(continued from page 1)

JORDAN part 2: This morning we got up early to cross over into Jordan, which takes about an hour, as you have to get out of Israel, transfer the bags to the Jordanian bus, pick up another guide, and get started on our day. We are lucky that once again we get an extra hour as Jordan is an hour behind, and we need to get organized as we might see Queen Noor today!! I tried to call the office from the border, but they said to call back, so I told them I had to call on the way to Jerash, and I am calling the Queen's office... so we saw a pay phone in some little town and we pull over and the Tourist policeman lets me use his phone card, and I get her and she says to be there at 5 pm at the house for a 5:30 meeting, and I must call her again at 3:30 for details. So I go back and tell the ladies and they are very, very excited!! I am not sure if anyone believes me, Ellen says you should convince them, so I whip out my web page with my photo of the Queen and I on her Web site and show it to Rudaina, our guide, and she shows it to the tourist policeman and then all smiles, duh, they get it! They just don't realize when I say, we're meeting the Queen, I mean it!

Jordan is working very hard on their tourist facilities, and we visit Pella, and Ajloun, both castle sites from the Crusader time. They are amazing on the outside, of course this stuff is so incredibly old there is not much on the inside, and especially at Ajloun there is a lot of dust. In addition, it is all Jordan Field Day, I think at Ajloun as there are absolutely thousands of children here, quite a crowd, I told Rudaina if they were afraid of invasions in the 10th Century all they needed was to send in th kids!! It was hard to walk anywhere, and they were very sweet and all saying hello, welcome to Jordan, the little kids were so cute, and the high school age ones were very interested in us! Most of the teachers were covered and some of the girls above age 14 or so were, Rudaina said that schools are separated for boys and girls but not by religion, and some girls cover their head and some not-Jordan is 93% Muslim and 7% Christian but there are no problems at all, when it is time for Islamic studies, the Christian students often stay in the class to learn more about it, and we must remember too, that the 3 religions "of the book" are more in common than separate, and can identify with each other.

It is also interesting, in the Middle East, despite the religious difficulties in certain areas, there are not racial problems of black/brown/white...I wondered why, and how I don't understand any kind of prejudice, but here it is the religion thing where in other countries it is the color thing, and someone said to me, which I will always remember, racism is skin deep, while religion is soul deep. Wow, that really hit me! We enter Jerash after lunch, it isn't too far from Ajloun, JD5 admission; so we go through the South Gate from the 2nd C AD, there are 2 gates for normal people and one separate for royalty. We visited the Oval Plaza where the Jerash festival is done, which is made famous by Queen Noor who inaugurated it and made it happen. We see a Roman circle and a Greek circle. There is a marketplace which is an early mall, with 2 floors, and the stones are hard to walk on and it is HOT HOT HOT and sunny. We walk along the main street and there are quite a few kids, some were dancing and singing, high school age, and Elaine joined them, she is the folk dancer, not me! We saw the Temple of Artemis,built for the goddess Diana, depending on Greek or Roman it could be Jupiter or Zeus! This place is perfectly preserved, and 70% of it is still under the town! You see 7 steps x 7 with platforms between, influenced by the Judaism, and we continue onto the theater. There is more to see, but really more ruins and buildings and walking and sweating in the hot and besides, we have to get down to see the Queen!! We went through a long tunnel which is a place of sacrifice and left Jerash, all excited, and dusty, and are anxious to get to our hotel in Amman, where Diana and I had already stayed and I had left 2 suitcases, to get gorgeous for our visit to the Palace!!

We called the Queen's office when we arrived, and they say they will send a vehicle for us! While waiting for the Army driver we got to see Prince Faisal as he was at a Unicef meeting at the hotel. We are all excited and I am the most nervous at all, I absolutely cannot believe that we are going to Bab al Salaam, the Gate of Peace, to see Queen Noor, but the driver arrives and we squish into the van and off we go, on to the end of town and the road to her home (I had studied my map very carefully!!) and finally we go through 3 checkpoints, just breezing through them, and there we are in front of the house, somebody pinch me!! We met her secretary and someone else and we walk into the palace and we are trying to remember everything, this huge hallway and into another door and she is standing there to greet us!! I introduce everyone and she tells Elaine Happy Birthday as it is today, I told Elaine not to expect something as good as this next year!

