1 June: Masada and Ein Gedi (Dead Sea) and then back home

I did NOT get up at 4 am in order to hike for 50 minutes up the mountain and to be on top of it to see the sunrise over the Dead Sea and the river Jordan from the top of Masada fortress (as suggested by the Lonely Planet Guide). I decided that I should not be the slave of a masochistic guide book writer who ALWAYS recommends to see the sunrise, EVERYWHERE.. I did already so when I stayed in the Jordanian desert in Wadi Rum the sunrise was really nothing spectacular.. so this time I decided to strike and stay in bed until 7h00 (!!! all those who know me a little bite better know that this is still really early for me..).

At 8h15, when I was ready to climb up, it was already incredibly hot (that is the reason why most people leave at 4h30 in the morning...) and so I decided to do what all the tour groups with elderly people do: I took the cable car.... Actually, I did not do exactly what they do, because I took a one way ticket because I thought that I could always walk down...

The Masada fortress was built by King Herod and became later, when the Jews revolted against the Romans, the last refuge of the Jewish resistants: Therefore it later became a symbol for the Zionist movement and is still nowadays a symbol for the liberty of the Jewish people.

The fortress rises 440m above the Dead Sea, which means more or less that it is at sea level (ergo the Dead Sea is around 450m below sea level and therefore the lowest place on the world as I have already mentioned before).

There are great views over the Dead Sea, the montains and canyons (Wadis) around and the restauration works have been done quite well, with really good explanations.. So, in the end, I spent more than 2,5 hours on the site.

Once down, I drove to Ein Gedi, a Quibbutz on the Dead Sea, which has a guest house and its own Dead Sea Spa. After the check in I went directly to the Spa: 40 degree Celsius sulphour bath, mud treatment, hot sulphour showers, and then - the highlight - a float in the Dead Sea... Unfortunately, I forgot to take a newspaper along to take the typical picture... It was really an unforgettable experience and it is sooo funny... although the water is really too warm, not to say HOT ! ;-)

There are many people here for medical reasons: I met a Danish guy, who comes here for his Psoriasis treatment and who met, some years ago, his partner, a German lady, who comes for a rhumatism treatment.. It seems that treatments here are usualy paid for by the social security...!!) I should ask whether the Eu social security does as well and get my holidays reimbursed..;-) (to be clear: this was a joke only...!! ;-) )

Tomorrow morning, I will drive back to Tel Aviv, from where my flight will leave at 15h25 via Munich. I wil lbe back in Brussels at 22h25... and on Wednesday I will be back in the office.. Tomorrow at 11, there will be a nationwide sirene-alarm for a major security exercise. People are supposed to go into a specifically indicated shelter or into a synagogue (!! That is what the official leaflet available in the hotel said..), I wonder whether this is to pray that nothing will happen or whether all the synagogues have been built in a spevial way in order to serve as a quasi shelter... In any case, I do not have to interrupt my journey because it is not obligatory to go to a shelter.. I wonder how the situation on the road will be at that moment.. and whether you can hear any sirene on the motorway..

I will perhaps have the time to finish the blog for the days, which are still missing, at the airport and might perhaps get access there to upload them..otherwise you will be able to read them soon afterwards... I will put an "UPDATE" in front of it so that you know that there is something new to read there...

Thanks for following my trip and hope to see you all "for real" very soon..

And here the two highlight pictures of the day:

Other pictures at:

http://picasaweb.google.de/muellju/IsraelLastBestB?authkey=Gv1sRgCMXLhrGGsq6uvAE&feat=directlink

31 May: Back in Israel - the Negev desert and Mizpe Ramon

I left the hotel around 8 and took a taxi to "the border"... the taxi driver understood "airport" .... fortunately, in Aqaba, both are not that far from each other.. I realised that he was on the wrong track and could clarify things without any damage..
The border crossing was very smooth.. Entering Israel means quite a strict security check.. they even specifically check with a machine the presence of explosives...and they ask over and over again the same questions.. 5 different people: at the checkpoint before getting to the actual border, at the security check, at the passport control, at the customs and when you actually get out of the border area into "real Israel"... crazy !!

By taxi to the car rental, where they did not find my booking in the computer and wanted to charge me 30 $ more tghan on my reservation (airport charge..) I reminded them that I had a confirmed reservation (printed) with a total price inlcuding returning the car at the airport.. The guy finally put it on the bill as "special discount"...

I then drove through the Negev desert up to Mizpe Ramon, a smal place on top of a geological crater, actually THE largest geological crater in the world... very impressive... I hiked down from the top - it was a very nice hike - and then hitch-hiked back. the first car actually stopped.. The crater was formed as a consequence of a very complex geological developent that would be too complicated to explain... So, I spare you with details.. for all thse who realy want to know what exactly a "geological crater" is as opposed to just any ordinary crater, please refer to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramon_Crater

Then I also visited Avedat castle, which is part of the UNESCO World Heritage together with several other castles along the "Frankincense road" which brought incense and spices from the Far East to Europe via Petra and Gaza.

The landscape of the Negev desert was really impresive and it was very nice to drive through it.. there is almost no civilisation, except military bases and "firing zones".. basically the whole desert is a firing zone, there are signs everywhere....

For quite a while, I drove directly along the Egyptian border. I talked already earlier about my fascination for borderrs.. What I found really strange here that, in the middle of the Negev desert, there were two parallel highways, sometimes in only 100m distance from each other on either side of the border... while completely normal as there ae two states, for me as a European (in the times of Trans-European Networks etc.) this is absolutely absurd...

I just made it in time to still check in at the youth hostel in Masada, the only available accomodation around here... but is is actually a really nice one and I had a single room with private bathroom.. ;-)

Pictures at

http://picasaweb.google.de/muellju/IsraelLastBestA?authkey=Gv1sRgCMiIp7C7mryqYg&feat=directlink

29 and 30 May: Aqaba

Yesterday morning I arrived in Aqaba, which is in the very South of Jordan on the Red Sea. It is Jordan's only real beach and I came here to relax for two days.. and that is what I did... In the end, I did not even make the effort of going snorkelling to see the amazing marine wildlife of the Red Sea. I slept until late, relaxed on the beach and walked around a bit.
In the diving/beach club I went to, I saw this girl that I thought I knew and I also thought I knew her voice: a friend of my friend Jon. Being in a diving club, I remembered that Jon had told me that she actually worked in a diving club somewhere in the Middle East, but I did not know whether it was in Jordan.. Since Jon did not immediately reply to my sms and just went up to her to ask her and when I walked up to her she also looked at me and realised that she knows me.. It was actually Renske, a dutch girl who was Jon's colleague when he still worked in Brussels. The world is just too small... Renske lives here in Aqaba since 2005. So we chatted quite a bit and went for dinner tonight, which was really nice !!
Yesterday, when I wanted to go to the beach club (all the nicer beaches are a bit south of Aqaba), the taxi driver misunderstood me and took me somewhere else, so I really got very close (until 4 km) to the border with Saudi Arabia, while Aqaba is around 20 km from the border. Just across the Red Sea is Israel (Eilat, where I will go tomorrow) and a little bit further South on the other shore is aleady the Egyptian border. So, during this trip, I not only travelled in two countries, but got very close to four others: Lebanon and Syria (where I was actually standing right at the borders), Saudi Arabia and Egypt and, when visiting the desert castles East of Amman, we got even as close as 280 km to the Iraqi border.. Now that we do not have borders anymore in Europe, borders really fascinate me... I cannot really describe this, but I was almost tempted to ask the taxi driver to go the other 4 km just to see how it looks like.. but I thought this would be a bit strange... ;-)
For the rest, nothing particular in Aqaba, except that I did not take a single photo here (remarkable, isn't it ??) and that I had major stomach problems, probably from the sausages I had eaten for lunch in Wadi Rum (we could chose our food ourselves in a little supermarket and I got some sausages, but did not look at the expiry date). After I had eaten half of it, I had a look at the date and saw that it already had expired two weeks ago.. Then I had a closer look at them, and I could see some little yellow dots on them... yikes !!!! I had horrible stomach cramps yesterday and did not eat anything the whole day. I went to bed at 7pm and slept all night through.. This morning it was much better, but I still had these stomach cramps from time to time... hope it will be over by tomorrow. At least I could eat again tonight... ;-)

