Travel plan idea blog

Here's an article on a cruise from Cyprus to Israel and a tour of Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Tourism, of course, is way down. And there's a reason Palestine is (or at least has been) listed as one of the world's most dangerous places. You have to wonder how safe Israel is too.

Thanks to Micael Parsons from the Irish Times for some of the better travel writing I've seen in a newspaper:

On into the Arab quarter and its jumbled warren of crowded streets and alleys. Tiny cafes display jugs of freshly pressed pomegranate juice, and shops offer "half-price" souvenirs. In the midst of merchandise such as Winnie the Pooh stickers and "Calvin Klein" socks, it is a shock to spot a street sign in this souk bearing the immortal words "Via Dolorosa". The Way of the Cross. The location of all fourteen Stations is marked by a stone plaque and a tiny church. Opposite the Fifth Station, "Simon of Cyrene Carries the Cross", you can buy a Sony memory stick or a box of sandalwood incense sticks from House of Perfume and Amber. And across from the spot where "Veronica wipes Jesus's face with her veil" is the premises of "Jelly Ibrahim - Silversmith". At the Seventh Station, where Jesus fell for the second time, you can stop and pray at the little shrine or pop into Ali Baba's Internet Cafe. God and Mammon inextricably entwined.

Posted by James Trotta at December 21, 2008 10:17 AM