Of course we are trying to remember all the furniture and every second, we saw her garden, we were at the door where she said good bye to the King when his body was taken out, we are sitting in the room where Christiane Amanpour interviewed them on CNN, where Barbara Walters would be coming to interview the Queen only two days later, but we didn't know that!! We are just in awe of everything, and she was so gracious and spoke with me about stuff and I am trying to make conversation, I had some things in mind to tell her, about our sightseeing, visiting King Hussein's grave, how emotional it was, paid our respects, tried not to sound too stupid, and a photographer was there (they don't let you take pictures inside, it's like the White House, they do the pictures) and she spend a half hour with her, she was so polite, and they offered us tea and juice and the waiters in traditional dress and the gold cups with the royal crest on them, wow, what a life! They are all so gracious and elegant and then of course, it is over, and we ask if we might have a photo with her, so we walked outside and got our photo taken in front of the door, and she left to meet the President of Unicef, and her secretary came to us, so I told him I wanted copies of the pictures whenever they can, so I am still waiting with great anticipation and pray they will come!! You can't bother the Palace so I just sent a fax afterwards, thanking them for their hospitality and offering my Fed Ex number if there is anything they will be sending and now I must wait!! She also invited us to visit her store when we are in Petra, she is in charge of a foundation which helps the people there, with local handicrafts etc, and especially empowering the women, and so we are looking forward to that tomorrow!!

It turned out, when we got home that Barbara Walters was doing a special interview with her which would be on May 14, fortunately I recorded her show the entire time I was gone coz I would have just died if I had missed it!! She was still in official mourning when we saw her, but had on this gorgeous black dress and her head still covered, but now she is out of mourning time and is in regular clothing and travelling around the world working on her charity causes, I just admire her so much... We were just in shock and left and babbling all about it, they let us take our own photos outside and we got some of the house, I saw the guards which I had seen on TV and the ones who accompanied her to Petra with Barbara Walters on the Royal helicopter (too bad we couldn't ride along ha ha!!) It was just incredible, I cannot remember it enough, explain it enough, experience it enough...

Now it is Thursday, and this is the part of the trip from Queen Noor to Jerusalem so I called it "from the Queen of Jordan to the King of Kings" and the ladies liked that!!

Of course we had quite an amazing story to tell our guide the next morning, and they were happy we'd done so well!! I promised the ladies a different kind of trip than they had ever experienced and so far I was keeping my promise!! We first visited Mt. Nebo and we can look out over the Jordan River-we can see the Dead Sea, it is a black line, and Jerusalem in the far distance. The mosaic in the church is original, it is not restored, and it was covered by stones for many years so they didn't know it was there which is why it is in such good shape. The altar was made in the 5th C and then added onto in the 6th. You see stones that were an area for baptism, it was outside but now it is inside, and you can see the baptismal area and animals in the mosaic. There are designs on the floor and stuff that is still being discovered. You can walk across a footbridge that is over top the original area.

We left Mt. Nebo at 9 am after photos and the view and continued on to Madaba for St. George's Church and the famous mosaic. Tourists are only allowed inside for 15 mins. and there are 4 groups ahead of us so we are lucky to be so small that we can sneak in 2 at a time. It is 23 meters long, so about 80 ft. long, and the spaces we see are the pillars' space-this is the original size of the church, and when this was uncovered, it was a road map to knowing the ancient sites, it is one of the most important finds ever. It is incredible, in person you cannot believe how it is to see it!! It represents Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and explains it very well-we see the river is the Jordan River, the Dead Sea is shown as fish swimming backwards as they cannot live there, and just above is Mt. Nebo. You see salt and wheat as boats that travel between the two sides of the river, and you see feet and hands missing as it was the time when graven images were destroyed. Herod had a spa on the river, several valleys, we see the Ammonites, at the very top is Kerak Castle and the Western River where we see palm trees which is Jericho. We see the town of Jericho also, and we see Jerusalem very clearly. That is really amazing, they have the Cardo and the Damascus Gate, you can see the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, but not the Al Aqsa Mosque because that wasn't built until 8thC. You can see all the 12 gates and Bethlehem, it is really, something, then continuing on to Ashkelon, Ashod, the southern part is Egypt, the far right is where Moses saw the Ten Commandments, and St. Catherine's in the Sinai, there are 80 million pieces total, 2mm x 2mm x 1cm, and we go to the church, and to see how large it is, is really amazing. Sometimes you cannot see it enough because it is too crowded, but eventually we got in to take the most important pictures.

We finally arrive at Petra, it is about 3 hours from Amman, quite far into the interior in the desert. We see Bedouin encampments in the area, they have TV antennas and a car and also camels!! It is a bit of a hike in to the site, the most famous, and the picture you have all seen is the Treasury. We start to walk, and it is ok, we can stay in the shade of the hills and that is pretty cool, and we just took it gradually, and we stopped along the way to see some stuff, like Nabatean tombs, an obelisk, the Triclaneum, things on the walls, an ancient entrance, we see how they built a dam as the rain is falling here in this valley and they can contain it. You also have to be very careful as they can have flash floods here and it covers everything, there were French ministers here a few years ago and they were caught in a rainstorm and drowned, so this is serious! Therefore, the govt got serious to clear out the dam and keep it working, those guys from 2000 yrs ago had it going on!! It is also said that perhaps the 3 Wise Men were on their way to Petra from Egypt, and it makes sense, they followed the star and you know what they found!

