Walking out Lion’s Gate of the Old City one encounters the Kidron Valley and, rising up above it, the Mount of Olives. This is an area rich with religious history and it is mentioned frequently in the New Testament. The first stop […]Read More ›
A highlight of Israel was taking a dip in the Dead Sea in Ein Gedi. (The land mass on the other side of the Dead Sea from Ein Gedi is Jordan). My camera died after just three pictures, so unfortunately […]Read More ›
Jerusalem is amazing. It’s completely unlike Tel Aviv, but wonderful in it’s own way. The Old City of Jerusalem is separated into quarters. There is the Muslim quarter, the Christian quarter, the Jewish quarter and the Armenian quarter. The former are obviously three […]Read More ›
And then I was in France, a country I’ve long revered. Hendaye, to be exact. The Eurorail pass is a strange beast. All of the countries in Europe have their own national train company. So if you are at a train station […]Read More ›
I landed in Tel Aviv on March 15th at 2:34 p.m. Flying in over the Mediterranean Ocean, I looked down and saw palm trees and thousands of white and tan buildings. Walking from the train station to my hostel with shekels […]Read More ›
I only took three pictures in Goa. To be honest, I was disappointed by Goa. I first heard about Goa when I was deployed to Afghanistan. I had the India bug back then, too, and I was 24 and determined to go […]Read More ›
Hampi was my second to last stop in India. The city is an archeologist’s paradise. Everywhere in Hampi there are temple ruins, interspersed with bright green rice paddies. And on the horizon, there are rock formations similar to what you might find […]Read More ›
Mysore, India is about 91 miles southwest of Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India. I took a sleeper train from Kochi to Bangalore and a bus from Bangalore to Mysore. The sleeper train was quiet, air conditioned, and comfortable but […]Read More ›
Kochi is known as the “Queen of the Arabian Sea,” and according to National Geographic it is one of the world’s top 50 destinations. Over the years, people have come to the port of Kochi from all over the world; […]Read More ›
I left Varkala and took a boat approximately two hours to the backwaters of Kerala, just outside of Alleppey. One of the locals gave me an orientation of the Kerala backwaters, during which time I saw a plethora of coconut trees […]Read More ›