We took a shuttle to Masada this morning. Elisa did some mad haggling to get us there for 25 shekels. I love watching her put up a fight. 🙂 Really we just got lucky with transportation. We were able to go in on a taxi with a group of people and magically caught a bus that comes only every hour on the way back. Masada is a historic Jewish site from just after the days of Christ when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem. The last Jewish rebels dug in at the top of the natural rock formation of Masada. The story of the siege is sad. There was a video presentation before we went to the top. It celebrated the mass suicide of the Jews under siege. Chad and I spent what little time we had on top discussing how appropriate that was. The sun was so hot today that we didn’t walk around the site for very long. The view was terrific though. We used a cable car to get to the top and we braved the walk down by the Snake Path.

Our next stop was the Dead Sea. This is something we recommend for anyone visiting Israel or Jordan. You just go have fun floating around on your back with your whole body out of the water. It is really quite a different experience. Your body starts to sting in patches, especially getting in and out. And don’t ever get it in your eyes or mouth. 😥 But it’s supposed to be very healthy. We wanted to cake ourselves with Dead Sea mud. But it lost its allure when we discovered we had to buy a bottle at the store and spread it down at the beach. Lame! It was really relaxing and felt much warmer than the Red Sea.

On our bus ride up to Jerusalem we passed by some cool places. We passed Qumran where the Dead Sea scrolls were found, and went through En Gedi where David hid from Saul, and we passed the turn-off to Jericho.

• Photos at the Dead Sea