Traveling to Israel from Sharm
--------------------- ISRAEL --------------------- To Israel via Tez TOUR costs 180 dollars per person to go. This is a bus tour. Departure at 10 pm - 2.5 hours bus ride to TBA (border town 230 km from Sharm el-Sheikh). Around 00-30 border. You get off the bus and cross the border on foot. First, customs and passport control of the Egyptians. Through 70 meters - customs and passport control of the Israelis. The border was quickly passed - somewhere in an hour, I was even surprised. Everything is well organized and clear. It's fun - all Russians come with pillows (scientists already, the backs are hard on the bus))))). A crowd of people with pillows crosses the border))))))) - I was already whinnying from afar - these are definitely ours))). The visa is slapped at the border with the postscript ONE DAY ONLY. Well, actually it is - this is a one-day excursion. Then they put me on an Israeli bus. It takes another 40 minutes to an hour. Then 3-4 hours driving around Israel. Around 6 am - Breakfast near the Dead Sea. I thought we would swim in the morning, but for some reason not, after breakfast they were taken to Jerusalem. Apparently there is no morning swim - because the Dead Sea cream shop is not yet open at this time (why do we need it, one wonders). Viewpoint, then by bus past the Garden of Gethsemane to the Old City. For some reason, they are being driven past the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin, where the room of the Last Supper is located. Why Tez Tour does not deliver there is a mystery (they are allegedly imported from street travel agencies). In the Old City - the general plans of the Fortress of King Herod, the remains of his Palace. Walking to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (erected above two Shrines - Calvary (Small Dome) and Tomb (Big Dome). Finishing the Tomb - with the money of Russian tsars (the guide calls the figure 3 million gold chervonets). Services of all Christian denominations are held in the Temple. We got to the organ music of Catholics, the reading of prayers in Latin and monks in brown robes with hoods. Inspection of Golgotha, the place where the cross stood, the plates on which Jesus was wrapped in a shroud, the Tomb, where the Holy Fire descends, a fragment of a stone with which the entrance was littered. then they examined the crack after lightning on the column at the entrance - where the fire came down when in the 15th century they tried to wait for it without Greek (Orthodox) clergy. And finally, an inspection of the crack in the rock, through which the blood of Jesus flowed from the cross to the grave of the first person. Adam is buried under Golgotha. And this is symbolic (on Icons, if you remember, a skull and bones are always depicted under the cross - and now it has become clear why). And the Garden of Gethsemane is called so - because in Hebrew it means the place where the olive presses stood - in fact, this is a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives. So from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher - the transition along the roofs of the Jewish quarters to the Wailing Wall. (the roofs are the streets on the upper level, as it were). You are walking over the market (sort of) of the time of Christ. True, the roofs themselves are a remake of the mid-20th century. In general, everything is very interesting. On the roofs you come to the Wailing Wall. She is a symbol of the loss by the Jews of the Temple, built 3000 years ago by King Solomon. The Wailing Wall is just a small section of the fortress wall that stretches further for a kilometer and surrounds the Old City. The temple of King Solomon was destroyed several times, rebuilt. And in 70 A. D. e. destroyed again by the Romans. The Arabs in the 7th century NE built a golden-domed mosque on this site. Near the Wailing Wall, however, the Jews do not cry, but pray fervently. (They cry, according to our aunt-guide, only in the tax office))). Then moving to Bethlehem (street travel agencies do not have a trip to Bethlehem, as I understand it). Carried past the gorge - Geena Fiery - the place where Judas Iscariot hanged himself. Bethlehem is, by the way, the Palestinian territories. In Bethlehem, you can also buy pilgrim's crosses, pilgrim sets (holy earth, oil, something else in jars), icons. Inspection of the Church of the Nativity, 4th century, erected over the place where Jesus was born (Cave of the Nativity). The temple, as I understand it, was erected by the wife of Emperor Constantine - Elena, on the floor there are fragments of a mosaic of the 4th century. It was NOT destroyed by the Persians in 614, solely due to the fact that the frescoes depicted the Magi (Persians) who came to worship the born Jesus. The impressed Persians, seeing the Persians on the frescoes, decided not to destroy the Temple. After Bethlehem, they are taken for lunch (lunch, let's just say so to ourselves). Then 3 hours - moving to the Metrovoe Sea. Swimming there is about an hour (at 14-30 it’s not very pleasant to swim - it’s roasting). Plus, the Dead Sea is the lowest point on Earth, sort of. My camcorder stopped working. I cooled it - it seems to have earned. The Dead Sea itself is very beautiful early in the morning (mirror in the haze at dawn). And as a physical phenomenon - very interesting. You lie down on the water and lie - water is like water - but it holds like a float. Getting back on your feet is not easy. It’s better not to taste it - the tongue burns terribly, you have to immediately get out under the shower. On the beach - showers with fresh water and a shop with creams and mud. Then drive back to the border. At the hotel around 23:00.
