second time around

Perhaps the best thing about traveling alone is that you are not beholden to anyone else. There is total freedom to come or go strictly as you please. I flew on to Rome and have enjoyed the week here. Rome is such a wonderful city to visit. I toured Saint Peter’s Basilica and once again think it is the most spectacular building in the world. It edges out the Taj because of the incredible artwork inside and the fact that it is a living building, in use daily for services, not just an empty mausoleum for tourists to view. I spent a full 8 hour day in the Musei Vaticani. The audio guide was great and I could just stroll or sit at my leisure. I saw all of the exhibits and sat for maybe an hour in the Sistine Chapel. The colors are magnificent since the restoration work was completed. The past few days have been cold and windy, but clear and beautiful. I have enjoyed eating here even though it is way expensive. Today the museums are closed for no apparent reason, so I am just passing the day at the hotel. I am looking out at the large snowflakes swirling down off and on in the freezing rain. Not such a grand day for strolling around Rome aimlessly.

I have been looking at photos and remembering the great things I have been able to see and do over the past 9 months. From climbing the Potala Palace to diving the Barrier Reef, from Tokyo subways to Aitutaki beaches it has been just incredible. Since we skipped Egypt I am in Europe a month earlier than expected and have been staring at the map for some days now. I find that most of the places I would like to visit are in the north, and while I could pass some weeks in Spain and Portugal to let some of the winter pass, it will continue to be cold and wet through at least the next two months.

So…. I have decided to spend the Spring in sunny Florida. I came home to Orlando. Perhaps Poe and I will come to Northern Europe or on a Baltic Sea cruise this summer when it is nice weather.

And so this will be my final blog. To all of you who have followed it and especially those who have been kind enough to comment on the site I say: “THANK YOU” for all of the love and support. I hope it has been somewhat entertaining and has given you cause to reflect on what we are doing here and what dreams you might go after. I still think of the antique sign I saw in a window in Australia: “Never give up on something that you can’t go a day without thinking about.” It has truly been: 93,773 miles, 285 days, 25 countries, 6 continents and one hell of a ride. Now I just have to figure out my next adventure. Jim

Israel and Jordan were good fun. The weather could have been better, but you take what you get. We overnighted in Tel Aviv after the 02:50 arrival having traveled all day and night. Then we caught a puddle hopper from Tel Aviv to Eilat on the Red Sea and a cab across the border to Jordan where we got another cab for the two hour ride up to Petra. Poe loved the 100 meter walk through “no man’s land” with the armed guards at each side. Once we got up into the mountains, the temperature dropped and it was Cold! Our hotel the Movenpick is located right next to the entrance to the Petra site. Petra was inhabited by the Nabataeans, established sometime around the 6th century BCE. The access to the city is via the As-Siq, a narrow gorge cutting through the 80 meter high rock walls. Although we were not at the gate at the opening time, it worked well. We were between the other groups of tours and so had a full view with nobody else there for most of the walk. It is an incredible place. The colors and buildings and carvings are spectacular. We did have Sabo our donkey owner pushing us to get a donkey ride to the monastery, or the Sacrificial stone, or back to the entrance for about an hour before he finally gave up on us. It was definitely one of the must-see places in the world. It was fun to think of the caravans that passed this way 2,500 years ago. The landscape of Jordan was impressively barren. Just rocks and dirt for a long, long way, nothing green at all. Compared to this wasteland the Israeli desert is “land of milk and honey”.

Sunday we reversed the trip and flew back to Tel Aviv and got a rental car. Now I find the Israelis to be very kind and gentle and helpful, person to person on the street. BUT, put them behind the wheel and a transformation occurs: Mr. Hyde emerges. No mercy, take no prisoners and never, ever give the sucker a break. The red lights show a yellow the last few seconds before it goes green, and if you aren’t moving forward by then it is lay on the horn time. And the rental car has Hertz stickers plastered on it, so they know I am not local. The street signs are in Hebrew, Arabic and English which is good. The print is microscopic which is bad. The maps have most of the major streets which is good, they show straight when it really curves and show curves when it is really straight which is bad. We survived but had more than one opportunity to explore the winding back alleys of residential Israel.

We caught a lot of rain for three days which made our exploration of the north of Israel less complete and less fun. The Galilee was very beautiful but we did not even go up to the Golan Heights as it was totally closed in by fog. We couldn’t get into the Ba’hai Gardens in Haifa even though they were right outside our hotel, because they close them during any rain. We did see the College in Karmiel where Mary studied for a semester and met her Israeli “ima” (mom) Maxine. She was very sweet and after a great Israeli breakfast showed us around the campus and told us how wonderful our daughter Mary is.

One can’t go to the holy land without seeing some religious sites, so we did. In Nazareth we went to the Basilica of the Annunciation, the spot where the angel told Mary she would have the Christ Child. It has artwork representing Mary from all around the world. There are Kimono clad, slanted eyed, headdress wearing, white, black and yellow Marys. The one from the USA reminds me of the Ice Queen from the movie the Lion, Witch and Wardrobe. In Jerusalem we finally got some time without bitter cold or rain. The old city there is something to see and feel. We learned some of the history at the Tower of David Museum. All the way back to when the Jews took it over from the Canaanites. I was a little disappointed that I could not go into the Dome of the Rock because I am not Muslim. It is the spot where Abraham offered his son Isaac for sacrifice and where the Prophet Mohammad (blessed be his name) ascended to heaven. We did however see the Western Wall and even went up to Temple Mount, the Holiest site in Judaism. It is so holy that Torah Law says observant Jews are not allowed to go there. We visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. That is the location of Golgotha (Calvary in Latin) where Jesus was crucified and buried. A short prayer in the “actual tomb” of Jesus with the Orthodox priest telling us to “hurry, hurry, ten seconds only”. The Yad Va-shem was very sobering and moving. It is the Holocaust museum recently expanded and through multi-media shows the slowly increasing Anti-Semitic activities throughout the years of the Nazis. It also points out how most of the other countries had limited quotas for Jewish immigration, so the Jews were not allowed to escape the persecution, just stay there and die.

Sadly, Poe caught her flight back to Orlando Friday night and I had one last day in Israel before I flew on to face the winter in Europe. I might add one of the coldest winters in a long, long time! At least it has stopped snowing in Rome. My last day in Tel Aviv the weather was perfect wouldn’t you know. Sunny and warm and I spent some time on the boardwalk at the beach. Things are slowing down some now. Since we bypassed Egypt I am three weeks ahead of schedule getting to Europe and so I will pass some time in Italy, Spain and Portugal waiting for the Spring to warm up some. Looking at the news out of Egypt lately I think it was wise to bypass it for now. I found out what happens when you tell an Israeli barber to make it “a little shorter”. But I actually like it this way, I don’t really have to have a brush or comb with me now, just use the towel to dry it and there you are.

I am having a problem getting the blog site to work, it won't let me upload pictures or edit. I will try to get it fixed soon.