Nothing To Complain About...For Now...

Hello from Beit Sh'ean (still don't know how to pronounce it and I'm ok with that).

We have had a good day of cycling.  Which seems to be a first for us on this trip!  Yesterday, we rode from Jerusalem to Jericho.  After spending four days in Jerusalem, as great as it was, we were ready to move on.  The ride to Jericho was not long, only 40 km and we were not gaining any elevation, but we still got off to a bit of a rough start.

More than the difficulties that come with elevation, wind, and distance, I find most of my frustration comes from trying to navigate our way through cities.  Getting out of Jerusalem was quite a task.  We had a map and thought we knew where we were going, but of course, they don't have street names anywhere making it extremely difficult to figure out where we're supposed to go.  We came to an intersection and asked locals which way to go.  We later found out that they told us a different way (not the route we wanted to go) which included a lot of ups and downs, but it was too late to turn back.

I know I complain about riding uphill a lot.  But now I'm going to complain about going downhill, so now you readers will have something different.  :)  While we were still in Jerusalem, we had to walk up a very steep hill; a steep hill that we also had to go down.  I can't even describe how steep this hill was.  It was the steepest hill Dad has ever been on, and our brakes were squealing loudly the whole time.  This was also a very narrow street with local traffic coming and going in both directions.  I was in front of a semi truck that was trying to get past me while three other cars going different directions were honking their horns and moving wherever there was space for them.  I pulled over to let the semi pass me and to give my hands a break (they were squeezing the brakes so hard my hands were aching).  We were only about halfway down the hill at this point.  Before beginning the rest of the descent, Dad had to hold onto my bike while I got on so I wouldn't fall down the hill.  In addition to all of this craziness, there are locals just staring at us from their porches, on the sidewalks, or on the road,  I was so stressed out I was brought to tears.  It was awful.  But eventually we made it and spent the rest of the trip riding on a major highway.  Thankfully, it was mostly downhill, but the amount of traffic was crazy (and continually stresses me out).

As much as I like going downhill, I'm always worried that we have to gain the elevation back at some point.  We kept seeing signs for the "Dead Sea" and I told Dad "If we go down to the Dead Sea, I'm not coming back up again".  He assured me that we weren't going down to the Dead Sea (-400 m elevation), but that we would be hitting sea level again,.  This was frustrating to me because it felt like all the elevation we gained in the previous days was slipping out of my fingers!

Not my happiest moment

What a fabulous welcome to the West Bank...

Eventually, we made it to Jericho (cue "Joshua Fit The Battle Of Jericho" here).  We had some trouble finding our "hotel" which was really just a large house that the owner divided into rooms for guests.  It was quite a nice place amongst the sketchy parts of Jericho.  I was very happy to explore the gardens the owner has worked hard on over the years.  He had beautiful flowers, vegetables, and even donkeys!

Front view of the house

Directly across the street from where we were staying #stayclassyJericho

Right in the city centre of Jericho, the Sycamore tree that Zaccheus climbed up to see Jesus still stands!  It is over 2,000 years old and there's a limb that comes right out to the road, a perfect place for him to climb up!

The Sycamore Tree

As soon as we got settled in the hotel, we took the cable car up to the monastery (which houses the rock that Jesus supposedly sat on while he was tempted for the first time).  We also had lunch up there and had a great viewpoint of the city of Jericho (both old and new). 

Old Jericho (hillside)

The Temptation Rock

One of the views from the top!

Of course, as soon as we got down, Dad wanted to go see Old Jericho (where the walls came a'tumblin down...).  It's not a very touristy site and there aren't a lot of signs so it's difficult to figure out what's what.  However, Dad basically stalked a German tour group that had an English guide and gathered information that way.  If you ask me, we were there too long.   And I told him that.  However, ruins that indicate habitation date back to over 10,000 years ago which is crazy!  It was cool to be in the place where so many events happened in the Bible.  However, it's hard to imagine Jericho as a city in those days when you're staring at a pile of rock.

So happy...

I can't even tell you what this was.. .but I bet Dad loved it

Ruins of the old tower

So over it.

On the way out, this guy really wanted to sell us some fresh pomegranate juice.  He was selling it for a pretty decent price (and it's really fresh) so Dad said yes.  This guy could NOT have been more excited.  He literally started singing and dancing.  How come my mother doesn't react this way whenever I ask her for a drink?

Our juice man singing "That's the way (uh huh uh huh) I like it".

That night, we ate dinner family style with the other guests staying at the house.  We ate with three girls from Finland, the owner, and two volunteers (from Belgium and Switzerland).  We had delicious soup and stuffed zucchini fresh from the garden!  We slept relatively well except for a rooster that kept crowing throughout the night.  Guess he wasn't interested in waiting until morning!

Today, we cycled about 80 kilometers.  I was a little nervous because I wasn't sure what we would be facing (wind, hills, traffic etc.)  In fact, we faced some wind and had to deal with traffic, but we actually had a great day of riding!  It was relatively flat, so we could actually ride our bikes.  YAY!  We essentially rode for 5.5 hours straight and arrived at our hostel at 1:30 PM.  It was great to be able to ride long enough and fast enough without taking a break that I could get into "the zone".  Eventually, although I am still aware that I'm pedalling and making sure I don't get hit by a car or run into a ditch or something, I can enter a daydream-like state where I can think about things other than cycling so the time goes by much faster.  My body was still exhausted by the time we arrived in Beit Sh'ean, but it was a good kind of exhausted.  My muscles were sore, but I was astounded we made such good time!  And to top it all off...there was a McDonald's across the street from the hotel!  I know you are all judging me, and I don't even care!  There is something very exciting about a McDonald's after riding my bike for 80 km and having eaten nothing but pita, hummus, cucumbers and tomatoes for the past two weeks.  ANYTHING familiar is amazing.  And a McFlurry?? YES PLEASE.

An old tank that's just hanging out on the side of the road.  #casual

 Overall, we have had two good days and I am hoping that tomorrow is no exception.  We have to go about 100 km which is daunting, but hopefully we will make it to our next destination on the Sea of Galilee without any major issues.

That's all for now!

Annika