The last day in Jerusalem and we’re at the Jaffe Gate or the western entrance to the old city of Jerusalem.  Sure wish someone would stuff one of those loafs of bread down my gullett…Mike has had a hard journey but still ready to start again after the first of the year with new traveling companions.

Well here we are in Jerusalem viewing the walls around the old city of Jerusalem.  This is the last stage in Mike trip having been in Egypt, Jordan and now Israel.  Just think these walls are 2000 years old plus or minus.

We’re again in the last week of our journey to the middle east.  We’re in the beautiful city of Haifa, Israel looking toward the Haifa Bay one of the busiest ports of Israel.  Up on the hill side, Mike is taking a long look at the three mile setting for the center of the Baha’i faith.  Midway down the hill is the temple of Baha’i Shrine of the Bab.  This is a growing religion founded in the mid-1800’s and has over five million followers.

Here we are after a hard days tour of Petra in the southern part of Jordan.  Mike had a hard day as he hiked about five miles though the canyon of the cresent moon and didn’t see Indiana Jones anywhere.  But, the hard day did deserve a tall cold one at days end.

Holy Moly…one of the great numbers of temples carved out of the stone walls in Petra, Jordan.  Probably some were around 3000 years old and those stone cutters were working sixty to eighty feet in the air carving this temple out of a solid stone wall.  Next stop the hotel, maybe there is a cold beer waiting.

The first week in Egypt and after a successful crossing of Lake Nassar above Aswan dam, a three day journey, Mike is taking his first look at the temple of Ramsis II at Abe Simbel.  He’s only 35 miles from the southern most border of Egypt which is the Sudan.  This is what is called upper Egypt as the source of the Nile that forms Lake Nassar comes from central Africa througy Cairo and ends up in the Meditranian Sea.  He seems a bit excited about the visit as he’s heard some of the statures have lost their heads.