Made it to the Top of Masada

OK. This is Masada. You can faintly see
the Snake Path winding up the side
of the mountain. It is 700 steps, and about
1,000 feet, to the top. I climbed that bad boy
today.

Floating in the Dead Sea. Good times.

Ramparts walk was a continuous flow
of narrow walls and occasional lookouts
over the Old City wall.

     After the last two days, I am just about out of gas.
     Monday was our free day, and six of us decided to walk the ramparts of the Old City wall. The wall to the Old City is basically from the Crusader era (12th century); only the base of some sections of the wall contain stones (Herodian stones) from the days of Jesus.
     It had a medieval castle vibe to it, complete with narrow slits in the watchtowers for archers. For $5, we walked the entire perimeter of Old City Jerusalem from about 25 feet in the air.
     It gave a different perspective of things, for sure, and it was quite a workout.
     Speaking of workouts, I hiked to the top of Masada today. The rest of the crew took the cable car to the top, but for my second visit to Masada I wanted to conquer the Snake Path to the top. Not sure how many feet it was -- probably a million or something. All I know is that toward the end of the climb I had to stop about every 30-40 yards.
    I'm not gonna lie. It rocked my world.
    The entire climb took me about 45 minutes. Many thanks to the group of Australian students who gave me high-fives just about the time I was going to drop from exhaustion.
     After the Masada climb, we headed back to the Dead Sea for some flotation.
     I'll be honest, the Dead Sea never gets old. I was thinking about skipping the whole changing-into-my-bathing-suit, walking-across-painful-pebbles thing and just watch the group swim.
     I'm glad I didn't. It is a lot of fun. I even went Braveheart with a few of my traveling buds with some of the mineral-rich mud. We slathered it all over our faces and chests like a bunch of crazed Scottish highlanders.
     Right now, I am absolutely whipped. Time for bed.
     Two more days before we head home. Tomorrow we go to the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem and then go to King David's Palace, where get to go underground and explore.
     Not looking forward to the flight home, but it's all part of it, I guess.

The Ramparts crew