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.