Masada - Israel

Masada and the Desert of Judea – Israel

Post published:21 March 2015
Post category:Israel Middle East

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The last Jewish holdout to fall to Rome

On a rather unplanned and unexpected free extra day that happened out of miracle; well, I confess, because of having nothing else to see and do back in Tel Aviv as we saw everything in just one day (and even less!), this was the best that could have happened in the trip. Masada. Although I heard of this place before, I did not even think of it nor remembered when i planned the Israel tour. Too short time and too much already in the agenda. But was thanks to my friend who reminded it to me that If any some spare time, we should not miss the chance of getting here.

Not only this worked great, but also the route we took to get there. We did only know about 3 possible routes. One we discarded immediately merely because it crosses through Palestine in quite a disputed area, but the other 2 we only selected the shortest one. Glad this was the choice! From Arad, were both of the routes lead to Masada, one avoids the Judea Desert and goes towards the Dead Sea where one of the entrances to Masada is. The easiest route and easiest access via the cable car. But the other enters the Judea Desert and crosses incredible beautiful scenery, and offers the best view of the entire Masada and the Dead Sea from far and above. As I will also remind you below under the transportation section, do not hesitate in choosing the route you want to drive. This is for sure your best bet.

Although there are day tours that leave from elsewhere in Israel, most common from Tel Aviv, Jerusalem of Bethlehem, those are of higher cost than if renting a car instead and specially if you are more than one person travelling. Driving in Israel is easy due to the good road network though a bit chaotic in the cities. Masada after all is just that, the ancient fortification, something you can see in 2 hours no more, therefore that making the trip worth it coupled with something else which is even along your way, will give you a wider look to this region.

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Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee - Israel

Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee – Israel

Post published:20 March 2015
Post category:Israel Middle East

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Named after Roman Emperor Tiberius

Squeezing to the limit on an already extremely busy non-stop day we managed to somehow leave Nazareth with just enough time before the sunset and make a quick visit to Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee. And all thanks that we had a rental car we were able to do this as otherwise depending on public transportation would have been probably impossible to visit everything in just one day, unless visiting just the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth and nothing else and quickly leaving the city for the Sea of Galilee as unfortunately most of the organised tours do.

At only 40 kilometers to the north east of Nazareth it’s a quick and easy drive there. For us this was more of a “we must reach this place so we can say we’ve been there” just because of the Biblical means, rather than a properly pre-planned excursion, although a much realistic reason was our incredible shortage of spare time. I would have preferred to have had enough time to spend a whole day circling the entire Sea of Galilee, that’s for sure.

Although much of the ancient city was destroyed years back in natural disasters as earthquakes and flooding from the Sea of Galilee, the little that remained (apart from religious constructions) was razed in 1949 over objections of who owned the houses. Saying this, do not expect to see a beautiful city unfortunately. And even on the last years there has been a better track of preservation and reconstruction projects, there is not much from the original Roman, Crusaders, Ottoman and newer eras. Instead, ugly large hotels aligning the main promenade and some historical buildings behind. (more…)

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Nazareth - Israel

Nazareth – Israel

Post published:20 March 2015
Post category:Israel Middle East

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Home of Joseph and Mary, the childhood home of Jesus

On our second stop for this tour around Israel, we visited the historic and biblical city of Nazareth combined with a short visit to Tiberias, the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River which are barely 40 kilometers farther to the east of Nazareth. 140 kilometers would be the total farthest distance to drive between Tel Aviv and the Sea of Galilee. We knew our overall time in Israel was meant to be very really compressed in visiting as many places as we could fit but thankfully we did something very good out of it by renting a car for the whole duration of our stay in Israel, which in turn, saved us from what would have been otherwise, countless hours spent waiting for trains, buses, and local buses to move around in the cities.

Nazareth was for us a first glimpse about how biblical the entire country is. Something we would experience everywhere from this day across every of the places we visited afterwards. It is literally on every turn we did, there was a place believed to be site of any of the events in the life of Jesus if talking about Christian Catholics, and the same for Jews and Muslims. In any case, this is pretty much the sense of coming to the “Holy Land” after all, and even if you believe or not, or whatever the religion you might believe it is well worth the trip.

Nazareth is a medium size city what makes it great for a day trip from wherever you are in Israel (of course unless you are by the farthest destinations as those around the Red Sea). But coming here from Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem of Bethlehem is what almost every tourist do. (more…)

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Tel Aviv - Israel

Tel Aviv – Israel

Post published:19 March 2015
Post category:Israel Middle East

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The Old New Land

Finally the moment we decided to go to Israel came. It has been for some years now in our “near future plans”, but was always been postponed on behalf of other destinations, mostly price related. I have to say flying here is not the cheapest, specially if having to do it on some sort of precise dates in order to coincide with any bank holiday or weekends in between to expand the stay, and more important, having in consideration that flying on Friday or Saturday would mean an extra cost for being stranded at the airport with no other transportation to the city than over expensive taxis because of Sabbath.

So Tel Aviv would be for us the entry point and start of a much bigger and overloaded tour where in each day we would be in a different city or even more than one. But for now, let me tell you my personal opinion on this city.