28 and 29 May: the desert in Wadi Rum

For the moment pictures only:
http://picasaweb.google.de/muellju/WadiRum?authkey=Gv1sRgCLravb289tizHg&feat=directlink

26 and 27 May: Amazing Petra

For the moment, just the photos
http://picasaweb.google.de/muellju/Petrabest?authkey=Gv1sRgCLLjptXTy4_PkgE&feat=directlink

25 May: Madaba and Kings' Highway

For the moment pictures only:
http://picasaweb.google.de/muellju/KingsHighway?authkey=Gv1sRgCNKduJnW6qjUqwE&feat=directlink

24. May: Bethany and Jerash

For the moment pictures only at
http://picasaweb.google.de/muellju/JerashAndMaIn?authkey=Gv1sRgCK2egd_Z387qoAE&feat=directlink

23. May: border crossing to Jordan and desert castle

That day, I got stuck at the Israeli-Jordan border for quite some time. I had arrived by taxiqute early, but then we were blocked at the checkpoint before entering the border zone, because I was in a taxi with Palestinians from Jerusalem and the military people said that the computers were not working. The taxi driver of another taxi, which was also blocked there (my driver could not speak English) explained to me that this happened all the time. Normally, there is a need for registration at the checkpoint and therefore the computers are needed. But when we actually went through, after half an hour, the guy just noted the car licence plate number on a piece of paper… The strange thing was that cars with a licence plate from the Palestinian territories could go through much easier… and Jerusalem taxis only with foreigners as well. I was therefore offered to change the taxi, with only tourists in it (among them an Italian nun…), but the driver wanted to charge me (for the last two kilometers) the same price I had already paid coming from Jerusalem. I found this scandalous how they exploited this situation… Anyway, 5 minutes later the checkpoint was opened but then they made us wait a few minutes later at the actual entry to the border crossing. Another 5 minutes at least, for no clear reason. The taxi driver was furious as this seems to be done on purpose for whatever political reason.

Then I got to the Israeli side of the border. The border formalities were very efficient, after you paid your 30 Euros exit fee… But then you had to wait for a bus to take you to the Jordanian side… There were two buses there waiting, but I was not allowed to use them as they were only for people with Palestinian ID-cards. Segregation, I would call this…. But in this case the segregation had negative consequences for us few tourists as the Palestinian buses filled up relatively quickly, whereas it took ages for our bus to arrive and then we needed to wait to reach a “critical mass” for the bus to leave. I waited almost one and a half hours.. !!! In the meanwhile I got in touch with Floriana and the decided in the end to visit the desert castles and as they had a car and it was quite difficult to get there, we had agreed to go there together. They intended to leave only around 11h15, but with all the delay I got I thought it would be too late for me to join them… At the Jordanian immigration, I met an Estonian woman working at the European Parliament as a translator… My delay even increased as I had to get Jordanian money (the only cash machine was broken and the banks were closed!) In the end, I could convince the guy in the little duty free shop to give me a cash advance with my credit card (even for free!!) Then I had some hassle with the public transport (as it was a public holiday in Jordan… which also explains that the bank was closed) and eventually found an old lady and a policeman to share a taxi with, supposedly to Amman, from where I wanted to get to Hammamat Ma’in, a remote valley with hot springs and a very nice hotel that I booked (transportation to the hotel directly seemed too complicated… ) But then, I heard from Floriana that they were still stuck at the hotel because their rental car did not work and needed to be replaced. So there was still a chance to get to the desert castes together with them. Then the policeman told me that he also wanted to go in my direction, and so we got out of the taxi at a highway junction and immediately got a bus, which took me to Madaba, from where I could take a bus at least to the village near the hot springs. In the meanwhile, I could set up a meeting point with Floriana in Ma’in village, where we actually arrived at the same time. IT was a good feeling to see them!

As Europcar could not get the replacement car to the hotel sufficiently quickly, they managed to negotiate with the very friendly hotel manager to get a car from the hotel, including a driver (for free!!) What an incredible service!!

We then headed off towards the desert castles, which was quite a drive, but was absolutely worth it. One of them (Qusair Amra) is also part of the UNESCO-World Heritage, because of the amazing frescoes in the bathhouse. A we arrived only in the ,ate afternoon, the guard at the castles told us that his shift was already finished, but that we could have the keys of the castles if we give him some money. And so I got the keys of a UNESCO-World Heritage site, just like this !!! Amazing. The frescoes show half-nude women (quite extraordinary in a muslim country..) and some funny animals: a bear playing a lute and a monkey who is clapping his hands.

In the evening, when we got to the hotel, this was quite a positive surprise. I knew that the hotel was luxurious, but it was actually much more than that. They recently refurbished it and mostly used natural materials: wood, textile, paper, steel, leather… in any case, I did not see any plastic… and the service was great ! The official full opening will only be in September. I can only recommend it:
http://www.sixsenses.com/gallery/index.php?code_property=AMMEA&cate=acc

In the evening, we had a very nice dinner in the Dead Sea panorama restaurant, which belongs to the hotel and is just a few kilometres away.. what a treat !!!!

Pictures of the day at
http://picasaweb.google.de/muellju/Israel8best3?authkey=Gv1sRgCIfI95iivLeXWw&feat=directlink

UPDATE: 21 and 22 May: Palestinian Territories; Bethlehem, Jericho and the Wall

I made two half day excursions from Jerusalem to the West Bank: one to Bethlehem and another one to Jericho. Both were very interesting, not only because of the specific things to see in the two places, but because of the specific situation there. Going to Bethlehem was very easy. I just went to the East Jerusalem bus station and took a minibus. Buses leaving Jerusalem are not controlled at the Israeli checkpoint at the exit of the city. Bus number 31 uses a specific highway and even entering Jerusalem there seems to be relatively easy. Palestinians seem however not to be allowed to use this checkpoint. In order to experience a normal checkpoint I took a different road and walked to the checkpoint in order to see the wall the Israelis have built in order to close the West Bank and to control entrance and exit to Jerusalem. Some call it the “wall of shame” others the “apartheid wall”. Whatever you call it, one thing is clear to me: building such a wall is a major mistake and it is completely crazy to see this concrete wall, double as high as the former Berlin wall. In the same way than its Berlin mother, dead since now 20 years, it attracts protest graffiti and art, but most of the about one kilometre I saw was still grey… The international community condemned the wall which is also in total breach of international law and the Oslo peace agreement of 1993. The same goes for the Israeli settlements, which continue to be built / enlarged in the West Bank and particularly around Jerusalem, many think in order to surround East Jerusalem by Israeli territory so that, in the event of a two-state-solution, to make it more difficult to split Jerusalem with East Jerusalem becoming the capital of a Palestinian state. A similar policy seems to be to accept all kind of immigrants into Israel in order to halt the increase in percentage of Palestinians in Israel’s population. Normally, Jewish people from al lover the world can ask for Israeli citizenship, but it seems that the vast majority of the hundred thousands of Russians who came to Israel (and the presence of which is evident all over Israel) are not Jewish but Russian Orthodox Christians.

On Bethlehem’s main square, there is a board explaining in several languages the story of Israeli occupation of Palestine by Israel and repression of its people. I uploaded a picture of it on the webalbum for those of you who want to read the story how it is presented form the Palestinian perspective. Even if this might not always be objective, it shows the nature of problems Palestinians have to face.

In Bethlehem, I visited the Nativity Church and the so called “milk grotto”. The Nativity Church is quite impressive. The entrance door is really tiny, you even have to lower your head to get in. As the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Church is divided in different parts: mainly Catholic and Orthodox, while the Orthodox “own” the nativity grotto itself. The Church was packed with Russian tour groups, one after the other… there was a real “traffic jam” at the stairs leading down to the grotto. It took ages to get in. The manger (stable) is actually a cave carved in the rock and there was probably a wooden structure built in front of it at the time. The “milk grotto” is underneath a church and is the spot where Maria and Joseph were hiding. Drops of milk fell on the rock and therefore women (even Muslim ones it seems) with difficulties during their pregnancies or who do not become pregnant come here to pray…

For Jericho, I took part in an organised tour: we were in total 5 people: a young Polish and an older French couple (living in Canada though). It was nice to have some company… Jericho, very close to the Dead Sea is the lowest and oldest city in the world. It is also in the Guinness World record book for the lowest cable car in the world, which leads up to the Greek orthodox monastery high up on the Mount of Temptation, where Jesus was tempted by the Devil, who had asked him to prove that he was God’s son by turning stone into bread.

