Israel

 Israel Day 1, Thursday March 3

This was a transit day and filled with the stress of flying from one foreign city to another. As we were waiting for our group to gather in the main hall of the Tel-Aviv airport, Danny, one of the passengers who shared the Danube cruise with us, turned to me and said, “This is just like the West!”  What he meant was that, unlike Cairo, everything in Cairo was sleek and modern.   The David Ben-Gurion Airport was luxurious, well maintained, and there was an order to it that a casual visitor could make sense of. The buses were brand new, electric, and put to shame almost any public transportation vehicle that we have in the U.S.  

Unlike Cairo, there were street signs that people actually obeyed and streets crossings that made the pedestrians feel safe. The high rise buildings in Cairo looked like a combination of the Cabrini-Green social experiment in Chicago and the Soviet era austere, but functional, public buildings that we saw in Eastern Europe.  Either by family tradition or inattention, the tall buildings in Cairo were either abandoned or neglected. In a sharp contrast, the average condo in Jerusalem goes for $700,000 and there is always a shortage of housing.

Israel Day 2, Friday March 4:

We started off at the Israel Museum to see a scale model of Jerusalem at the time of when Jesus was crucified.  This helped a lot because it put the whole Old City into an easily digestible nugget. Next up was the Holocaust Museum, which was done very well but, since I taught a whole semester class on the Holocaust, there weren’t any new images or ideas left to shock me. Finally, we saw the Dome of the Rock on to of the Western (Wailing) Wall.  It was one of the few times that I lost my breath on this trip because, even though I had seen it on the news and in textbooks, you really have to see it in person to get the whole scene in your head. 

Surprises on vacation are usually not welcome and, when I opened my email at 5:00 am, we learned that Tracey failed her COVID test. She stayed in the hotel room while I went on the tour because I was sure that she had a false positive. We had a doctor come to the hotel to give her a second test and it was positive as well. My hope was that Tracey could rejoin the tour when she tested negative and all of the air went out of my balloon when I slowly began to realize that she would not be joining us. I really didn’t want to do any of the tours without her and determined to stay by her side for the rest of her quarantine  

Israel Day 3, March 10

Tracey and I sprang for a private tour of the Old City.  I’m quick succession, our guide took us to the room where the Last Supper occurred, King David’s Tomb, and the Western Wall.  We’re were at the wall on a day where the authorities allowed the Jewish boys to celebrate their Bar Mitzvah.  It was quite a celebration with a lot of dancing, bells, whistles, and drums.  One boy held a Torah encased in a silver container and the box was almost as big as he was. 

The major event of the day was to walk the Via Dolorosa, which contains the Stations of the Cross.  At Station 7, Tracey was able to put her hand at the exact place where Jesus put his hand on the wall for support.  She cried several times during the day but this was the first time where she became overwhelmed. 

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher contains the last 5 stations of the cross under one roof.  Tracey was able to put her hands on the block of marble where Jesus’ body was washed after he died.  Then she touched the rock upon which the cross stood.  Finally, she felt Jesus’ tomb.  It was an inspiring day; one of which many true believers dream of. 

Israel Day 4, March 11

We paid for a private tour of Bethlehem.  Our first stop was at the Shepherd’s Garden, where Gabrielle descends from heaven to tell the shepherds of Jesus’ birth.

The Church of the Nativity has a Greek Orthodox Church on the main floor. The basement has an enclave with a hole in the floor. Put your hand in the hole to touch the exact place where Jesus was born. There were false walls up everywhere but there were holes in the walls where you could touch the original cave walls.

Egypt and Israel Non Sequitur

+  “Nothing to see here!  Just cruising down the Nile, through Aswan, on a luxury cruise ship in Egypt.”  This was the constant thought that I had as we sailed the Nile, or visited Jesus’ tomb, or did anything extraordinary. 

+  “You only see it now, when it is one sided, but trust me, we have an equal partnership. My wife gives me purpose.”  Our fellow passengers were trying to figure out the relationship between Tracey and me. If anyone were to treat me as some sort of martyr for standing by Tracey, my standard reply is “She gives me purpose!”