On my original plans, this was going to be a 2 full days visit, plus some hours on the last day before having to get back to the airport to fly back into London. On the last bit, we re-arranged it the way of spending the last hours in Jerusalem, and thanks goodness for that. Why comes soon explained… Then, what happened to the second day planned for Tel Aviv? Well, it happened that on the day of arrival, and with the help of landing super early at 5.00am giving us plenty of time, we saw absolutely everything! Now let me resume this in saying Tel Aviv has almost nothing to be seen plus its in overall quite ugly, run down and dirty city. And so for the spare day that now we had extra, we used for one of the best day trips we could have ever done while in Israel, Masada and the Desert of Judea. (more…)

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Skopje - Macedonia

Skopje – Republic of North Macedonia

Post published:15 March 2015
Post category:Europe Republic of Macedonia Southern Europe

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Roman Scupi

Another weekend and another two new countries never been before ahead of us with new great places to see. The Republic of North Macedonia, also known as the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia, or under the acronym FYROM, was born in 1991 after the break of Yugoslavia, but of course its history can be traced back thousands of years to what was the Kingdom of Paeonia, inhabited by Thracian people that were a group of Indo-European tribe. Then the Greeks, the Romans, Slavic, Ottoman, Kingdom of Serbia and Yugoslavia; all left their part of history and culture in the region.

Skopje is the capital and largest city in the country. With over half million inhabitants it accounts for more than one quarter of the total country’s population. Despite being a medium size city, the old city center is very small and can be entirely visited in just a few hours. It is centred along what used to be the bazaar during the Ottoman rule, and it is in fact one of the largest outside Turkey nowadays. Across the river and linked by the Stone Bridge, which is the landmark of Skopje; is the new town which highlight is Macedonia Square. Farther beyond there is nothing to see from the tourist point of view. Just ugly commie blocks everywhere. It is for this reason that you can easily include any other city or place coupled with your visit to Skopje. In our case, this was Pristina, capital of Kosovo, just 80 kilometers to the north.

I must be honest in saying that I was not impressed at all with this city, and if at all, I think I was actually shocked for seeing those unnecessary and nonsense statues placed literally on every possible space, with many more yet to come. No wonder why Skopje is known as the city of sculptures, but to this extent it is extremely overloaded.

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Pristina - Kosovo

Pristina – Kosovo

Post published:14 March 2015
Post category:Europe Kosovo Southern Europe

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Capital of the 2nd newest country in the World

Squeezed in between the 2 days we were meant to spend in Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia, this has been by all means one of our oddest destinations ever, probably the weirdest so far to this date for sure. The capital city of Kosovo, Pristina. Yet in the other hand we could not resist the temptation of being so near and not going, specially for how convenient it was to move between both countries of Republic of Macedonia and Kosovo by bus. Skopje to Pristina is barely 80 kilometers far from each other, and the border was in fact very straightforward and quick, not even 15 minutes to pass both sides in either direction.

For us, believe it or not, it was very important to do this trip and to tick another country from the list of countries visited, furthermore knowing that we might not even return here (I don’t see a good reason why); or at least, for a long time and probably only to visit the second largest city which in turn, is the most beautiful and historical; Prizren, and where you can also find one of the four monasteries inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage Site list as part of the Medieval Monasteries of Kosovo.

Another of such UNESCO monasteries is just 7 kilometers south of Pristina, Gračanica, which was an obvious stop in our journey and one of the highlights in the trip. And with it, another World Heritage Site ticked off the list. (more…)

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Cordoba - Spain

Cordoba – Spain

Post published:8 March 2015
Post category:Europe Southern Europe Spain

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Carthaginian Kartuba, Roman Corduba, Islamic Qurṭubah

Time to return to Andalusia, and in this occasion just after a month that we went on visiting the cities of Tarifa, Cadiz and Jerez. As for this trip, it was well overdue to come and visit one of the most spectacular and historical cities in Spain, world renown for its architecture. But before continuing and in order to understand why such importance, let me tell you some of the facts that will clear your view in this subject.

It was the capital of Hispania Ulterior Baetica in Roman times, then the Capital of the Islamic Emirate and then Caliphate of Cordoba. By the 10th century it was the most populated city in the world, and currently holds the title as being the largest urban area in the world declared by the UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. As you can imagine with that large amount of monuments and sites you will need to calculate well your time to fully enjoy the city. A weekend is, in fact, quite short and rushy as I can tell you from experience, but as a first glimpse that’s totally worth it.

After larger Seville and Granada, expect to see in Cordoba a mix of both. Elegance and history where Roman remains blend with the former mosques and glorious palaces from the Islamic era; baroque, neo-classical and traditional regionalist Andalusian architecture with the typical white houses with iron balconies, patios fully covered with beautiful hand painted tiles in the walls, and orange trees and flowers in almost any street. (more…)

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Lyon - France

Lyon – France

Post published:1 March 2015
Post category:Europe France Southern Europe

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Capitale des Gaules

As if we were planning this on purpose but it’s just a matter of coincidence, it’s been a year since our last visit to France. Past year February and March were our French visits, and this year it happens to be the same. Probably because it is when the air fares to certain parts of France are the most economical, even though we did not fly directly to Lyon but to Geneva instead, some 150 kilometers away. In any case, while most of the people is flying to the region for sky during the winter months, we took the advantage of having our usual city break in low season, with very few other tourists hence enjoying the most out of it.

Lyon is the second largest city after Paris, city proper-wise speaking. If including the metropolitan area, then the second would be Marseilles after Paris, with Lyon in 3^rd position. Bearing this in mind, the city is quite large with plenty to see and do. A weekend is not enough to fully explore it, and if you have only a bit less than a day and a half as we did, you will need to prioritize and it is impossible physically to get everywhere. In our case, we had to scrap everything from the Roman era in the Fourvière Hill (as the theater, the odeon), and other points elsewhere in the city as the remains of the amphitheater. After all, Lyon’s old town is one of the largest urban areas inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites List, so prepare to see a lot.

An unique architectural feature in Lyon are the so called Traboules. You will find many around the Vieux Lyon, not to mention is most of the postcards you will see at least one. These are narrow corridors connecting two streets through a building. Very easy to spot as are the ones having the tower containing snail staircases. Pay attention at the plaques indicating the historical buildings, some of them will have the door open where you can enter and see. (more…)

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