Jericho is completely cut off from the rest of the West Bank: right before entering Jericho, there are two checkpoints, an Israeli one and afterwards a Palestinian one. Israelis are prohibited to enter Jericho and the Palestinians are – it seems – held responsible if anyone gets in. That is why the Palestinian control, at least for Western looking people, is perhaps a little bit stricter than the Israeli one. Since the second Intifada, Jericho lost a lot of its former glamour as a centre of an agricultural area (water supplies are very much restricted as the Israeli control the management of water in the territories) and the lack of Israeli tourist s coming there for short day or weekend trips. The whole tourist complex with the cable car and shops and restaurants attached to it (developed with Austrian investment), looks now pretty run down and the huge casino (also developed by Austrians and very much appreciated by many Jews who did not find casinos in the rest of Israel for religious reasons) had to close down due to the lack of clients.

On the way, we also went through parts of a Wadi which leads to the St George’s monastery, built on the rocks and very impressive, even for far away. Due to Israeli road restrictions (there is a Israeli settlement very close to it), it is however not possible anymore to even get close to it, so we had to admire it from far.

Photos at:
http://picasaweb.google.de/muellju/Israel8best2?authkey=Gv1sRgCKOmsJyImOjAhAE&feat=directlink

Update: 18-22 May: Jerusalem

Now you will finally be able to read about my days in Jerusalem and not only see the pictures. I try to keep it short and spare you with details... I did not have enough time and then I has problems with internet access.

I spent four days in Jerusalem, of which I spent two half days for excursions to the Palestinian territories. Three days is however by far not enough to discover the city and its many places of interest. I visited the major religious sites of the three religions all on the first day: the Tempel Mountain with the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Western Wall (also called “wailing wall”) and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (with the presumed tombs of Jesus and the calvary mountain / mount Golgotha). It is incredible how close to each other these are. The old city of Jerusalem is divided into quarters according to the different religions: Muslim, Jewish, Christian and Armenian quarters, with completely different lifestyles in them. There is plenty of police and military to avoid any kind of confrontation. I did not sense any problems, except on Jerusalem day, when the Israelis commemorate the birthday of the “reunification” of Jerusalem as the result of the 6-Day-War in 1967. There were buses full of young people, who were probably brought in from the settlements (that is at least the theory I heard from some people I had spoken with). They waved huge Israeli flags and sang Israeli songs. Prime Minister Netanjahu, after just having returned from the US and the meeting with Obama, clearly stated that Jerusalem would never be divided again and thus clearly send the wrong signal to all those hoping for a two-state-solution with Jerusalem as a Palestinian capital. This provoked reactions on the Palestinian side in East Jerusalem and the situation in the city was quite tense. I was also surprised to see that the Israeli army organised its recruitment ceremony for the new soldiers on the square right in front of the Western Wall: Each soldier got its weapon and they sung the national anthem. On the Friday evening, Jews from the whole city – all dressed up – came to the Western Wall to pray for the arrival of “Shabbat” and the square in front of the Wall was packed with people. While the orthodox men were standing closest to the “Holy of the Holies” on the left side of the wall, lots of young people gathered a little bit more behind to the right to sing and dance.

On the second day, I made the walk all around the city on the city wall (ramparts), which offered very nice views inside and outside the city (the wall is still entirely preserved) and I walked down the “Via Dolorosa” with its different stations, Christ’s presumed last walk from the spot where he was sentenced by Pontius Pilatus up to the Mount Golgotha where he was crucified.

The third day, I visited Yad Vashem, the holocaust memorial, which was really impressive. The museum is really well done and the whole site, a little bit outside Jerusalem, on a green hill, is well chosen. It was a very intense experience. I won’t say more than that.

In general, it was very impressive for me to experience the mix of religions and even the diversity within the Christian Church, which is very visible in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is divided up in different sections so that the different communities within the Christian Church get their share: Catholics, Greek orthodox, Armenians and Ethiopians.

On one night, I went to a student concert I had heard of by coincidence from a guy I had talked to with lots of Israeli singers and – as a guest star – with Macy Gray. I could not get in, because I do not live in Jerusalem, but I found a perfect spot outside from which I could see and hear everything. The atmosphere was great, but the concert went on forever: Macy Gray finished around 2h30 only and the concert still continued afterwards, but I was too tired to stay. I also met Thijs, a guy who studied with me in Bruges and who is now a Dutch diplomat in Ramallah. It was good to catch up after 10 years... ;-)

For the 4 nights, I stayed in the Lutheran guest house, managed by the German Lutheran Church, which is in an old building in middle of the old city and offers very comfortable rooms in a very relaxing environment with a nice and green garden for a good price. I could not ask for more…

Pictures at the following address:
http://picasaweb.google.de/muellju/Israel8best?authkey=Gv1sRgCJWE0oKnlb-WQA&feat=directlink

News

Hello everybody.. Just wanted to give a sign that I am still alive.. days have been very busy here in Jerusalem... busy and fascinating, full of impressions of all kind.. will write more about it in the next days.. tomorrow morning, I will leave Jerusalem and will head to Jordan... In the end I stayed a day longer here as I stil wanted to visit Jericho today and the border post at Allenby bridge closes already at 14h00 on Fridays and Saturdays... So I will leave early tomorrow morning in order to still nbe able to profit from my first day in Jordan.. It is however not yet clear how I will get to the place I want to go.. I have to sort this out at the border.. I either will rent a car at the border (there are several car rentals it seems),which would allow me to visit the desert castles east of Amman before driving towards the Dead Sea, or I might meet my friend Floriana somewhere on the way (if she decides to visit the desert castle instead of just relaxing in the bautiful Spa at the Evason Six Senses Spa Hotel Ma'in... ;-) ). If none of the two options will work out, I will directly go to the Spa-hotel as well and will have to sort out how to get there from the border by public transport, which does not sound so easy.. but well, we will see...
So, in short: be a little patient and you will get the continuation of my adventures... In the Spa-Hotel, I will have plenty of time in the evenings to write and upload all the pictures I have made in Jerusalem and in the Palestinian Territories / West Bank (mainly Bethlehem and Jericho).

15, 16 and 17 May: Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv is just great!
Alex, a friend of mine from Brussels, is also here at the same time and he knows quite some people here. It is also easy to get to know people and so, after some sightseeing / walking around town (for example admiring the many buildings from the Bauhaus-period of which however many are in urgent need of restoration…), I go to the beach with some people, have an aperitif with others, then go for dinner and afterwards for more drinks / dancing etc. I could get used to this… ;-) So I met Israelis from all kind of origins / heritage: Yemenite, Druze, from Libya, Poland / Czech Republic, etc. and it is interesting to discuss with these different people their views on Israel’s history, present situation and future and I can tell you that the views diverge enormously, especially concerning the Palestinian question. In one of the bars, a quite famous Israeli singer was sitting at the next table and so I bought her 2 CDs today, after having listened to them in the shop and liked it. Her name is Efrat Gosh. I also bought some other Israeli music, in particular several CDs of Ivri Lider, a singer who did the music for an Israeli / Palestinian film I had seen several years ago and which I really liked. Since then, I tried to get his CDs, however without success. I also had a Taibeh, a beer imported from the West Bank, which seems to become quite fashionable now. Its taste is however a bit special. I prefer Israeli beer.
Today, before going to the beach, I visited old Jaffa, the initial old port ans main arrival port of crusaders and immigrants for many many centuries....
Right now, I am sitting on Sderot (Boulevard) Rothschild, a very dynamic street, whoch has lots of bars and restaurants and there is wifi-internet-access everywhere, even on the street. So I am sitting on a park bench, observing people passing by and writing... isn't that great ??
I should however get back to the hotel soon as I want to get up a little bit earlier tomorrow in order to visit Caesarea, another archaeological site... Good night then... ;-)
Today's pictures at
http://picasaweb.google.de/muellju/Israel7best?authkey=Gv1sRgCMzW0oWsgKa03wE&feat=directlink

