We were up early for breakfast in the hotel and to continue our tour of Jerusalem. Zibet asked the hotel to give us all wake-up calls for 6:30 not taking any chances that someone would oversleep. She had everyone ready and on the bus by 8:00. We had a lot of places to go and had to be back at the ship by 2:30. During the night while we were at the hotel, the ship moved from Haifa south to the port at Ashdod. It is closer to Jerusalem—only an hour's drive aw...

We left the ship docked in Haifa, Israel early for an overnight trip. The first leg was a three-and-a-half hour drive to Masada. We stopped once along the way for a rest stop at a gas station/convenience store. The drive took us due east out of Haifa, then south through the West Bank along the dry Jordan River and the banks of the Dead Sea. The highway is used by both Israelis and Palestinians even though it is in Palestine. We had to stay on the main road since ...