There is a natural cut in the rock that leads to the Treasury and you cannot really see it until you are right on top of it. It is pretty cool, some reminds me of Sedona and the colors of the rocks are just amazing, they cannot be captured on film or video and I don't think even looking at them, can one appreciate them enough. All the pix I have seen, they really are rose red and orange and blue and purple, breathtaking...

We walk even more and we think it must be a lot more but we are hot and tired, we turn the corner and there is the famous break in the rocks and as we walk through the eye of the needle we see the famous Treasury. This is the plaza of Petra from long ago, with this incredible structure carved into the rock, it is red, the pillars are amazing, I have seen this so many times and here we are. What a moment it is to see it person-ally! There are eagles carved on one side, and a wine glass, and figures relating to the afterlife. There are scars on the side that are for an ancient scaffold. We walked inside, it is cooler, too-they said maybe a King was buried there but we know money was there. There are stripes of many colored rock inside the structure, well it is built into the rock so not a structure...

We walked for awhile longer but couldn't see the whole thing, no matter which way you turn around or what you do it is incredible. The light hits things differently, it is just so beautiful. It would be great to go even further in, you would need to pack a lunch or something as there is still more if you see every single thing...maybe someday...I would like to come back...

We got a carriage ride back to the front, you're hot and tired and it was pretty cool, back to the visitors center, I had to see Her Majesty's store and there it was! I met a woman peace corps worker there, they have just started having the peace corps in Jordan thanks to Her Majesty! She spoke great Arabic and got along with the guys just fine; I bought a little tiny blown peachy colored pitcher thing and a vest from the NHF store that says NHF (Noor al Hussein Foundation)! I told the guy we had seen the Queen yesterday , he said he had worked there for years and had never seen her, well he doesn't know us! My vest was made in the Ma'an region in their typical style.

It was a long drive back to Amman and we were tired, and we had to leave at 6:30 am because we lose our hour as we are returning to Israel tomorrow!

JERICHO, BETHLEHEM etc.: It took us 1 ¸ hrs. to get across the border as they only had to stamp us out but there was this big bunch of refugees swarming in the line and we were no problem but they wouldn't give us the special stamp we need. This is the famous Allenby Bridge, the first border crossing made between the two countries since the war, and it was exciting to have that experience. Our guide and really good friend by now, Michael, was waiting for us when we returned, we were later than we expected but he was quite flexible in making sure we made good use of the time, a man after my own heart!!

We enter Jericho and I am fascinated with the different license plates, yellow are IL, green are West Bank and blue with white is PNA. There is always the P in Arabic too. We see the famous sycamore tree mentioned in Luke, the Zaccheus story and he had his sight restored after hearing about Jesus. We also know about Jericho through the Joshua Story. Jericho is the one green patch in the desert. Even though it is 600 ft. below sea level, and we start driving to Jerusalem, climbing to 2400 ft. above sea level..

We stopped at Qarantal,, the Mt. Of Temptation. It was here that Jesus spent his 40 days in the wilderness trying to stay away from the Devil. He lived in the caves above which we can see clearly. They are in the middle section of hills, and it is said that he was fed by the ravens. We see a picture of Pres. Yasser Arafat at the entrance gate, we are in the PNA after all!! I am looking fanatically for PNA stamps, but they said maybe, possibly, only in Bethlehem, the other PNA town we will visit, but it is Friday so the post office will be closed. Michael said he had never seen any, but no one had ever asked him.

We drive thru the West Bank, there are 150,000 settlers, little islands of territory for the Palestinians, there are also Orthodox settlements and it is an emotional issue, do we think of history as 1948 or 2000 BC as each has a claim based on history, we cannot solve it today...

Jerusalem is like a V btn 2 valleys, the north was the vulnerable part, so 37 times it was invaded from the north. People therefore thought that all evil starts in the north, but it was that the north was the unprotected side. 2000 yrs ago the wall was bigger so things were inside the wall that are not anymore. When you read things in the books or in the Bible about inside or outside the wall, it has changed over time.

We first visit the Chapel of the Ascension. This is where Jesus went into heaven, it is blvd, and a mosque now covers the rock. Anyway, it is very moving to see this and even so, it is nearly impossible to grasp what we are seeing and that we can be walking in the footsteps, on the paths of Jesus, it doesn't quite get into our brains. We then go a very short distance to the Church of Pater Noster, the church where you see the Lord's Prayer written in 113 languages on all the walls, from Afrikaans to Zulu I think and everything in between. This is where Jesus taught the prayer at first, probably in Aramaic or Hebrew so those languages are here first.

We move along the road that was probably the authentic road to Bethlehem, up and down and into the heavy PNA territory (ooh can I get stamps!!) We rmbr that there are 14 generations from David to Joseph to Jesus, as we enter Bethlehem at 12:30 pm. It is Friday and in Manger Square we hear the muzzein giving noon prayers, it is intoxicating to be here and hear the prayers and then see the holiest place, the Church of the Nativity, which is not actually the place where we see the Christmas service, it is in St. Catherine's which is a larger building.

Continued on page 3