Update: 14 May: Nazareth or "to pope" or not "to pope"... ;-)

Now that I am in Tel Aviv I have basically no time anymore to write as life is really busy and I meet friends and friends of friends and experience the vibrant Tel Aviv night life. I hope to write more and update/complete the post tomorrow. Just for all those who were so excited about the pope: The only thing I saw in the end were two black Audi-Limousines driving by really fast.. and I did not even know in which one he was... that was all... quite disappointing even for me, but especially for many local people who did not have the occasion to see him at the mass... some of them could just not believe that these Limousines were all that they could see... I then left immediately afterwards and did not even wait for the afternoon meeting with Netanjahu since probably there was nothing to see either...
More tomorrow the... Now I am off to dinner to Jaffa with Manolo (a Spanish diplomat living here and who was the best man at the wedding of a couple of friends...).
!! UPDATE !!
The long promised continuation of my blog is slightly delayed and apologise for this. As I said, Tel Aviv is so busy that it is difficult to find time to write. You can read a little bit of what I am doing here in the next post.
In the end, I do not really know what to tell more about the day in Nazareth. Since the market was closed again also that day, there was nothing much to do. I walked around and found a little arab café with a large screen transmitting the mass the Pope held in this new “stadion” just outside town and had my breakfast there. I had an omelette with salads, olives, fresh cheese etc. they do not really fancy that much sweet stuff here (unfortunately). Once this event was finished, I went to the square in front of the basilica in order to wait until 12h30, when Benedict was supposed to arrive at the Basilica. The traffic was already blocked completely at 11 and at 11h30, when I crossed the road from the great spot I had found to watch everything, just to buy a bottle of water, the police blocked everything and I was not allowed to cross the street anymore and so I was also separated from the guesthouse and my car. No way to get there without a huge detour… but at least, now I had a place in the shade. People slowly got excited about everything and each time the police in front of us moved or received a phone call, they thought that he would now arrive soon. In the end, he was half an hour late… Already several vans and police cars had driven by before and everybody expected the papamobil. But in the end, the police confirmed that he had already passed and then we deducted that he must have been in one of the two black Audi-limousines, with shaded windows. After this disappointment, I went back to my car and left. I was however blocked in a major traffic jam when leaving Nazareth, because I had to pass by the stadion where the mass had taken place. Despite the fact that the event had already been over for almost two hours, there were still so many people around and trying to find the buses which had brought them here. A complete chaos, or a “BALAGAN” as the Israeli would say… ;-)
All this provoked quite some delay and I wanted still to visit two archaeological sites: Beit She’arim, a necropolis with a labyrinth of catacombs carved in stone with tombs from the period of the second century, when the Jewish Supreme Court was based here and ruled on religious as well as on secular matters. The President of this Court, Rabbi Yehuda NaHassi (the “editor” of the Mishnah – the holy Jewish law) was buried here and thus this site developed in a major necropolis. I then drove to Megiddo, under King Solomon the jewel of the kingdom, with excavations having revealed traces of 20 distinct historical periods from 4000 to 400 before Christ and which is also part of the UNESCO-World Heritage. It is however hard to imagine nowadays the former grandeur of this city. In addition, I did not have much time for it. As the opening hours were wrongly indicated, I arrived at 16h10 only and I was told that the last entry was at 16h00. I could however convince the guy at the reception to let me in anyway, bit he told me that the entry to the water system, one of the attractions there, would close at 16h30 and that I needed to get my car out of the parking at 16h45. This gave me 30 minutes only to visit the place and this is certainly the shortest visit I have ever made of an archaeological site. Burt at least I have seen the major attractions: the city gate, the ruins of the enormous stables and the water system.

Then I headed back to Tel Aviv to give back my car. On the last kilometres before the airport, there was no gas station anymore and I did not want to pay the quite expansive fuel surcharge for the rental company to fill the tank…Once inside the airport, I called the rental company and the guy explained to me where to find a gas station within the (quite enormous site of the airport). In the end I could not find it and found myself back on the motorway, without any possibility to turn round and no exit at all. In the end, I was almost in Tel Aviv centre and still did not have any gas and therefore decided to keep the car until the next morning and to give the car back in the office in the centre, which had unfortunately closed already at 18h00. But then I got lost in Tel Aviv, because the indications are really small and some of them are in Hebrew only. In the end, it took me almost three hours to get to the hotel, get the fuel and park my car somewhere safe and not horribly expensive. When I had to get out of the car to ask for directions for 2 minutes only, the police had started to take my car away (it was already on the truck), when I started running back and shouting. I told the policemen my unfortunate story and, he pitied me and took the car off the truck and did not ask me for any money. (I was later told that it would have been 500 Shekel, which is about 100 Euros..!!!)
WELCOME to TEL AVIV !!!
Pictures of that day at:
http://picasaweb.google.de/muellju/Israel5best?authkey=Gv1sRgCMaGv5W3yKm6dQ&feat=directlink

13 May: Bet She'an, Nazareth and the Pope

Today I drove from Tiberias down to Bet She'an, Israel's most extensive archeological site which has ruins from Egyptian times, from the time of Israel's kings Saul (he was decapitated here and his body hung on the city wall), David and Salomon and from Roman times, with the best preserved and biggest Roman theatre of Israel (whatever this is worth.. ;-) )
On the way, I visited "Belvoir", a crusader fortress, with an amazing view over the Jordan-valley. This was the last fortress taken by Saladin in 1189, one and a half years after Jerusalem and all the other crusader cities surrendered.
I will not bore you with more details, it was basically a lot of old stones... ;-) nice old stones though... ;-)
In the early afternoon, I went on to Nazareth. The city was quite busy and there was already lots of police when I arrived. Nevertheless and without any map nor clear idea where my guesthouse was (I forgot to print the detailed description of their website...), I found my way and even a parking space right in front of it, in the middle of the old town. So far so good. When I started my walk around the city, I began however to realise that it was probably not a good idea to come here at the same time than the pope, who will arrive in Nazareth tomorrow morning. All the main churches (that he will visit), were closed for the preparations already at noon and will be closed the whole day tomorrow except for people with special accreditation. The old city is entirely blocked for traffic, it seems, although I got different kind of information on this depending on the policeman I talked to. I got however confirmation by several people on a possible way out from my guesthouse towards Tel Aviv. At some point I had considered leaving immediately this afternoon despite having already paid the guesthouse, as there was nothing to see anyway (I strolled through the old city already this afternoon...)... But then I thought it might still be interesting to see what will happen... there is a real Benedictus-hysteria here... everywhere in the streets, there are the yellow/white Vatican flags and posters with "welcome Pope Benedict XVI". During the afternoon, the streets filled more and more with police and military. In my guesthouse, I bumped into a team from German TV and radio (ARD / Bayrischer Rundfunk) who also stay here and actually set up a mini television and radio studio in their appartment. They also gave me the detailed programme of the Pope's visit and so I finally know what will happen tomorrow. The Pope will fly into town from Jerusalem by helicopter and will arrive at 08h30. He will hold a mass in a stadion built (it seems) specially for this occasion and which seems to have a capacity of 40.000 (!!!!) people, at least that is whatlocal people say. I wonder however whether this will fill up becasue in Jerusalem and Bethlehem there were never more than 5.000, according to the news I read on the internet. He will have some bilateral meetings and then at 12h30 he will come to the Basilica of Annunciation (built on the spot where Archangel Gabriel announced to Mary the birth of Jesus), which he will visit and where he will hold another mass with a selected 2.000 people "only". At 15h50 he will meet Prime Minister Netanjahu and around 18h00 he will fly back to Jerusalem by helicopter. WOW ! Iwill probably sleep in in the morning, then visit the Souq (the local arab market which was already closed early this afternoon) and then I will wait for Benedictus in front of the Basilica with the thousands of other people waving all kind of flags. Actually, there was some kind of competition between the little Vatican flags (also the ones to fix on the car-windows) and black flags with something written on it distributed in front of the mosque. The interpretor of the TV-team told me that the translation read: "To the one god" and "Mohammed is the prophet" or something like this...
The radio guy interviewed me as he still needed some stuff for his report which will be broadcasted tomorrow. He interviewed pilgrims, local arabs and needed a somehow "neutral" voice.. whatever neutral means in this context.. I am certainly not really neutral with regard to the Pope... If it is posted on the internet, as his previous reports form the last days and I will not be cut out, I will post the link tomorrow.. ;-) not that I said anything particularly intelligent... but still.. ;-)
Now I will go for dinner to a very nice restaurant next door. Earlier, I looked at the menu and a guy invited me in to have a look and then offered me a coffee.. We chatted a bit. They were all so friendly that they deserve my money and the menu looked really great. Some kind of young/modern variation of local arab cuisine... Oh yes, I forgot to tell you that Nazareth is the biggest arab town in Israel, with 60.000 arabs of which 2 thirds Muslims and one third Christians.
Today's pictures at:
http://picasaweb.google.de/muellju/Israel4?authkey=Gv1sRgCK-tn4Kv-MnzGQ&feat=directlink

