Getting to the ancient port city of Caesarea was not easy– first of all it was hard to make it clear where we wanted to go as we were saying ‘Seh-zeh-ree-ah’ but the locals pronounce it ‘Qasaria’ with a hard c. I had to write it down to be understood! After switching trains correctly we arrived at the nearest train station to the ancient site and headed for the bus stop, only to discover that the bus left about two hours later … approximately […]
Herod
Jerusalem: A walk through 4000+ years of history
Jerusalem is one of the most deeply contested cities on earth and hasn’t done a great job of living up to its name, meaning ‘City of Peace’. In its long history it has been attacked 52 times, captured and recaptured 44 times, besieged 23 times and destroyed twice (source). Although it is no longer physically divided – with the walls and barbed wire coming down in 1967, boundaries and divisions still exist among its people. How its future will play out with two very […]
Dead Sea, Masada & En Gedi
Our day trip from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea with stops at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Masada and the En Gedi National Park was simply brilliant! The bus took us from the busy city of Jerusalem through the tunnel under the Mount of Olives and suddenly into the Judean desert. We dropped quickly in altitude down to 423m below sea level at the Dead Sea. But before floating in the famous salty waters we had some exploring to do. We headed south […]