Travelling to Jerusalem

Lately I have been travelling quite a bit around Israel as we are in the middle of the holiday season.
Today I would like to share with you a few snap shots I took in Jerusalem this week visiting the Western Wall.
During the Jewish New Year and Jom Kippur many believers come to Jerusalem to pray for forgiveness. This is the reason why you see so many people standing close to the wall. On a normal weekday you might see only a third of the amount. The place is holy as the wall is the last part of the ancient Jewish Temple which was not destroyed (the temple itself was destroyed twice in the history). The wall is the western outer wall of the temple. So behind the wall the temple itself was situated.

What you see here in the above picture is what is known to be the Western Wall. But underneath the ground and especially towards the left (where the wall seems to end) the wall actually continues under the ground.

I have visited the tunnels underneath the Western Wall this week and I will share with you how it looks like.

So once you get down into the tunnels it gets pretty dark which is why the photos are not great. we were walking along the wall with a guide and she really explained very well which part of the wall we are passing and where it relates to in the temple, Can you believe that there are about 800-900 meters of wall left which you can not see when you are standing outside in front of it? The largest stones are more then ten meters long! (In the picture above the Western Wall is the wall on the right hand side,)

As you can see the wall underneath the ground is massive and it is unbelievable that it is man-made. If you know a bit about Jerusalem you might wonder how this is possible as the Western Wall neighbors with the Muslim quaters of the city. Well, for that the answer is surprisingly simple; the wall passes actually underneath the Muslim quarter.

The holiest part of the Western Wall is the place where you are actually standing closest to the altar which is about half-way into the tunnels along the wall. You will find there many people praying which is why I did not photograph it.

I found this trip quite impressive which is why I decided to share it with you. There was a very unique spirit. 

Next week I will be writing about a new skin care line which I am currently testing.

Weekend Trip to Beresheet

We spent the last weekend in the Beresheet Spa Resort which is located in the far south of Israel about one hour from Eilat. My husband and I have been celebrating our wedding anniversary taking a weekend off to relax.

Above you can see the view from our amazing room. We had a direct view on the crater which looks absolutely astonishing! We enjoyed the comfort of a private pool which gave us a maximum amount of privacy. The room itself was offered all comfortability we needed. Everything was in good condition and very clean. The room was being arranged for us twice a day (morning and afternoon).

Every room is eqipped with the body care products of the hotel. Their scent is lovely even though I can not describe what it is. It is smelling kind of "oriental".

Beresheet is constructed like a little village with every building hosting two rooms. At the ground floor is a room with a pool and while the room above enjoys a large patio. We were told that there are 100 rooms available in the resort.

As walking distances between the rooms and the main building differ depending where your room is located the hotel offers a driving service with 24/7 availability to take you around.

Here is how our building looked like:

All buildings including the main house are made from lovely stones which have the same color as the desert environment. It all fits very well into the nature.

Below is the main building and the main pool.

And yes we also spent time around the main pool even though we had a pool of our own. The pool bar offered lovely cocktails...

Here is a picture of the sunrise which we saw every morning. It was worth the early (6:20 am) wake.

We also booked spa treatments. The massage I took was 75 min and definitely worth it. The care giver was very professional and experienced. I suffered some pain after the treatment but it turns out that all my muscles are released.

During our stay we also wanted to see a little bit of the environment and experience the desert. In order to get around we booked a RZR drive with a guide. We had our personal RZR following the instructor through the desert. 

It was a great experience and totally different from what we expected. At the beginning it was a bit scary as we drove with the vehicle through the sand and over the rocks but in the end we really enjoyed it. It was absolutely doable if you follow the instructions of a professional guide as you might otherwise get injured overestimating your driving abilities.

The only thing bothering us during our stay was that other guests when walking around the resort passed by "our" garden and pool area which made us feel uncomfortable. In the end we learned that we could have called for the security as people are not supposed to hang around the private areas of other rooms enjoying their view but we simply did not know about it.

Allover it was a wonderful trip and we both enjoyed our stay. The service was great, all the staff cared about our well-being.
The food needs to be mentioned as well. The breakfast was a large buffet with everything one can think about. The dinners were a la carte and only the starters were a buffet. At any point in time the food was delicious.