12 May: Galilean See

My bed and breakfast is really nice, especially the breakfast was very rich and good. Sarah and Israel , the owners, are very friendly and helpful.... However, breakfast was at 8 already.. (argh!!) so I took a little nap after breakfast and before leaving at around 10h30 (well, no surprise there, you know me... ;-) ) to discover the Galilean Sea, where Jesus gathered his followers and performed many of his miracles... therefore, there are many sites, where Christian pilgrims go to.. I went there rather because of a general / historic interest than for religious reasons. There were however buses full of pilgrims from all kind of countries. Mostly Italians though, but I have seen also buses with Spaniards, Germans, French and Brazilians (!!), who participate in a tour organised by the catholic church in order to have some people around clapping when Pope Benedictus shows up ( I assume this is at least one of the motives..) ... They were all over, singing and praying, and even "invaded" an archeological site of the former jewish village Korazim, which is famous for having one of the oldest synagogues still preserved. After their "invasion", they held their religious services there because the place is mentioned in the bible (St Matthew states that Jesus deplored their lack of faith..). I found that a bit weird.. The lady at the ticket counter as well, I think, but the two priests and the acompanying person got in the end even a free entrance.. This rather small archeological site probably did not have that many visitors since years... ;-)
The more well known places I visited are:

• the place where Jesus held the sermon on the mount (in German: Bergpredigt), which includes the Lord's prayer and the famous beatitudes. The Franciscans bought the whole mountain and built a church and a monastery on it.
• the place where Jesus fed the 5000 by multiplying 5 loaves of bred and 2 fishes (I have read however somewhere that the place with the current church, on the west side of the lake, is not the original site, which was on the east side. As the Eastern shore became dangerous for pilrims in the 4th and 5th centuries, the scene of the story was just moved to the opposite side of the lake (a bit stange if you see all the pilgrims admiring the stone on which Jesus stood while distributing the bread, no ?? Or did they rip out the stone and brought it to the other shore of the lake ??);
• Just next to this, the place where Jesus appeared, after his death, in order to confer to St Peter the leadership of the and told him to "feed my lambs";
• Capharnaum / Kapernaum, the town where Jesus lived for many years and where St Peter's house, the first Christian church so to say, is still visible... however, they built a horrible church on top of it, probably in the 70ies, which looks like a UFO....: it is suspended above the ruins of the house and from within, you can see the remains of the house through a glass floor (which is actually quite a smart idea, but the building is just so inappropriate on an archeological site and ugly.. but here again, the site was bought by the Franciscans and is thus owned by the Church which probably gives them some flexibility in applying local law on the protection of archeological heritage...

I then tried to visit a winery in the south of the Golan hights, in a small Moshav, but one was somewhere else - 50km away (mistake in the Lonely Planet Guide....tsss!!) and the other one was closed.. I so much wanted to do the wine tasting and buy some bottles.. Tough luck !! So I will have to buy my Israeli wine in the supermarket.

I also went for a quick swim in the Galilean See.. The beaches are nicely situated, but incredibly dirty: there was rubbish everywhere and people I saw there just left all their water bottles and other stuff. In many places around the lake, you are not allowed to swim, others are illegal private beaches, which charge you around 10 Euro to get on the beach (without providing any infrastructure such as showers etc..) which is a lot if you just want to go in for a bit... but in the end, the good Swabian that I am, I found a good spot - for free.. ;-)

On my way back, I stopped at a "baptismal site", where a Kibbutz (!!) organises baptisms in the river Jordan, as they advertise: "close to where Jesus was baptised by St. John the Baptist", as it is still not established where exactly that was... the site is quite idyllic, but I arrived too late and could not see any baptisms (the ones where you get the whole body in the water) anymore, but I could stil go in and put my feet into the river Jordan.. The Kibbutz also sells "the holy water" in little bottles of not even 100ml for 3 $ !!! As if you could not take it yourself.. well, I did not in any case.. ;-) Have a look at their website if you are interested.. http://www.yardenit.com/ ;-)

At the end of the day, I crossed the river Jordan for the second time (once when it enters the Galilean Sea and once its exits..)... but not in the German meaning "über den Jordan gehen", which actually means "to die" well, this was just to play with words... ;-) sorry if you think it was inappropriate...

I also thought it would be interesting to visit the first Kibbutz ever, Degania Aleph, but there was really nothing to see...

Today's photos at

http://picasaweb.google.de/muellju/Israel3?authkey=Gv1sRgCMaboeT08u2V2gE&feat=directlink

11 May: Golan Heights - Upper and North Galilea

Today my car was really essential. I would not have been able to see all this in one day without it. I drove from Zefat,where I had still visited the old cemeteries before leaving, through Upper Galiea all the way to the Lebanese border, then through the Golan Heights and then back to Tiberias, on the Galilean See (or as we Germans call it: the lake of Genezareth), where I am now staying for two nights. I warn you, today I will write quiet a bit about history and politics.. but this is also one of the reasons why I came here.. I wanted to see with my own eyes what the situation is and also learn what had happened here in the last decades.. Yes, you an read it in history books and then you forget it quickly.. Once you have been at a place, you will not forget that easilily anymore..
First I drove up to Metula, the last Israeli town before the Lebanese border. Already hundreds of meters before, there are possibilities to block the roads, inspection posts and then you arrive at the "good fence border".. what a name !!! But there really is a fence (not good though..), but the border crossing, opened in 1976 was closed again in 2000 when Israeli troops withdrew from Lebanon and it was not needed anymore for military reasons.. if there was no sign, in the end, it does not look like a border between two ennemies.. there are flowers and blooming bushes everywhere.. and on either side of the street there are fruit trees.. Just next to the border, several blocks of newly built family houses, all exactly the same, with garden and car in the front, not even hundred metres from the border. I wondered what the government paid these families to build a house right there... but this you also can see on the Golan Heights, where I drove next: there are Jewish settlements in the middle of the mainly Druze villages, completely surrounded by a fence and by gates closing at night... (!!) And many Kibbuz' and Moshavs developped around here which cultivate fruits (mainly apples) and grapes to make wine..
Golan is such a good or should I say bad example of the conflict in the Middle East: Syria's President Bashar al-Assad , when recently visiting Austria, stated again that peace in the Middle East was only possible if Lebanon and Syria were parties to the agreement and peace with Syria was only possible if Israel returnd the Golan, not because this was a stategic area, but because it rightly belonged to Syria. To recall the facts: Israel took the Golan during the 6-day-war in 1967 and about 90 % of its inhabitants fled or were expelled. During the Yom-Kippur-war in 1973, Syria won it partly back for a very short time until Israel pushed the Syrian armee back to the current borders. Today, there is a small stripe of land of the Eastern Golan, a kind of no-men's land between Israel and Syria, called "disengagement zone" and controlled by around 1000 UN-soldiers. On the Israeli side of it, there is a viewpoint on the disengagement zone and the former city of Al Quneitra (distroyed by Israel in 1967). There is a machine where you can push a button to hear the history of what happened in the Golan (for free) and it is quite incredible what a kind of propaganda this is... I was not there and I am not an expert, and even if the facts are true, the way it is presented profoundly shocked me!
You can see the proofs of these tensions still today, notably the abandoned old tanks and other weapons, the bomb shelters next to streets and in towns such as Metula in order to hide in case of rocket-fire, the "Attention! Mines!" signs (landmines were put here by Syrians in the 60ies and 70ies and Isreal did not clean them up since they think they could still serve them in case of crisis) and a very high Israeli military presence. Actually, I heard quite a bit of shooting going on, not only from machine guns, but also from tanks (much louder) and I got a bit nervous. This seems however to be normal here, I was told later by Murat, because the Israeli armee carries out trainings /manoeuvres every day in this area.
Actually I gave a lift to Murat, a Druze who is soldier in the Israeli armee. He was all dressed up and had his machine gun around his shoulders.. I hesitated quite a while whether I should give him the lift and fwas already some hundreds metres further when I finally decided to do so in order to be able to ask some questions... I drove back.. Unfortunately, his English was very basic and communication therefore not easy.. I would have liked to ask so many more questions... As I said, he is a DRUZE serving in the Israeli armee, which for the Golan Heights in rather unusual because the Druze there often feel themselves rather as Syrian and sometimes even refuse to accept an Israeli passport, even if they live on Israeli territory. He told me that he loved the Jews and that Israel had its right to exist. He accused the neighbouring arab countries for not letting Israel live in peace, as an example he quoted the rockets from the Hezbollah, which were fired to the Golan from Lebanon in summer 2006.... His mother only speaks Arabic, but nevertheless, the whole family seems to identify completely with Israel.
Once Murat got off the car, I continued towards Tiberias, situated on the Galilean see. It was great to see all of a suddent the blue water appear i the late evening sun, with the rocks around it all shining up in red. WOW ! A pity there was no possibility to stop and take a picture. I also finally found my way to Arbél, the tiny village close to Tiberias, where I booked at bed&breakfast on a small family farm.. ;-) good night !
With all these politics, I forgot to report what I actually did most of the day: I visited the springs, waterfall and ruins of Banyas, where I made a very pleasant 2-hour hike along the river, from the falls to the springs and back and then visited the Nimrod-fortress built at the beginning of the 12th century, situated on top of a mountain, in the middle of the Golan with incredible views !! There I passed another one of the Israeli settlements: a skiing station: Neve Ativ... ;-)
Today's photos at
http://picasaweb.google.de/muellju/Israel2?authkey=Gv1sRgCP2w6tDPm7Tw8QE&feat=directlink