+ Tracey got down on her hands and knees and cried as she touched the place where Jesus was born and where he was crucified.  She cried again when she touched the place where Jesus was born. I told her to let it all out because I need to see her reaction in order for me to get excited by all of these places. 

+ A not never well known fact is that there were over 70 million mummies. There were so many mummies that they were used as cordwood. Our guide explained that they were cheap and they burned for a really long time. 

+ “I am not your brother.”  An old and angry Palestinian cab driver said this to me after I paid him and said “Keep the change, brother.”  It was one of the few times that I felt prejudiced against for being an American. 

+ “Three dollars!  That’s just 20 sheckles”. I told this guy that I didn’t want a guide and that I didn’t have any money. He insisted, led us around for a couple of blocks, and was upset at the small tip after I told him that I didn’t have any cash.  

+  Raj, our guide in Bethlehem, said “I have two boys. They make me miserable.”  He didn’t crack a smile and wasn’t trying to be funny or ironic.  We were just trying to get to know him but it was clear that he didn’t want to talk about his family. 

+ Raj said “We all look alike!”  “You all look alike!”  Raj was angry because a Chinese man said that all of the Arabs look alike. Raj said “I learned the name of one person in the group, a name that I could pronounce, and then called them all by the same name!”

Egypt

Saturday, February 19: Day 1. We spent 27 hours in transit and arrived at the hotel at 9:00 pm. The first impression that I had of Cairo was the traffic. Our guide said that on any given day there are 14 million drivers on the road: the monster awakens at 7:00 and doesn’t slow down until midnight. I thought that the traffic was like jazz in that there is a constant improvisation to it; a syncopated rythym. There were large trucks and buses and motorcycles and cars and pedestrians, all competing for space on the road, and none of them seemed to follow any rules. For example, the lane lines were just a suggestion as three to four cars fit into a road designed for two.  The pedestrians crossing the street seemed to be able to “close their eyes and shut their ears” before risking their lives to get from one side to the other.  The motorcycles weaved in and out of traffic and, if there was even three feet between a bus and a concrete barrier, the motorcycles would find a way to squeeze through. The Egyptians seemed to have no fear of death.

Sunday, February 20, Day 2.  It was museum day as we visited the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, which was the most professional and modern museum with many of the exhibits under glass, and the Egyptian Museum, which was much older but contained a lot of artifacts that Tracey was able to touch. Another highlight of the day was the Alabaster Mosque, which is easily identifiable from all around Cairo because of its size and the beautiful silver coating on its domes. 

Since Americans are viewed as VIPs, we had our own police escort. They had their lights and sirens on the whole time that we drove from museum to museum and they helped guide us through the traffic. Also, we had an armed guard on our bus with us, just in case. All tourism ended in 2011 with the Arab Spring and was only allowed to restart in 2017. I think that we got the VIP treatment because Egypt is hoping to encourage more Americans to visit their country. 

We stayed at the Ritz Carleton and Arab Oil Nations was finishing up a major conference on Sunday.  There were a lot of obviously important men coming in and out of the hotel; one sheik had his own four man security detail, each with guns bulging out from under their jackets. It was chaos out in the front of the hotel as visitors had to get through a security fence, bomb sniffing dogs, police with mirrors on the end of poles to check for explosives under the vehicle, and, of course, xray screening.  It wasn’t all tense, however, because a table of four sheiks, noticing that Tracey is blind, sent over a bowl of Egypt’s finest dates. It was a nice gesture coming from complete strangers.

Monday, February 21, Day 3. We took a 45 minute flight from Cairo to Luxor to see the Temple of Karnak. It was exactly what you would think of when you think of Egyptian temples as it had a huge statue of Ramses II on the inside, along with great columns and broad avenues lined with sphinxes. On the outside of the huge walls were two statues, at about thirty feet high, guarding the entrance to the temple. We saw a light show on the walls of the Temple of Karnak later on in our tour. 

