I was too tired and sun-sick to blog last night. We visited Masada yesterday. It was an incredible experience. Masada was King Herod's (the Great) "winter" palace. Masada is within sight of the Dead Sea and the temperature yesterday was over 100 degrees! It's high up on a desert hill - we took a tram car to get to the palace ruins. I've attached a few photos of the view from Masada. One photo is of an area Mark & I walked down to. It had 162 steps to walk each way. Quite the work out! But definitely worth every step! The photo shows me (in my hat again! :) at the top of the steps!

After the heat of Masada, we went to the Dead Sea. Although it is frightening at times to see what Europeans wear to the beach, the water was warm and refreshing. We were told to go in and lay back into the water - not to go in head first. Good advise. The salty water is so buoyant that I very quickly flipped from my back over to my stomach, got a few drops of that salty water in my mouth and doggy paddled back to shore. That was it for me! The rest of the group continued to enjoy the water and I watched and dried from shore. What a great place to people watch!

It was a long ride back to the hotel. And the traffic got heavier as we neared Jerusalem. Passing through Bethelehem, we saw several sheep herders and a few people riding donkeys to their own destinations. On the way to Masada we saw several dressed camels on the side of the road. we're not sure if these were country taxis or tourist traps! The one in this photo was a tourist trap at a gas station!

The people in this area are a very passionate people. Yelling at just about anything. Beeping horns are the norm. Police run their blue lights all the time, just to let you know they are there (and there are many). I'm not sure how you would know if you were being pulled over!

Today we leave Jerusalem for Eilat. It's a 4 hour drive, and we'll be stopping at a few points of interest. Tomorrow we go to Petra! Another HOT, but exciting, day!