10 May: Akko and Zefat

Akko
In the morning, not too early (.. ;-) ) I drove from Haifa to Akko (30km). The crusader city and former capital of the Latinate Kingdom of Palestine is today part of the Unesco World Heritage. A distinction well deserved. I strolled through the old city, nowadays mostly inhabited by Arabs, with its narrow alleys, secret passageways, its port, subterranean vaults, impressive ramparts and lively market. I visited the citadel with its subterranean crusader city, the mosque with its nice courtyard and the templars tunnel, which was discvovered by coincidence in 1994, after a woman had complained about a blocked sewer and a plumber climbed down to look where the problem was and discovered the tunnel, which was then restored and made accessible to the public. It was a very pittoresque place....
























































Zafet
I then drove to Zafet, about 60km East in the mountains through a beautiful landscape full of plantations of olive trees.





Zafet is situated on Israel's third highest peak (800m above the sea) and is therefore the highest town of the country (does not sound much, but is quite high compared to the lowest point of the world, at the Dead Sea with 400 metres BELOW the sea level !!). The montain town has a rich religious heritage of Jewish mysticismn and is today exclusively inhabited by Jews. It is a centre for Jewish studies with people coming from the whole world to study the Torah in one of the many schools around town. The synagogue quarter is full of small and some quite old synagogues, connected through narrow cobblestone streets and steep stairs. This is also why the town was fought for very hard during the Arab-Israeli war in 1948. The former police station still shows the bullets from this tis period on the facade.


There are othodox Jews all over in the streets.. the smallest children run around all dressed up in the orthodox style... I saw this for the first time ever and it adds even more to the town's particular atmosphere.. Zefat is also nown for its artist colony with Jewish artists coming here form all over the world... there is art everywhere...!! However, after three or four hours I had seen the place.. I had howver booked a bed and breakfast here.. so I had to stay.. but it is a good basis to visit the Golan Heights tomorrow morning..

9 May: Arrival, Haifa and Druze settlement

Arrival
Despite all the rumours about difficult border controls when arriving in Israel, things went relatively smoothly. This was however probably due to the fact that i had asked for another passport before leaving as I had stamps/visas from several muslim countries, inter alia Libya, in the other one.. Since I had a visa for Jordan in it (where I will go on the same trip and at the border post that I will use they do not give the visa), they nevertheless gave me a card with an "O" on it, whereas all the other received a card which looked differently.. When I wanted to walk out to get my luggage, I was stopped and questioned by a young woman dressed in civilian, but from the military it seems, while all the others just walked out... she asked me why I came to Israel, why I had a visa for Jordan, why I wanted to go there, why I had this strange passport.. (and here was the moment I had to lie... . but I think I did it quite well, she believed me...) As she wanted to know where I was going, I showed her my itinerary (printed out with all the infos on it) and she was quite surprised. I made a joke daying "I am German after all!" and she laughed (!!) She also asked me where I worked, wanted to see my business card, asked specifically what I was dealing with at the Commission and in the end asked me how it was possible that I could just take three and a half weeks off... (!!) I told her that I deserved it after months of hard work and she laughed again.. - I do however not know what was so funny about that.. it was just the TRUTH !! ;-) she was done with her "interview" after 5 minutes .. EASY !! ;-) I then went to the car rental to get my car.. an automatic car.. I hate them (actually never ever drove any... and had to ask - ahat a shame !!! (do not laugh!!) how to deal with D+ / D - / D / N / P ... He told me that I should forget about the + and - and just put D to Drive, P to Parc .. really, what a shame: so EASY ! .. even worse when I started .. the first hundreds of meters were awful.. I braked all the time.. confusing that there are only two pedals.. and then I wanted to change gears all the time on the motorway and went into N (neutral) .. AWFUL !!!!!!
After some time it went ok though and after a day of driving, I am now a professional .. ;-)

HAIFA
From the airport, at 4 in the morning I drove directly -according to my schedule - up North to Haifa (70km) .. just 15 km from there, in Atlit, I drove to the beach and stopped to sleep a little bit as I was really tired and the hotel in Haifa only openened at 8 in the morning. After a nice little walk on the beach and putting my toes in the water, I had three nice hours of sleep in the car.. Finding the hotel in Haifa was easy and the girl at the reception was Belgian and grew up in Brussels.. She now lives in Haifa with her parents, who opened the guesthouse...
I visited the beautiful Baha'i gardens first. Haifa is the world's religious centre of the Baha'i religion, a religion born only in the 19th century.. there are an estimated 6 million Baha'i all over the world in 75 countries. In addition to the two prophets who are considered the founders of this religion, they integrate other prophets such as Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Buddha and Krishna.

The gardens are a central part of their sanctuary (in addition to the shrine with the prophet in the middle of it) and each Baha'i should during his life climb up at least once the 1400 stairs of the Baha'i garden... I climbed at least some of them... ;-)
Another interesting place in Haifa is the German colony, which was founded by people of my region (Württemberg) who came here in 1868 to create an exemplary christian community... the houses have recently been renovated and the area is now the trendiest place in town with nice restaurants and bars.. unfortunately most of them were closed as it was Shabbat..
That is why also the rest town was quite empty and so I decided to take my car and to drive to a Druze village 15km from Haifa.

Daliyat-al-Karmel
This is the largest Druze settlement in Israel. The Druze are a distinct social and religious group, speaking arabic and practicing a secret religion, which is an offspring of Islam. While believing in Allah, they believe at the same time in reincarnation. There were no particular sights there, but it was nevertheless a very dynamic town, with men all dressed in black and with white turbans, women in black with white scarves... Most Druzes live in Syria and in Lebanon. In Israel they have even a separate division in the Israeli army...!! I first tried a local pancake with fresh goat cheese, herbs and olive oil and then sat down in a bakery and had a mint tea with local sweets. That was sooo good !!

