We thought we would be exhausted from all the sight seeing and enjoy a couple of days at the Dead Sea however, full board at a hotel and sitting by the pool is not exactly relaxing for Pat and me. Fortunately we found an Irish pub to watch the soccer at night and I booked a trip to the River Jordan. A couple of travelers I met had said that it was very moving to go there. As you can see from the photographs, one can get into a gown and dip down into the cold cold water and at first sight I thought yes. However if you look closely at the angelic girl in the first photo she’s not lifting her hands to God but taking a selfie and the guy who is into it from the neck down is actually looking for his flip flop he lost.
The tour to the river indicated that we were going to go around the seven churches and one was called Mary the Eygptian. Well, I thought that might be where Mary Magdalen went after Jesus was crucified and as Pat has a wee fascination about her we both thought that that would be interesting. We went into the first church… nice enough with its own monks skeleton on show. (They didn’t know who the monk was when I asked). I often wonder were those bodies shown from the moment of internment or do they wait till its all nice and clean? I can’t imagine what it must look like for the first few decades. Of course 20 minutes was spent in the shop and I was starting to feel a bit restless.
We then went off to the river where a few of our tour changed to go in. I just dipped in from my knees as I’ve already touched the Holy door in Rome and don’t really need the full immersion. Of course Olga (You can guess where she’s from ) took a bit longer with her dip and then had to reapply all her make up in the changing rooms while the tour waited. It reminded me of why Pat and I did not take tours with many people so I was grateful for that thought at least. While we were waiting for Olga I asked the guide about the Church of Mary the Egyptian and he said there was no time to go to see it. I exclaimed that it indicates that we do see it and he shrugged his shoulders. We all had meet in another church shop and while I was wondering around I started feeling a little peeved and I indicated as such to the guide that I was not happy that we were not seeing another church. There was some shrugging of shoulders and nodding of heads and I got a wee bit incensed and indicated that the time spent in the shops might be better spent looking at the sights or ‘did it affect his commission?’ if we spent less time looking at what we came to see. I thought in the middle of the ‘discussion’ that I might be sounding like a typical loud American and then I remembered my accent isn’t quite the same so yes I let down Ireland as well with my rants. Of course, as is expected, I got my own way and the guide (who by now was very pissed off) agreed to take Pat and I up there. I was delighted however on our way up he said ‘Its only a couple of stones’. Jeez if he had of said that at the start I would never have begun my tirade! Pat and I agreed to ‘Ooh’and ‘Ahhh’ when we arrived and to take a lot of pics. and that it why I have them below. Oh and it can’t have been our Mary because the times didn’t match!
The church we thought it was is below.
The Dead Sea is lovely and amazing to float in. The hotel life guards were really sweet guiding one through the rocks. I didn’t take pictures of me in the mud for obvious reasons and thus the inserts . I enjoyed the time and loved just sitting by reading David Sedaris and tourist watching. Looking forward to next stop Jerusalem
Sailingwithguitar 