view (below photo) near our room was magnificent.

     Yes it’s true about the Dead Sea, it’s impossible to drown. We were all bobbing like fishing bobbers; more of our skin surface was out of the water than in the water. It’s impossible (and potentially dangerous due to salt water in the mouth/eyes/nose) to swim in the Dead Sea. In fact, it’s so salty, men and women are advised not to shave for several days to avoid stinging pains. Sorry, no photos, not a good place to take a camera. Vicki and I did the whole nine-yards, we slapped black mud on ourselves, waited 15 minutes, then rinsed off. Once in a lifetime memorable experience!

     Before crossing the border to Jordan we visited Beersheba, which is an interesting cultural-mix of Jews who immigrated here during the Twentieth Century. We visited an archeological site . . .

. . . and the Museum of Bedouin Culture. Lunch was prepared for us by a Bedouin tribe and we heard their side of the story which is an ongoing conflict in Israel. Bedouins want to be free to move with their yurts and herd of goats and sheep (like our Native Americans from centuries ago) but Israel wants to move them permanently to a neighborhood. Their ideologies of life are 180 degrees opposite! I suspect they'll never see eye to eye.

Coming up next, Jordan.