NEW ADVENTURE: Israel and Jordan

Dear friends,

I am on my way again: until 2 June I will tavel through Israel and Jordan... I would like to stress that it is BY PURE COINCIDENCE that Pope Benedict is there at the same time... and I will even be in Nazareth the same day than him... Now I know as well why it was so difficult finding accomodation there.. but I fortunately found one tonight (even if it is with shared shower/wc) .... so I am safe... ;-)

Here it is much easier to find Intenet access than in India, so you will hear from me more regularly.. (I guess - with a little bit of German discipline... ;-) ) I also brought my portable computer as there is free wifi -access in many hotels and this allows me to write my blog ideally every day just before going to sleep.. this allows me as well to download my photos direcrtly on my computer, make a selection and then upload them directly on the blog.. great, no ??

I had a very nice day in Haifa (about which I will report more tonight..). Now I will need to get started for the day.. lots of things to see in Akko/Acre and Safet/Tsfat (the different names / ways to transcribe Hebrew) are sometimes quite confusing...)
Juergen

Back to Belgium

Now I am back to Belgium and I actually managed to sort out my pictures in the train today. Here is the link to the final album (a collection of all photos with subtitles / comments...)
Hope you had fun reading / looking at the pictures....
http://picasaweb.google.de/lh/photo/xnTVV7BGa7sv4PMa-3OMCw?authkey=A4aO4O-YYd0&feat=directlink

Back to Delhi...

This is perhaps the last entry before I fly back home.. tomorrow I will visit Ajmer, an important Muslim place of worship (actually for your information and in order to explain this very big mix of religions here) India has 82 per cent of Hindu people, 12 per cent of Muslims, 2 percent of Sikhs, 2,5 per cent of Christians, 0,8 Buddhists and 0,4 Jains) and then in the late afternoon I will take a train (this time first class - to have experienced all the classes except the local class...) to Delhi, where I spent another night, do some more sightseeing and shopping the following day and in the night, or better in the early morning of saturday, I will take my plane back home...
Unfortunately, I did not manage to upload more pictures.. I will make a selection on Sunday, hen I have some time in the train going back from Germany to Brussels and will put them online Sunday night...
Thank you all for following my trip and let's see where my next one will lead me ! See you soon after I am back I hope !!

Pushkar: kite festival

Now I am in Pushkar, a magic city with a small little lake, where the Hindus worship Brahma. It seems actually to be the only place in the world where there is a Brahma temple (because he misbehaved and his wife made a spell on him that he only be worshipped here...). There are many pilgrims here in town, who come here to take their ritual bath in the lake, which is surrounded by staircases leading into the water, so called "ghats". It is quite impressive if you see the masses bathing, throwing colourful flowers in the water and pouring milk in it... most of the people do it in the early morning and so I got up at 6. Fortunately, my guesthouse is right on the water with a view on the ghats so I could see at 6 from the terrace right in front of my room that it was still too early and went back to bed. By the way, this guesthouse is the worst of my whole trip, while the "Guide Routard" puts it in the sections "medium to fancy" !!!! There is definetely nothing fancy about it,... it looks actually quite dirty and so I sleep in my sleeping bag in order not to have to touch the bedsheets... But I could not fall back asleep as there was too much noise.. actually almost all night through you hear music or drums from the many temples in town. In the end, the masses started arriving at around 7h30... there was a little bit of fog and therefore, it was an especially mystic atmosphere... that is probably also why all these hippies (many with rastas and crazy clothes..), from all around the world, come here and sit in the temples and play drums and move to the sacral music.. quite strange actually... but they seem to enjoy it... ;-)
The kite festival, taking place today, made this day even more special. Already right after sunrise, the first kites started to fly in the sky.. beautiful !!! I observed for a while two boys on the neighbouring roof terrace, one 5 or 6 and probably his younger brother of about 3. They tried to make their kite fly, over and over again, but did not manage.. but they did not get frustrated and even after 40 minutes they kept trying... the younger one, once he saw me, smiled and started to perform the latest Bollywood-dance-moves for me.. really funny !! ;-) His brother got however a bit irritated about this, as he did not get the support he wanted, and therefore blamed him for the lack of succes.. (well, if I unbderstood the body language correctly...)
Later in the afternoon, when I was looking for the post office to finally get all my postcards posted (sorry guys, the cards will arrive much later that I do.. but I never managed to get to the post office anbd it is not that easy to get stamps here..). I therefore entered a more residential area, where there was enourmously loud music playing from the roofs.. I looked upwards and some guys waved at me and asked me to come up.. and that is what I did.. and what a surprise: All roof terraces were packed with people, whole families, many had huge loudspeakers installed (and when I say huge I mean huge.. like in a disco!!!) and played Indian pop and some times even some kind of Indian hip hop / rap and even kind of techno music.. and there were hundreds of kites flying in the sky !!! AMAZING !!!!!!!! And the people had so much fun.. It was more the teenagers than the kids, but also quite some adult men who enjoyed flying the kite, cutting the string of other kites so that they fall down.. then it is the game to get them, pick them up as a trophee and start flying them as well.. Many however end up in trees, on electrical wires, etc... the roof terracre I was one was real fun.. the teenagers actually moved to the musci while flying their kite and wre really professional.. they "won" many many kites... the music was fantastic and so I joined them for some dancing ! GREAT !! Indians really know how to have fun... I stayed almost three hours, until after sunset because I enjoyed it so much !! The festival is called Makar Sankranti and heralds the transition of the sun into the Northern hemisphere. Everyone joins in this riotous celebration on the rooftops to the accompaniment of drums or music and shout " Woh Kata Hai !" as adversaries’ kites are cut down. And everyone’s an adversary! Any kite in the sky is fair game. This was certainly a highlight of my trip and I will never forget the experience !!

Photos !!!

Finally I have uploaded some photos (see below in the section "in the bus" and "in the desert". This took too long and I therefore paste a link to a webalbum...
I will try to copy more pictures into the webalbum tomorrow night.. This time I only copied a selection of pictures and spare you with all the other stuff that I take photos of.
Here is the link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/muellju/India1?authkey=7bQZo-kXmto&feat=directlink

In the bus

Today I travelled by bus for 6 hours from Mount Abu to Udaipur. Mount Abu - as the name says - is in the mountains (around 1200m) and has a very famous and extremely beautiful Jain-Temple. Jain is a minority religion here in India, which produced however the most beautiful temples of the country: the Dilwara temple of Mount Abu is a set of 5 temples, of which two are entirely built in white marble with amazing carvings: it was supposed to be a kind of "picture book" about religious stories and myths for those who could not read.. AMAZING.. Some people compare the artistic value of the temple with the Taj Mahal.. For the rest, Mount Abu is one of the preferred destinations of Indians for their honeymoons but also for school children for school trips, because of its beautiful and romatic setting on the shore of a small lake and surrounded by mountains. There were almost no non-Indian tourists around..

Sunset over Nakki Lake (Mount Abu) and view on the lake from my hotel room and some pilgrims meditating on the mountain at sunset...

But I wanted to talk about the bus trip! It was supposed to be an Express-bus, which usually stops only at very few and precise places as opposed to local buses basically stopping everywhere where people want to get on or off. You also have an assigned seat. However, this express-bus turned out to be a local bus, which meant that we stopped, during the 6 hours, I don't know exactly but at least a hundred times (I swear this is true!!) The advantage, if you want to call it like this, is that you meet lots of people in these buses. Actually, people communicate much more with each other in public transport than in Europa, where everybody just sits there, reads on stares around. Here, travelling is a social event and the bus is like a mini-society, with very poor but also more wealthy people, with very young (several newly born) and extremely old people (difficult to guess, 90 perhaps??), some behaving others not at all, some respecting other travellers and others imposing their will on others.. I can tell you, even if you do not speak Hindi, this is quite an adventure..