We boarded “The Tosca,” the ship that took us up the Nile, at the end of the day. It is a nice ship with an all wood interior in the party room, lounge, and common areas. Because the Nile had been so low for the past four months, no cruise ship had been able to sail up the river, which explains why the locals were so glad to see us. Little kids cheered us from the shore as we sailed by. It was warm enough for us to relax and sit in the sun on the top deck and, as we passed by one small town after another, we noticed that each town had at least one minerette that would call the Muslims to prayer five times a day. It was eerie and exciting to be immersed in a culture so different from my own. 

Tuesday February 22, Day 4.  Each temple that we visited was special for its own unique reasons. The Dendera Temple demonstrated the Greek and Roman influence on the later Egyptian art and architecture. The Temple of Luxor, located on the site of Thebes, the capital of the New Kingdom, was just like a picture from a world history textbook. It was enchanting and I had to pinch myself to remind myself that I was really in the presence of this awesome piece of work. 

I am beginning to understand the enmity between the Middle East and the West. The Dendera Temple had a beautiful relief stolen from it by the French and one of the two huge obelisks that were stationed in the front of the Temple of Luxor is now located at an intersection in Paris. Several times throughout the tour our guide would say, “this is just a reproduction. You would have to go to the British Museum to see the original!”  It makes me think that we need a new Antiquities Act which would force all countries to send back these treasures to the country of origin. 

At the end of day we took a horse and buggy ride through Luxor. Imagine being in the Cairo traffic, with the motorcycles and pedestrians mixing it up with the cars and buses, and the only thing between you and meeting the Lord is an 18th century buggy. I named our horse “Elmer” because he was but a step from the glue factory. Some of the cars waited until they were right next to the horse before they honked at us to get us off the road. You would think that Elmer would rear up and sprint off somewhere but, since the horse was used up and praying for death, it just put it’s head down and continued on.

Tuesday February 23, Day 5:  The Valley of the Queens was special because the tomb of Nefretari had hieroglyphics that were in full color. Salt deposits in the mud that the temple was buried in helped to protect the art and everything looked brand new. The Valley of the Kings held King Tut’s tomb and Tracey and I had our picture taken next to the famous mummy. The Temple of Hatshepsut was our final stop. This is a popular attraction with the locals because it is so open and accessible. We had to complete with high school and college students for space on the tram that took us from the front entrance to the attraction. One boy chatted me up because he obviously just wanted to practice his English. We were one of a few white people in a sea of Arabs. 

It was on this day that I became tired of everyone asking me for baksheesh, or a tip or a bribe. If you wanted to use the bathroom, for example, an attendant was there asking for baksheesh after he handed you a towel. Guys would run to you when you left the airport, grab the handles on your luggage, roll the bags across the street, and then ask for baksheesh.  If you were at a temple then a local would give you extra information on the attraction and then ask for baksheesh for this little bit of information. It became almost absurd when I tipped a guy at a nice restaurant five dollars. He returned to my table a few minutes later to exchange bills with me because the five dollar bill that I gave him was old and dog eared. It was all about getting as much from the tourist as possible and I quickly grew tired of the hawkers trying to sell us their wares as soon as we entered or left a temple.

Thursday February 24, Day 6:  It is not very often that I am surprised but I couldn’t believe how beautiful the Cataract Hotel was in Aswan. We took high tea on the terrace and had a georgeous view of the boats sailing on the river. Our guide showed us the exact table on the exact spot on the terrace where Agatha Christie wrote, “Death on the Nile.”  The expense of building, maintaining, and staffing this luxurious hotel reminded me of what it might have been like to visit a maharaji in India during the time of Britain’s Raj, or the Greenbrier in the U.S.  But we were in Africa and I am willing to bet that this was the best hotel on the whole continent.

Friday February 25, Day 7:  This was a hard day. We left the hotel at 8:00 to catch our 10:15 chartered flight. Only, because this is Egypt, our plane was late and we didn’t board until 11:45. That meant that we could only spend two hours at Abu Simbel, which is at the southern border of Egypt. We were back on the ship at 6:00 so we spent ten hours in transit to see this historical site. Don’t get me wrong, it was worth it, but I am glad that I didn’t know beforehand how tough this day was going to be. 

