Tourists R Us

I finally started feeling better and since we have the week off - it was time to start seeing more of the country! We took a tour of the Knesset (parliament house) on Sunday; here's a photo of the large menorah in front of Knesset.


On Monday we took a day-long tour which took us to Masada and the Dead Sea (including the Ein Gedi Spa and their famous mud baths). It was a fantastic day and we had a lot of fun.

We were picked up in Jerusalem by a small tour bus that was totally filled with people. Our fellow tourists were Americans, Brazilians, Argentinians, and Brits. The tour guide provided an ongoing monologue during the tour, speaking both in English and Spanish. She pointed out interesting sites along the way, including the caves at Qumran.

Our Cable Car

We first stopped at Masada and took the cable car up to the site. While at the site we had a great, thorough tour and explored most of the mountain and that which has been discovered and recreated.

Towers and Rooms at Masada

We cable-car-ed back down and headed for the Ein Gedi Spa, where we had two hours to have lunch and hang out. The weather was nice yesterday but not hot enough to make us want to dive right into the pools at Ein Gedi. We had our lunch and then suited up for the mud bath.

The Dead Sea, from Masada

The black mud of the Dead Sea is contained in two large vats and basically, you walk up to the vat and start smearing mud all over yourself until you cover everything you want to. Then, you let the mud dry for 15-20 minutes (thus there are lots of people standing around, caked with mud) and then rinse it off in Dead Sea water (which smells like sulfur and is more than 10 times saltier than the ocean.) You have to keep your mouth and eyes closed during the rinsing process lest too much nasty water be absorbed.

Salt, salt, and more salt on the beach.

After rinsing, we went to go float in the Dead Sea. We were really surprised by the buoyancy. It was difficult to maneuver in the water because your feet would always want to float up to the surface. We floated for a while and then went back to the spa and changed. Jen was smart enough to take a second shower in the locker room where as I only rinsed once in fresh water. I was sticky, smelly, and salty the whole way home.

Once I got home, I took another shower in the evening and even after my shower this morning, my hands still smell like the Dead Sea. We're still planning more travels over the next few days although Jen might be coming down with something...