03.01.23 (catching up from personal blogs)
Feb 18, 2023: Jerusalem
As we finished up Israel, we also celebrated four years on the road, and on to country #28…
Yesterday was our four-year anniversary since Kat and I left the US, and it’s been a hell of a ride! We marvel at how much has happened since then, and on one hand it seems much longer than four years, but yet it seems like it was just a short time ago. We are now in country #29 since we left, and we have both been to about 45 countries in total. Egypt is coming up next, and later this year many more will be added in the Far East and Southern Hemisphere.
I have taken 69 flights since 2019, and I think a few layovers are missing. We have met some amazing people on the way, including several who we now consider lifelong and dear friends. Unfortunately, we have lost some old friends as well, but that is inevitable just based on distance and different lifestyles. Along with 29 countries, we’ve stayed at more than 100 Airbnb rooms and hotels, in hundreds of cities, and seen an insane number of churches, cathedrals, castles, ruins, and museums! Some of the novelty has worn off, but we are constantly amazed to STILL see something new and exciting. That has certainly been the case over our past month in Israel.
For those who have stayed in touch, and new friends we found along the way…THANK YOU. It’s less fun doing what we do if we don’t share it, and when people tell us that they started their journey because they were motivated or encouraged by us, well, that makes it all the better.
Feb 20, 2023: Jerusalem
We are at the Tel Aviv airport with just a few hours left before we depart Israel for what may be the last time. It’s been a pretty terrific visit, and we had a lot of time to kill on this, our last day, since we had to check out of our room earlier in the day, and our flight did not leave until 0500 the following morning.
Feb 26, 2023: Egypt!
This has been one of the busiest weeks we have had in a long time! To encapsulate the last few days, the day after we arrived in Giza, we visited two pyramid sites, including the Saqqwara Necropolis, which is the site of the very first step pyramid. This was the first attempt at MAKING a pyramid, and that took some trial and error, followed by the second one at Dahsur, which was made at a 54° angle, and they soon discovered that it was too much angle. The bottom corners fell off very quickly, so they decreased the angle to 45°, and the rest of them followed suit. Some pretty amazing mathematics! But at Dahsur we went INSIDE the red limestone pyramid, climbed down 163 steps into the open burial chamber, which was quite cool. THAT was an experience!
From there we visited the Egyptian Antiquities museum and saw our first mummies, I mean, real mummies! They were very tiny and small since that was part of the process of the mummification, and the shapes of their heads were very elongated, almost freaky. Unfortunately, we were unable to take photos.
The next day we hit the big guns: Giza, with three pyramids, plus the Great Sphinx. But before those icons we went to Cairo one more time to the Cairo Museum and saw the original King Tut exhibit. Again, no photos allowed…
It’s hard to really describe the experience at Giza. I don’t really have a bucket this per se, but if I did this would be on it. Kathleen said that if we were ever going to rent camels this was the place to do it and she was right! We took a camel ride from the top of the hill down to the Sphinx at the bottom, and it was a memory that will stay with us forever.
Three days of non-stop was exhausting, but the fun was not over yet! The next day we flew to Luxor and met up with some friends from Albania. Stay tuned!
