Masada Fortress (Isreal)

King Herrod is sometimes referred to as King Herrod the builder since he built so many fortresses and temples across Israel during his reign around the time of Christ. Just as he is depicted in the bible when Jesus was born, he was very paranoid about his loss of power. The Masada fortress’ construction demonstrates this, firstly in its existence but also in its layout and number of secondary and tertiary defenses.  Although never used by Herrod, the fortress would be used to its fullest though by the Zealots who rose up against their Roman rulers about 100 years after it was captured by Herrod. The fortress itself is located on top of a 400m cliff making it an excellent place to hide out.

The Zealots were able to hold off a legion (roughly 15,000 roman troops) for an estimated 2 to 3 months. The Romans were not be able to starve out the zealots by surrounding the fortress, or die of thirst thanks to the ingenious water collection system spread out across the landscape collecting into cisterns. Realizing this, the Romans set out to build a ramp from the west to breach the fortress. The people who were inside the fortress used throwing round boulders to kill the soldiers who were constructing the ramp. Progress on the ramp took shape when they brought other Jewish slaves from elsewhere in Israel to complete the construction.

Realizing their fate, the survivors committed to one another not to live a life without freedom and a mass suicide occurred on the last night before the wall was breached. Since suicide is forbidden by Judaism, it’s believed that 9 men were responsible for taking the lives of others, and then each other’s, until only 1 man would have to kill himself. Later, we found out that part of the Israeli military's oath is "Masada shall not fall again!" - a very interesting insight into how connected the past, present and future are in this region.

After this, we had about an hour’s drive to Jerusalem, passing Israeli settlements and the West Bank. The desert landscape with modern buildings and how settlements have developed in the political climate is a sight to see in itself - we agreed that the landscape was so different to us that it could be the set of a sci-fi movie on another planet.

Dead Sea (Israel)

After a day at sea we arrived in Isreal in the port of Ashdod. The first stop on a 2 day tour was the Dead sea. At 400m below sea level it’s the lowest place on earth. It was really cool for both of us to see it and Pat was happy to see this first hand since his Grandpa Christon had talked fondly about his visit after WWII. The heat was very intense – the waterside thermometer read 46degrees C while we were there.  On the water’s edge you can clearly see salt crystals on the shore. If you don’t thrash around in the water too much you’ll also see rings of salt forming on the surface. 

The sensation of being that buoyant is hard to describe. You can sit like a genie cross-legged in waist high  water and read  a book. The water’s much, much saltier than sea water so if you have any irritated skin or cuts they will burn like mad! We both found that our armpits are sore and getting it in your eyes is horrible.

The dead sea itself is disappearing since the river Jordan that feeds it is being heavily utilized for irrigation so definitely go see it soon if its on your bucket list. The entire middle section of the sea is now just a skinny canal that feeds the southern portion from the deeper and fuller northern area. The mountains seen in the distance of the photo are actually in Jordan.

Rhodes

Rhodes surprisingly has a strong French influence dating back to the middle-ages when St. John’s knights made the island the center of their society. There is a lot of fantastic architecture dating back to the period. The ship docked right at the old city walls.

We first walked to the temple of Aphrodite which is about the only thing that was identifiably Greek in origin. After this we walked up the Knight’s Road to the Palace of the Grand Master. Both of these were very impressive and the shopping along the way is good, definitely save your money for Turkey if you happen to follow our foot-steps someday.

We spent our afternoon relaxing on a massive pebble beach. This was our first encounter with a super-beach in the Mediterranean. It’s very apparent that Greece is one of Europe’s vacation destinations in the summer.  If you happen to also visit a beach, buy your beers from a guy with cooler at 2euro as opposed to the bars that rip you off at 7 or 8euro.

Jay showed off his diving skills on a 10m diving platform and both of us enjoyed going for a warm swim in the sun.

Cruising 101 and Our Cruise

The cruise we took really helped us see a lot of the eastern Mediterranean in a short period of time. It was also nice to have food, accommodation and transportation all included in a package price. It gave us a couple days at sea to relax and the port departure times ensured we were back relaxing early in the evenings. Overall our experience with the cruise was good. They upgraded our room substantially so spending a lot of time on the boat was no problem at all! We also had an awesome welcome package including Champaigne and flowers purchased by Pat’s Grandma – nice touch!

For those who haven’t cruised before, our advice: 1 - make sure that you go on an itinerary that has exciting days at port, 2 - no booze and pop is not included in the price but you can bring some wine on board no problem. 3 – purchase shore excursions from a reputable travel agent like expedia or the like to prevent getting stuck in a slow moving group of retirees and 4 – practice being patient in line ups.

(Video is the horn of the boat  at the first port Rhodes)

Our Journey to the end of the Romantic Road in Southern Germany

Journey to the end of the Romantic Road in Germany from Jason Keller on Vimeo.

The end of the road:

Athens

We arrived fairly late in Athens from Munich. We had an awesome flight on Lufthansa and definitely recommend if the price is right. We found the hotel easily and went for a long walk in the city at night. Jay was impressed by Hadrians Gate at the temples of Olympian Zeus. The gate stands right adjacent to a major thoroughfare in the city and doesn’t require admission to see it – you can definitely tell that the city has built itself around its extensive history. Athens is a definitely more gritty than places we visited Germany and not to mention much hotter!!

