11:00 a.m. Wow . . . it feels WAY later than this. Today I climbed Mount Sinai! I’m writing this on an (obviously) bumpy bus ride to the Egypt/Israel border.
We spent the night at a picturesque place called the Daniela Village. After lunch, we all slept until supper, then went right to bed again afterwards.
This morning, we got on the bus at 1:30 to climb Mt. Sinai. The climb took 3 hours – they have a gradual incline that goes every which way, then (literally) hundreds of stone steps as high as my knees. I BARELY made it. Gary was nice enough to stay with me the whole way. Though now I tease him about being a taskmaster, I really couldn’t have done it without his encouragement.
We sat at the top for some time waiting for the sun. It was COLD! Finally, at around 5:30, it appeared over the mountains, and the view was just breathtaking.
At 8:00, we were back at the hotel for breakfast. I took a very welcome shower, then we headed back to the mountains to see St. Catherine’s. It was really cool. They had the bush that was the burning bush (yeah right), and a gorgeous Byzantine chapel, where we saw the originals of some famous Christian art. There was also the "skull room," an eerie chamber piled high with the skulls of monks.
Now we’re headed for Israel, and I need a nap.