Israel. November 6,2014 Today we docked in Haifa Israel and joined 4 others for a 2 day tour of the country. Our guide is Dror Weitzmann a 40 something secular Jew who is knowledgable and frank about the problems facing Israel. He is also understandably proud of the accomplishments over the past 60 years. In Haifa we saw Mt Carmel home of Elijah the prophet as well as the headquarters of the Bahai faith. this is apparently an eastern religion of about 6 million which cannot be categorized as either Christian or Moslem or Jewish but more Buddhist , Taoist . They must give 1/7 of all their belongings to the faith. This has helped build a very beautiful shrine and hanging gardens. We then drove south about half way through Israel skirting the west,bank occupied area which is huge, the Palestinians live there . We continued through the Negev desert with its many kibbuttzes . In the northern part they have turned the desert green growing all kinds of fruit and vegetables and have planted cypress and date palm trees .  As we went further south there were more Bedouin villages. They are not as nomadic now and their camels have been supplanted by old subarus and hyundais. Our ultimate goal was Masada which is a high plateau used by King Herod as his winter palace. It was built around the time of Christ and is situated several thousand feet up and overlooking the Dead Sea.  A cable car takes you up. the real story here in the ruins is one of the more compelling in Jewish lore. Nearly 1000 men women and children lived atop the plateau and held off the roman army for 9 months. In the end they nearly all died though 2 women and 3 children were taken as roman slaves. Until 25 years ago Israeli soldiers took their oaths up on Masada but not today as the Israeli mindset has changed and moderated a bit. After touring the ruins we drove down to 450 feet below sea level, lowest point in the world, and went for a dip in the Dead Sea.  The salt it contains is magnesium so the water is slippery. I covered myself in the black mud and let it soak in and dry before rinsing.Felt so good and made my skin so soft. Was fun floating and actually difficult to stand up,as my feet kept floating to the surface. a beautiful day, not a cloud and around 73 degrees. The Judean desert is so stark with beige rocks and giant boulders. Kind of reminiscent of Death Valley. no surprise they are similar. Right across the Dead Sea we could see the country of Jordan. So close and so far especially for the Israelis. For the evening we are staying at the Addar hotel in west jerusalem. this was supposed to be the safest area however apparently some people were hurt or killed today and there are police everywhere. Lots of guns and rifles and security. I am not afraid. In fact we walked out in the dark to a rather sketchy area looking for food as we couldn't find a restaurant. In,the end we bought fruit and a beer from a local. they were very nice, Palestinian I think. Interesting day. tomorrow we tour the holy sites. as we entered the city the full moon rose and we stood on the mount of olives in the dark, site of Jesus ' entry on Palm Sunday. We could see all the lights and a large crowd of Spanish pilgrims joined us and sang songs of Jerusalem and hugged and cried in their joy at being here. So moving.