Plan B... Petra and Jerusalem!

Well... our plan to visit Israel didn't work out quite as we hoped. We had spent the week prior to our trip worrying that it would be canceled due to the security situation but what kept us from going when we planned turned out to be something completely different. We learned that when it comes to visiting the Holy land one must have lots of patience! Long story short (because I know a few of you think I write too much, hahaha :))) Love you Janners!) Joe and Vicki (J’s parents) arrived late Tues. evening and we woke them early the next day to head for our weeklong trip to Israel. They were quite the troopers; I know they were going on little sleep having spent the previous night in the Heathrow airport! We drove to the first border, which is less than an hour away only to find that we were not allowed to bring cars across the border because the Israeli customs office was on strike. We were told that we could bring our car across another border however, so after an hour spent at the first border we hopped in the car for the two-hour drive north to a different border. We double checked at the Jordanian side and learned that because we were driving a diplomatic vehicle we would be allowed to drive into Israel- great, or so we thought! After passing thru the Jordanian side and then into Israel (another hour's worth of time) we were told that the strike affected diplomatic vehicles as well so we couldn't continue after all. While we waited to see if the Embassy could pull any strings to help us get across, there was a bomb scare at the border stop and everyone had to wait in a small building where we were told not to leave. Picture many warm and weary travelers (including us by this point) and not a lot of space. Thankfully K decided to take a nap on Opa’s lap and the hour wait wasn't as bad as it could of have been (we weren’t even allowed to grab her diaper bag). Later, we were told that our only choice was to wait for the strike to end (which they said could happen anytime within the next hour or next week) so having no choice, we headed back home. All in all, a good 10 hours wasted! At least Joe and Vicki got to take the "scenic" tour home - the scenic tour had some really beautiful sites and then some not-so-beautiful sites. Like when we passed thru a town with a shop that had a decapitated cows head hanging outside of it.
We decided to call first before heading to the border the next day and we learned that it was still closed to cars indefinitely so this lead us to Plan B! We took Joe and Vicki to Jerash one day since they have the largest amount of Roman ruins in the Middle East. We also took them on a city tour of downtown Amman and they enjoyed trying the local food. Then we decided to all head down to Petra since we hadn't been there yet and were getting tired of people asking us, ha! We had a great visit, spent two nights and a full day at Petra. The ride there took 6 hours, another scenic route with a stop at a crusaders castle in Karak. Petra itself was awesome; a long beautiful walk thru the "Siq" to enter and then it is an amazing site. We took LOTS of photos so you can see for yourself. Of course, we love to play dress up so J and his dad decided to be Bedouin men and Vicki and I were Indiana Jones. The most exciting thing we did was ride the donkey up to the Monastery, which is a steep climb to the top of a mountain. And yes, K was on J's back the entire time! Our plan was to take the donkeys back down but poor K became terrified when she was riding down the steep hill (can't blame her!) so J and I walked down with her. The ride back home from Petra only took 2 1/2 hours because we took the desert road, which is 10 times more boring than driving thru Nevada let me tell you!
The day after we got back from Petra, we headed back to the Israeli border (the strike finally ended 6 days later!) Thankfully, we got across the border with no drama and arrived in Jerusalem in time for lunch. Since we only had a few days to spend in Israel we decided to focus on the old city in Jerusalem and the Sea of Galilee area. The first day in Jerusalem, we visited the Wailing Wall (my favorite part of the trip!) and the room of the Last Supper (supposedly). The next day we saw the Mount of Olives (basically a large cemetery with more than 150,000 people buried there) and the Garden of Gethsemane. We also walked the Via Dolorosa, which was neat, except for the fact that it was Holy Week and there were thousands of other visitors who shared our plans. The Church of the Holy Sepulachre (the last five Stations of the Cross) was jam packed with people that unfortunately took away a lot of the spiritual ambiance if you ask me. We also went up to the Temple Mount (this is only open for visitors a few hours a day if you’re lucky) and got a close up view of the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque but we couldn’t go inside the Mosques because we’re not Muslim. The Old City is definitely an experience! I loved the array of people from all walks of life, Palestinians, Jews (the Hasidic ones make for such fascinating images) and Christians from all over the world (including several African tour groups). A true rainbow of people all gathering in one sacred place. The security situation felt normal for the most part, the only thing that stood out was seeing the plain-clothed bodyguards walking around with very large guns and of course, many IDF (Israeli Defense Force) soldiers.
The next day we drove north, along the West Bank where we would occasionally see the separation wall, thru Nazareth (a large, mostly Arab city that felt like Amman to me), Cana (home of my favorite miracle, ha!) and finally to Tiberias and around the Sea of Galilee. The Sea itself was beautiful and surrounded by greenery, since moving to such a brown place I really appreciate green. Unlike Nazareth and Cana, it was what you would imagine in Biblical times. Also, a very peaceful place given that it’s not far from the border of both Lebanon and Syria. This trip was just a small taste of the area for me so I’m going to refrain from my usual commentary ; ) until I go back and spend more time there. The only two real observations I came home with was that there were more Arabs there then I expected (we stayed in East Jerusalem which has a large Arab population ) this left me frequently feeling like I was still in Jordan given the surrounding people, language, food etc. I guess I expected it to feel more “Jewish”- I’ll have to wait until Tel Aviv for that feeling I suppose. Also, the people were not as warm / friendly as they have been in other places. I had been told to expect this from friends who have visited and I came away feeling that people were just a little edgier or more short-tempered than anywhere I remember (other than maybe Russia). Not that I could blame them in any way! Other than that, the trip left me with a mind full of questions and I cannot wait to go back and spend more time in this fascinating country. I just hope the security situation improves; we definitely left feeling like the area could set off again at any moment. The whole Palestinian/Israeli conflict gave us hours of conversation (we love to pretend that we have all the answers, ha!) and a feeling that there is just so much more to learn in order to really understand this boiling pot region.