When the Aswan Dam was built much of Nubia was flooded and, since Abu Simbel is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, money was collected from all over the world to move the temple to higher ground. It wasn’t just the statues of Ramses II that had to be moved but the whole mountaintop. The temple was cut apart into 40 million pieces, moved block by block, and reassembled. The temple is a national treasure for the country of Egypt, the it was worth the effort, but I would like to know how many man hours it took to undergo such a massive project.

Saturday February 26, Day 8:  We passed through the Aswan Dam, with the Nile on one side of the dam and Lake Nasser on the other, on the way to the Philae Temple. What makes this temple unique is that it is built on an island, so it is difficult to get to and, like Abu Simbel, it was moved by taking it apart to avoid being submerged.  To make sure that it wouldn’t sink under water again UNESCO paid to have it rebuilt on top of the first cataract.

The other attraction for today was to get into a sailboat and sail on the Nile. The hook was that the sailboat had no motor so we were relying on the skills of the captain, and his knowledge of the wind, to get us back to port. Of course, the hawkers couldn’t let us enjoy our leisure cruise as two boys rowed to our boat, hung onto side, and began to sing. Their hope was that some tourists would offer them baksheesh for their efforts but when they realized that no one was going to give them money, they let go of the boat and paddled away.

Sunday, February 28, Day 9:  This was our last full day on the Tosca and our last port of call was Esna. We have made a lot of friends while on the cruise but the people whom we became the closest with are Laura and her two children, Amelia and Chase. They had a small cocktail party in their stateroom last night and it felt good to be one of the few two people to be invited. This morning I felt a rush of gratitude as Tracey and I were sitting by ourselves and Laura, sensing that we wanted company, reserved all of the seats around us so that we could spend some time with her family. Up to that point, I was feeling grumpy and not in the mood for small talk but Laura, Amelia, and Chase are so effusive that I immediately lightened up and wanted to share some stories about our trip. 

One of the reasons why we wanted to travel with the U of L group is that we were hoping to make some connections and follow through when we arrived back in Louisville. For the first time, I think that this plan may work with Laura and her family as they are a guaranteed good time and we all enjoy each other’s company.

Monday, February 28, Day 10:  Our tour of Coptic (Christian) Cairo included the Cavern Church, where the Holy Family fled to after Jesus was born, and the Flying Church, which earned its nickname because it was built on poles.

Our U of L traveling group is used to Tracey and I now. We make a unique pair and I am sure that our fellow passengers were trying to figure out who was the guy wearing nothing but Ironman clothing and his blind wife.  One lady said that I was a good person for taking care of Tracey. She made it sound like charity and I had to disabuse her of that idea. “What you have seen on this trip makes it look like our relationship is one sided. Believe me, we are equal partners.”  And then I play up how much smarter than me, being the only blind woman to graduate from the U of L law school, and then summing up our relationship by saying, “She’s the brains of the outfit.”

Tuesday, March 1, Day 11:  They saved the best for last as we toured the Giza Pyramid, Sphinx, Memphis, and the Step Pyramid of Djoser.  We were allowed to climb on the Great Pyramid and then go inside of it. For some reason the electric lights wouldn’t work and we had to take steep stairs down into the pyramid with only our cell phone lights to guide the way.  The experience was exactly what you would think that it would be and it did not disappoint 

Wednesday, March 2, Day 12:  We we supposed to fly to Israel today but British Airways canceled our flight. Our tour offered us a side trip to Alexandria so, rather than spend the day hanging around the hotel, we took a three hour bus ride to see Egypt’s second largest city.

We visited the major attractions of the catacombs of Kom El-Shoqafa, Pompey’s Pillar, the Roman amphitheater called Kom El-Dikka, and the Alexandria National Museum.  It was worth the effort to drive so far and, according to the law of unintended consequences, we were able to see a different and much more modern Egypt once we left Cairo. The city stank of decay but once we reached the suburbs we crossed Africa’s largest suspension bridge, for example, and planned communities that would not look out of place in the U.S.