I put two pictures of the inside of the bus for you to get an impression.... ;-)

I just want to highlight two of the little stories I experiences. The first one is the my seat neighbour for most part of the trip, who was one of the few speaking English in the bus. His name was Narpat and he is a police man, a constable actually as he proudly told me. He was on his way from close to Jaisalmer to a place 100 km from Udaipur for a 9 months training course. He actually has a Master degree in Hindi literature and we chatted quite a bit during the long trip., not only how someone with a degree in Hindi literature ends up as a policeman (well, some of you might say "how does someone with a university degree in French literature end up as a Eurocrat?" and maybe you are right, the situations are perhaps not that different... ;-)
The second one is about a big paper box that somebody put in front of me (as I was sitting in the first row of the bus, this was the only space where people could put their luggage or whatever else they brought along..). It was a box which formerly contained packages of baby food and had a big smiling baby face on it.. As people continued to come in the bus, the mysterious box had to be moved several times and as it was not completely closed, people peaked in, but I could never see what was in it.. and some of you know how curious I can be... ;-) I suspected that there was some kind of animals in it, a chicken or soemthing.. but strangely enough I did not hear any noise.. I thought that I could smell aomething animal-like, but in India you never know where exactly a smell comes from.. it is always an enormous cocktail of (good and bad) smells.. At some point, on of the guys sitting next to the driver all in the front realised that his bag had gone wet by something and investigated where this came from.. it was not really clear... I took this as a confirmation for my hypothesis and immediately suspected that it it came from the animal in the box.. Once Narpat had peaked in the box and had talked to other people about it, I asked him what it was and he told me that it was a scientific model, which a group of four young students bring to a science competition taking place in Udaipur.. ;-) He opened the box a bot but I could not really figure out what it was.. after some time, we also knew where the liquid came from: it was actually one of the pots with food which had a leak and so some of the greasy sauce got out...
It is also remarkable how well bus drivers manage the very difficult traffic conditions here.. the road we took today was especially difficult as it went throught the Araveli-mountains, where they are building a four lane highway, which is a project of an enormous scope. All along the road there were works, trucks (oh no, I should say "lorries", trying to keep up with my British English..;-) ), people working on the road. Especially once it was dark this was a real challenge. There are actually many of these major road-construction projects ongoing as currently in Rajasthan, even between the very big cities, there are no good roads and that's why it takes so long getting from one place to another.. this will change soon, when these projects will be finished. This shows that India is preparing for increased traffic which will soon become a reality with the 2000 Euro car by the Indian car manufacturer Tata, called Tata Nao, which will be released in March. (see for more info on this: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/article3164205.ece) Not to imagine how traffic in India will look like in 5 or 10 years...
Well, this was my story of the day.. I am now normally for three nights in a hotel with internet access (Wow !!!) and so I might even manage to upload - as promised a long time ago already - some pictures..
Now, I will have a nice lamb curry (some meat for a change after all this Veggy-food) on the hotel's roof terrace zith a nice view on Lake Pichota and the beautifully lit castle on an island in the lake, which was one of the places of the James Bond movie "Octopussy"... ;-)

Desert: Jaisalmer

Yesterday morning I arrived in Jaisalmer, the "carcassonne" of India. It has a very nice Fort with an entirely preserved city wall and it is ion the middle of the Thar-desert.
The trip in the "sleeper class" by train was not so pleasant actually. There was a very bad smell of pee and it was extremely dirty, but with the sleeping bag it was fine: I covered my nose with it and then it was bearable. At dinner I had met a French family, who also wanted to take this train and we socialised a bit. Their daughter is studying for a year here in India and the parents came for a visit together with the daughter's best friend. We actually met again at the train station and discovered that we had places in the same compartment (each compartment is for 6 people and we had 5 of the places..) that was quite a coincidence. As the train was one hour late, we spent the waiting time together, which was really nice.. The parents were quite shocked when we entered the train: the dirt, the smell, the cold. They were not happy at all, but did not say anything.. I have to say (and, hello Mom!, thuis is nothing against you..) I cannot imagine what my mother would have said in such a situation... ;-) I slept at least a bit, eve if it was very noisy.. but at leat my sleaping bag kept me worm.. the French family did not sleep at all as they were not properly equipped...
When I arrived at my nice hotel, (which is a nice Haveli, built for a young boy before he became Maharaja), I took breakfast on the roof terrace with a beautiful view on the fort. When I finished, my room was ready and I could take a nice hot shower... that feels good !!
Today, I went on a camel tour (or "camel safari" as they call it here..) my camel driver, Suban, and his camel, Rocket (a racing camel I was told...), showed me around.. Fortunately I was not in a group, so it was nice and quiet as it should be in the desert.. just the melancholic songs of Suban sometimes broke the silence.. He was only 15. I learned that a camel lives around 25 years if it is well kept and only 15 if not. A camel costs 30.000 Rupees (a little bit less than 500 Euros - which is- if it is true - really a lot for local standards..)

Another thing which impressed me quite a bit is the presence of military here close to the border to Pakistan. The city actually lives from tourism and the military. Once or twice twicea day and in the evening, fighter jets make control flights. But with the current tensions between the two countries,this seems normal. Still, it left a strange impression on me. I talked to several people about the relations between India and Pakistan and I was quite surprised that almost everybody thinks that all terrorists come from Pakistan and that the Pakistani government finances them.. There was no way I could convince them that generalising was perhaps not appropriate.
Now I will go for dinner and then I will go to the train station , where I will get a night train to Jodhpur. Fortunately this time in 3rd class (which is better than the sleeper class I have already experienced.., at least that is what people say.. let's see... ) The dinner was with this beautiful view on the fort:

On the health front, for those of you worried, my stomach is doing fine (after some initial adaptation problems, if you understand what I mean...), I cought however a cold (at least I have a soar throat and I start sneezing now.) I got some strepsils here.. which have a local Indian taste with ginger, lemon, honey etc...

News !!

Finally I have the possibility to give you some news as I found an Internet Cafe here in Bikaner, a city of 800 000 inhabitants in the North-West of Rajasthan, not too far from the Pakistani border. I have some time before going to dinner and then taking the night train to Jaisalmer, even further to the West and closer to the border. Both cities are on the edge of the desert. Bikaner has a very special flair as there are Camels and Camel Charts all over the place, carrying all kind of goods. It has a huge and very beautiful fort/castle built by the local Maharaja in the 16th century. It seems like one in a fairy tale.
My travel experiences are so far very positive: people are extremely friendly and helpful, which is really necessary as most indications are only in hindi and and therefore I need help to get on the right bus, find my way through the labyrinths of the cities, notably the old parts.
I am very surprised how few tourists there are in this area, especially tourists travelling on their own , meaning not with a tour operator or a guide. I have to admit that I had been thinking in some situations how easy it would be just to hire a driver in order to make my life easy, but then, you do not really experience the life of this amazing country.
Today I visited the Rat Temple of Deshnoke, where the local Hindus adore rats (following a legend they are reincarnations of children of the area). There are thousands of rats running around and you have to take off the shoes before entering the temple, tourists and some locals however leave on their socks, which is advisable as the rats leave their excrements a little bot all over.. worshippers bring food for the rat and the people in the temple boil milk for them in huge pots and afterwards you see the rats around the pot drinking milk. Quite amazing actually. The first 10 minutes I was a bit hysteric and each time a rat approached I went away but at some point it is just not possible. And in any case they are very peaceful... after a while I got used to it and some rats even came to sniff my feet !! (I swear that I washed them this morning !!) I even saw the white rat, which , in the local belief, means that I will now be lucky for all my life ! Fortunately I came here !! ;-)
During the last two days I had been visiting the Shekavati-area, which is an area where many merchants lived who built beautiful houses, which have mural paintings everywhere outside and inside. Unfortunately they are quite in a bad state as the merchants went later to Calcota and Bombay because trade was much better there.. most of the owners do not invest anything in them and so they are slowly falling apart. I stayed in an Ecolodge (http://apanidhani.com/), which is a pioneer project here in India. It is not only beautiful but quite impressive what the owner built up in the last 20 years. It was also very sociable as all the guests have dinner together, sitting on a long table. He explained a lot and we had interesting discussions.
In jaipur I went to the cinema together with my very nice rickshaw driver in a nice kitch-like Bollywood film. It was just a great experience !! Another interesting ecperience that I was able to get the LCD of my digital camera (which somehow broke and so I could not take any picture anymore as I do not have a separate viewer) within 24 hours. After having tried 5 or 6 shops, we finally found one, who was able to get it seems the only LCD for my camera model in India (all the others said it would take 3 to 5 days..) delivered from Delhi and built in... This was a big relief as I had already feared that I would not be able to take any reasonable pictures. But in the end I have to admit that the pictures that I took on the afternoon before the camera was repaired (without seing what I was photographing...) were not too bad..;-)
Well, enough for today. I am getting hungry ...
Hope to be able to write soon and then also to have some time to upload pictures...