One Bag Each

Wharton Family Travels: Click on box in the upper left to search content and links

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In Venice, I really wanted to discover Fuorirotta and the city's website has "the other Map of Venice", a guide to "discovering the eco-friendly, cultural and local-oriented initiatives, to get to know unknown sites, to enjoy the parks and the natural areas, to eat organic and zero-mile food, shopping in craftsmen’s and fair trade shops. Fuorirotta." Fabulous idea but the map was impossible to read! Anyway, I found a few offbeat places.

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Aerial view of the Mediterranean Coast and inland toward Rome. So lush.

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Wishing I were not in a hotel without access to a kitchen!

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Dame de Fer light show

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Place D'Italie

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The Kathmandu trekking company we hired for 2 weeks in the Everest area has a non-profit that is now using donations to acquire and distribute scarce food, water, and supplies in Nepal to those affected by the disaster. Having spent the last 10 months traveling internationally and seeking volunteer opportunities, I can attest that many non-profits are fronts for those at the top to pocket money. In Nepal there are monks with gold watches! This is not the case here with Ang Pemba Sherpa, whom my cousins have known closely for over 15 years. He has already distributed all of his company’s trekking gear to neighbors in need in ‪#‎Kathmandu‬. It is difficult to know which organizations have the ability to access and deliver supplies to those in dire need, so I hope you will share the link and join me in donating to his organization that is alleviating suffering in ‪#‎Nepal‬: http://www.juwayvillage.org/Donation_8.php

If you use PayPal, you can donate to the fund using this address: [email protected]. Please include your name.

Mariette

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For us, one of the most interesting places in the Old City is the Cardo, the Byzantine Main Street from the 6th to 10th century in the time of the First and Second Temple. In ancient times it crossed the entire city north to south and today, remnants of the oldest parts of the street can be seen below.

For devout Christians, doubtless the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built in 335 AD by the Byzantine emperor Constantin and his mother Helena, previously an execution site outside the city walls, is the holiest shrine. In the gospels, it's said to be the true site of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection. Today it's an eclectic and dizzying amalgamation of Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Armenian, Coptic and Syrian churches.

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Via Dolorosa in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, following in the footsteps where Jesus is said to have carried the cross (and stopped to put his hand, now well-worn) on the way to his crucifixion.

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A virtual tour! In this most holiest city on earth, the view from the Mount of Olives, east of the Old City of Jerusalem, gives the sense of the confluence of Judaism, Christianity and Islam in one fell swoop. In Judaism, Temple Mount within the Old City walls is where Abraham was challenged to sacrifice his son Isaac and the First and Second Temples stood; in Islam Temple Mount contains the holiest shrine (El-Aqsa Mosque with the black dome) where Muhammed is said to have ascended to heaven; in Christianity Mount of Olives is said to be where Jesus stood and warned of the destruction of Jerusalem.

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Western Wall aka Wailing Wall

Remnant of the 2,000 year-old retaining wall built by Herod the Great in the 1st c. BC, only remainder of Second Temple. Prayers are stashed in the crevices of the wall, the most holy site for the Jewish people. It’s free, open 24 hours and very accessible. Hard not to feel moved by the pilgrimage made by millions of people to this sacred place.

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Something for every taste in the souks of Jerusalem, most of it in the Arabic Quarter and some dating from the 14th c.

The Old City has Jewish, Muslim, Armenian and Christian Quarters.

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Where the Dead Sea scrolls where discovered in the caves of these cliffs in 1947 by a couple of Bedouin goat herders. The Bedouin tribesmen attempted to sell the scrolls for mere leather but were amazingly recognized by a cobbler and antiquities dealer as rare and valuable. Mariette

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“Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.” ― Walt Whitman Definitely the case if you face the Dead Sea, which falls in a rainshadow. The lack of rain is causing the Dead Sea to shrink (note the aged sign in dry zone, "Bathing is Prohibited"), so float in it while you still can. Nearly 10 times as salty as the ocean, you'll want to keep your face out of it! The Judean Desert, practically devoid of sand but full of rock, is a magical and ethereal backdrop. Practically unspoiled by development, save the Avaha factory and store nestled in the hills above the sea, most the Dead Sea stretches for miles without a soul or building in sight. Mariette

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Dead Sea Mud. Reeks of sulphur but good for the skin?.

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The Bauhaus Capital of the World is apparently Tel Aviv! 4,000 buildings constructed in the 30s and early 40s as graduate immigrants of the best architecture school arrived.