Our first two nights were spent at The Movenpick Spa and Resort on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. Movenpick is a Swiss based company and I heard it means mountain peak, but I’m not sure if that’s true. The place is very nice and in this part of the world, the Arab people are known for their hospitality. The buffet meals rival any of the great ones I’ve experienced with my kids in Mexico.
This is the patio area just outside my room and below a flavor of the grounds. We could not have asked for a nicer place to start our trip off right. At night, across the Dead Sea from us, are the lights of Jericho, and higher and further on in the Judean hills, Jerusalem.
Ok, here’s my disclaimer. I’m not at all thinking that these comments are earth shaking, brow raising, or even useful. They are just the thoughts that were running around in my head as we made our way from the airport in Tel Aviv into Jordan.
If the 13 hours in the air didn’t do it, I could tell right away that I was a long way from home, just from the airplanes. With the exception of our own Air Canada plane, I didn’t see one plane on the Tel Aviv tarmac that was familiar to me. When I’m at the airport in Guatemala for example, the planes I see on the tarmac there make it look like any of the smaller airports in the US.
Hey, I warned you it wasn’t going to be earth shaking.
On the bus ride from the airport to the Jordanian border we skirted Jerusalem making our way through the Judean Hills. This area is not mountainous, but dramatically hilly. The road runs between the city and the Mount of Olives. A familiar Biblical site, I was surprised how big the Mount of Olives is. The Gospel accounts tell us that Jesus went to the Mount of Olives numerous times, and if he made his way out of the Old City to the top of the mount, that would have been quite a hike.
I was pleasantly surprised at seeing many things that linked to the images in my head of familiar Bible stories. Like the houses. The building techniques have changed for sure, but the buildings are all still constructed of stone and mortar. Being a land of few trees, it was true then and is still true today.
Scattered in the lower hillsides are vineyards and orchards of olive trees. And there are shepherds.
Sheep, goats, and camels, Biblical critters for sure, still dot the hillsides. As we made our way from Israel into the Palestinian West Bank, the Bedouin culture is still in evidence. The Bedouins no longer live in tent villages. Today they live in little clusters of shacks, but the sheep and goat herds are still key to their existence.
I was surprised at how few guns, and how little military and armed security were in evidence. I expected to see a lot, but instead, not so much. It’s all relative of course, but I just thought there would be a lot more. Sadly, the image I had in my head was that the whole region of the historic Holy Land was like one giant police state. I think there is a lesson in there somewhere.
The Dead Sea is the lowest spot on our planet. Jericho is the lowest city. The drop out of the Judean Hills to the Dead Sea is abrupt. In somewhere around twenty miles the descent is from 2400 feet above sea level, to 1400 feet below sea level. The landscape and buildings become more spartan as one leaves Jerusalem for the countryside. The transformation from hill to valley reminds me of the Badlands in South Dakota, a barren, rocky terrain, but completely without colors.
Then suddenly the border, and the guns, boots, and berets. Now the last thing in the world I want you to think is that things didn’t feel friendly. On the contrary, everyone we’ve encountered has been very nice. But remember spartan?
Here’s the Visitor Center and Department of Tourism Office. Friendly people doing silly repetitive rules, but without an inviting headquarters.
And a little park next door with barbed wire preventing anyone from just strolling over.
It’s been a long two days. I’m punchy and crashing, so I’m going to stop. But I’m well (and hope you all are too), and happy to be embarking on this experience.
This is just a short preface piece to give some context to the posts I’ll add over the next 10 days or so.
Today, actually yesterday, I began a pilgrimage trip to Israel and Jordan. The Holy Land, until last year, wasn’t really on my radar. But then, while on a retreat last year, a group of friends were all planning on going on this pilgrimage together. The tour was being led by their pastor and they began to “sell” me on joining in. Which I’m very happy to report, I did.
Until now our group has been making it’s way from MSP to Toronto, Toronto to Tel Aviv, and then a bus ride over to the Jordanian border to our first hotel, which is really a resort on the east bank of the Dead Sea. The part of getting here I least looked forward to was the ten hour flight from Toronto to Tel Aviv. It turned out to be not so bad when compared to my expectations. It helps when you can kill the first 6 hours with dinner and two movies.
So, I’m here/we’re here, and I’m looking forward to getting back to some photography and writing.
