I don’t quite know how to compose this latest entry after so long away, when the last month has been such a potted mixture of lectures and essay deadlines and then ignoring them both to explore the country and those which border it. I’m also not sure know how to share in part what I have been seeing, without overloading you or even this post’s storage capacity with too many photos. But here goes, in a few words, definitely too many photos and apologies for both and my absence.
19/12 Akko (known by the Crusaders as the Port of Acre), a small fortressed city bordering the much missed sea:
complete with beautiful minarets, green against a grey sky:
which changed from grey to bright white sunshine, shifted by blustering winds:
Specs of rain which turned to specs of pink after the departing sun and before the inky blackness of night:
25/11 Jordan (almost). The next weekend saw us miss the border entry into Jordan by a mere 8 minutes and with it, our plans to camp in the star-studded desert surrounding the site of Petra. I had to include this photo as I took it on our way to the border, in blissful ignorance that it was closing before our very eyes for the entire weekend…
Eilat was where we spent our weekend instead and it proved to be a complete cultural anomaly in its shop filled, tax-free Las Vegas environment compared to the historical cities Israel is populated by. It’s saving grace was definitely its sea and sunsets:
and the similarly red light from the nearby canyons we walked the following morning:
26/11 The Dead Sea was only glimpsed from the coach window on the journey home, as we traversed land which turned from orange to yellow and sky from blue to pink:
4-5/12 Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee were a brilliant blur of road tripping, swimming and singing in the best company:
10/12 Bethlehem, only an hour from Jerusalem was not quite the donkey filled, ancient biblical city I over-simplistically imagined (see the trailer for lack of donkeys):
But it contained many historical beauties such as the Church of the Nativity:
The Grotto of our Lady, Mary:
And the promise of Christmas and the birth of baby Jesus, literally dangling from high:
In both the church and the streets:
And for now, back to Jerusalem.