Today we got up again at 5:30AM to be ready for our 6:45 group gathering so we would get off the ship at the same time. Today we were only 16 people in our group. We had some confusion when we got off (we couldn't find Zac our tour guide) so we walked to the end of the port and waited there. We had other cabbies call Avi Tours (we didn't have Zac's phone number) to find out where he was and it turned out that he was waiting for us to get off the ship (maybe by another gangway) but we finally connected with the driver and guide. In the interim Sharyn (realized she lost the money that we had all paid for the tour) and was very upset. She ran back to her cabin, retraced her steps, all to no avail. Later on she thought she might have been pick-pocketed.
We had almost a 2 hour ride before we stopped at Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. We were given some time to shop there also but the prices were outrageous.
From there we went to Masada and took the cable car to the top. Since I had already been there I waited under a tent on top with a lady in our group that is in a wheelchair while everyone else went to explore with our guide. When they returned we all went to the bottom and we were given 15 minutes to shop but once again everything was overpriced.
Then we went to the Spa at the Dead Sea for lunch and afterward some folks wanted to swim in it or just put their feet in it but for the first time (this is from our driver) they closed the Dead Sea form anyone going in. We witnessed an unbelievable wind storm and the sand (what else is there in a desert) was blowing all over the place and the normally calm Sea had huge whitecaps and the lifeguards closed the beach. Oh, and I forgot to mention that even though it never rains there, we also had some of that today too.
The four of us (Joan, David, Enid and myself felt so sorry for Sharyn losing the money we decided to start a fund to help her out. We each gave her $25.00 and figured if the rest of the bus would follow suit she would get most of the money back to pay for the tour. The 4 of us were strangers to the group; they all live in the same community in NJ but no one else would help their friend out. I'm glad they're not my friends.
We left there for our 2 hour ride home where most of us slept and we got back to the ship about 5:30 burt it seems like everyone else got back at the same time so the line to get back on was quite long and of course it was raining.
Tomorrow we dock in Alexandria, Egypt where we are doing an overnight in Cairo so I probably won't blog until Sunday night.
Happy birthday to Rose Marie and Carol and many more healthy ones.
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