Day 4 - To Jerusalem, by Way of the Red Sea

Seriously, the weather in the Middle East is hot and dry. Like being baked in an oven and not sweating at all.
So, after the debacle at the Temple of Hatchepsut with the "Egyptian clothes", I decided, why not go "Egyptian" :)

A herd of goats by the side of the road :)
Short Note on the Red Sea
Q: Why is the Red Sea still called the "Red Sea"?
A: If you look around, there are no clouds at all. That gives a very clear sky, a very strong sun and very deep water. Because of that combination there are a lot of coral reefs in the Red Sea (which is why it's red)

The Red Sea! :-)

The Red Sea is kinda... blue, no? Turquoise, maybe?

Click on this picture!

Supposedly a candid shot...

Stuart, Barb, me and Martha

Ricardo, Chris, Jaelle and Mrs. Gregor

Chris, me and Dr. Moskala

Me, Dukjoong, Peter and LaiEn Next stop... The Egyptian-Israeli Border... The "Egyptian clothes" were *so* breezy... I decided to wear them the whole day... So when we got to the checkpoint our entire group got off the bus and we went through one-by-one. Now, Andrews is one of the top diverse schools in the world, and our group has people from maybe 13 different countries. I figured, hey, I'm just a Canadian, they'll let me through. That completely did not happen. They asked me to step aside, and the officer (BTW, all these officers are 18 or 19 years old, because that's the age of the mandatory military service in Israel), along with a guy with what looked like an AK-47 told me to step to another place for questioning. It was somewhat intense... They were like: - "Why are you dressed differently from the other Americans?" - "Were you asked to bring something into Israel?" - "How do you feel about Israel?" - "Who do you worship?" - "What religion are you?" After about 20 minutes of scrutiny... (or at least it felt that way), I finally convinced them that: "Look, I had no idea these clothes were "Muslim" clothes. I thought they were Egyptian wear." I asked them: "Should I not dress this way in Jerusalem?" They told me, "No, I can dress how I want." (and yet, they stopped me because I was dressed differently) Well, now I know what it is like to be screened like a Muslim going into Jerusalem... and, wow... yes, I do sympathize, especially if the more religious ones have to go through this for every single checkpoint. So, we finally made it through, and I regaled the entire bus with what had happened. :-) And from there, we headed into Israel

This was like completely night and day!	It was like we stepped from the desert into a resort town!
Boats on the Red Sea	There were no boats in the Egyptian waters there
*Just* across the border is a resort town!
And... that town was just an oasis. Back to the desert

Eilat or Beer-Sheva (the Well of Seven Oaths)
Gas! in New Israeli Shekels
We drove north with the Red Sea to our right the entire way!
Jerusalem! Jerusalem! (If you look carefully, you can see the golden Dome of the Rock)
We arrived at the Leonardo Hotel about one hour before dusk... This would be our rest stop for this leg of the journey.
The Damascus Gate We tried to make it to the Western Wall to see the opening of the Sabbath... and we made it to the end part of it... BUT... in order to respect the people we weren't allowed to take pictures on the Sabbath... Tomorrow: Mt. of Olives, Gethsemane, the Via Dolorosa and a few more... :)