Mud and blood - Dead Sea and Masada

But first, a word from our sponsor - Pilarcitos Cyclesports

This black bag was brought empty in order to fill it to the brim with souvenirs from one of the principal reasons for this trip - World Cyclocross Championships in Belgium. See that white hat? That's the ONLY souvenir I could find! When Alec and I were here in 2002 for Worlds, same race location - they had vendors with tons of official Worlds knick knacks. Coffee mugs, T-shirts, jackets galore but this year seems like a new souvenir Sheriff in town who really wasn't interested. So, this bag gets folded flat again for it's return trip to Burlingame, virtually empty. Bummer, Dude.

OK, back to the present. Masada first

Masada, sort of like Mad Ludwig's castle in Bavaria only this was Bat Shit crazy King Herod who built himself a Superman "Fortress of Solitude" for those times when his enemies were trying to whack him - only he whacked first and eliminated threats (like his wife and 2 of his children). And then, of course, some other equally nutso Zealots took refuge 70 years later when Masada was mostly abandoned after Herod died and during the first Great Revolt the Roman Legions laid siege to the fortress and when the end was near - Jonestown. This is the view from the top of this most desolate landscape. We could have hiked up the Snake Path - probably an hour long slog but we're OLD now and entitled to the cable car ascent. We take the paths of least resistance when available.

And after lunch - time for the Dead Sea. Salt and Mud - awesome combo. We splurged on $12 flip-flops to wear in the Sea - the hardened salt deposits under the surface make for very uncomfortable walking so some sort of footgear is mandatory. And even then, salt extracts her revenge. Here's Becky's foot when the dumb flip-flops didn't maintain position.

Bouyancy - Boy, they ain't lying when they explain how easy it is to float in the huge pool of minerals that's the Dead Sea. What they DON'T tell you is how to get upright again when you've all done floating-  not easy! Some of us needed helping hands to regain footing, some of us did the turtle on our fronts and pushed off the bottom (rendering a finger "Hors de Combat"). But then, THEN it was time for fun and Dead Sea Mud. Yes, we're having fun yet.

Jerusalem, night and day

We got here Thursday afternoon and since the Israeli weekend starts on Friday afternoon when the dusk-dusk Shabbat ceremonies take place, Thursday night is last chance to party before the horn sounds. Thursday night was pretty loud. Friday night is very quiet - here's the main drag outside our apartment about 10:30 pm

And, since Shabbat continues all day Saturday, here's a look about 5:00 pm, waiting until that horn sounds again.

Hats and "The Religious"

There are any number of Ultra Religious groups in Jerusalem and they can usually be identified (like Baseball team caps) by the shape and position of their hats. Uniform is pretty similar, Black Suit with White shirt (no tie) and in different jacket lengths from regular suit coat to long frock coats to a very shiny long wool coat. But Hats, man - they establish who you are. There standard large brim fedoras worn horizontal with skull, then flat-brimmed round hats worn well back on the noggin, flat-brimmed round hats even with skull, and even the elaborate fur round hats (almost Russian look) worn by the Hasidic sect.

Tomorrow - Jerusalem and Temple Mount