After a walk through the winding streets of the Plaka neighborhood, we enjoyed a nice dinner at a restaurant we found on the street. Pat had been on about having a cold pitcher of house wine with a chunk of feta cheese for weeks – Jay had to admit it was pretty awesome.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel and enjoyed a glass of cold Greek wine on the rooftop terrace restaurant. The view of the city and the Acropolis was stunning. The Acropolis is beautiful at night when it is all lit up. Jay fell in love with Greek wine and how it has a very dry leafy-character to it and likened it to eating Dolma.

The hotel we stayed at was in a fantastic location and featured the rooftop terrace restaurant and outdoor pool. The rooms are a bit dated and what you’d expect to see in a 1990’s Greek hotel.. Lots of brass, oak and marble… The word we came to describe it was – glamorous.

The next day we were up early and had buffet breakfast at the rooftop terrace restaurant. Pat finally gorged himself on Greek yoghurt and honey.

It’s best to start any sightseeing day at the Acropolis. They sell a archeological site ticket pack here for 20euro and it covers just about everything else you’d want to see in the city. Also you can get the hike up the mountain done early before it gets too hot.

Up at the Acropolis we took in the various temples that dot the mountain, including the Parthenon and the theatre to Dionysus. After getting some great views of the city we headed down the mountain. 

The next place we visited was the Agora. They’ve rebuilt the Stoa of Attalos which served as a public office and featured an awesome exhibit upstairs showing models of how the city might have looked 3500 years ago. We got some good photos of the temple to Hephastian which is in excellent condition.

From here we went to Monastriaki – a cool, artsy neighborhood with lots of good knock-off street shopping. Here had a 2euro gyros at a great restaurant and kept going to the Kerameikios. The Kerameikios is an ancient graveyard. The stuff here is REALLY old – some of it dates back as far at the 3^rd millennium BC. The museum there really showcases how much can be learned about a civilization from its graveyards. Tiny ceramics, jewelry, perfumes, pottery, writing can all be seen dating back thousands of years. We guess since it’s graveyard the remains were fortunately left untouched.

From here we took a long, hot, walk down the Ermou street which features most of Athen’s big shopping stores. The street ends in Syntagma Square which is right in front of the Greek parliament. Was good for Jay to see the place where all of the demonstrations against Eurozone austerity measures are being felt. There’s a lot of bullet holes in buildings facades in the area that weren’t there back in 2009 when Pat was last there..

From here we visited the temple of Olympian Zeus which used to be the largest in Athens in it’s prime. Today only a few columns are standing whereas back then over 100 columns would have made up a massive complex.

Later that night we went out for another tasty dinner in Plaka. Late and tired we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the cruise and pack.

At the duty free shop at port, Jay bought some Vin Doux – Vin de liquer white wine. We soon discovered that this will be Jay’s favorite wine likely for the rest of his lifetime. (Jay absolutely could not stop raving about it) We spent the rest of the trip looking for this when we passed stores and found it in the most unlikely place…. We are not likely to get this outside of Greece. It is romantic knowing that it can only be drank if we return. J

Munchen and Neuschwannstein

We left Prague early in the morning on a express-bus service offered by Deutsche Bahn to Nuremberg. The bus left from the main train station. It’s definitely evident that the city is struggling to modernize it’s infrastructure to be comparable to european standards. 

The bus ride was quiet, and we connected with the ICE (intercity express) highspeed network in Nuremberg. The trains are impressive and can go as fast as 230 km/h.

We found our hotel quickly as it was close to the hostel that both Pat & Jay stayed in seperately on their last visits to Munich.

We went out that night for beers and to search for the origins Jay’s last name, Keller. The first stop was the Augustiner Keller. A definite must stop for anyone visiting Munich. During the summer, they host an impressive outdoor beer garten, and the Keller (basement) remains open for visitors to go see. 

We took a day trip to Schloss Linderhof, the town of Oberammergau and Schloss Neuswannstein. Linderhof was the first stop and was built between 1869 and 1878. King Ludwig II (also known as the “Mad” king) started construction of the retreat in the alps after a visit to Louis the XIV in France at Versailles. The style of the palace is overwhelmingly French and features several busts and statues of the Sun King from France. The most interesting feature in this palace is the magic table which is raised and lowered from below to the King’s dining room. This way the King actually never sees any servants handling his food. 

The next stop was a little Bavarian town named Oberammergau. We had enough time to grap a 1EUR ice cream and buy a few postcards. The town is very charming with lots of outdoor frescos paining on the buildings and flower boxes. 

The third stop was Schloss Neuschwannstein where first we had a sausage and spatzle lunch with black forest cake for dessert. It was another one of Pat’s food highlights to eat  piece of his favorite dessert in the Black Forest. After lunch and a hike up the rock, we shot some photos of the castle from the Marienbruecke and the mountains nearby. 

The tour of castle lasted about 45 minutes and you have a chance to see the only completed rooms as the castle was never finished after the King’s mysterious death in 1877. The King became reclusive in his own world of Richard Wagner and middle age fairytales and this culminated in the construction of Neuschwannstein which style integrates scenes from Wagner’s operas, neo-Roman and Byzantine styles. In addition to his fascination since a child with fairytales, he was also very religious and this is particularly vivid in the throne room. The throne room features a massive 1 ton chandelier in the shape of an emperor's crown, a floor mosaic of life on earth consisting of over 2 million tiles and 50 foot ceiling's depicting heaven. Of course Ludwig’s place is between the floor and ceiling as a divine ruler. 

The highlight of the castle was spending time together on the balcony of the castle overlooking the town of Schwanngau, Hohenschwangau castle and the Alps. Both of us agreed it was the most amazing view either of us had ever seen and reminded us of our fairytale relationship and the night Jay proposed at the Banff Springs.