album thirteen - mosaics of the middle east

emir fakhreddin's castle in the chouf mountains.

jordan's most beautiful mosaic. in moses' church on mount nebo. moses... mosaic... get it?

the star of all mosaics - the map of the holyland in st george's church, madaba.

with jerusalem in it.

and this is the floor of the brotgeberkirche in galilee.

album twelve - tel aviv, galilee, amman

now for a big contrast to jerusalem - tel aviv!

with beautiful bauhaus architecture, the *white city* of tel aviv.

and those beaches!

bus stop on the road to nazareth.

and the place of jesus' misspent youth itself. now full of churches, of course.

the sea of galilee. a treacherous water!

the shrine in the brotgeberkirche, above the rock where jesus multiplied the bread. allegedly.

here i am walking on water on the river jordan.

while others are getting baptised just some 20 metres away.

the only two pics i took in amman. this is near the citadel on top of the city, where they also keep this beautiful map of the holyland and the dead sea scrolls in the archaeological museum.

and then i flew back home.

my dear readers, all these great pictures were taken with my marvellous camera phone. love it!

album eleven - jerusalem

in the capital of the world's religions. this is damascus gate.

via dolorosa, where i was walking with severe stomach pains.

the tomb of jesus in the church of the holy sepulchre. the patriarchs in that church were real bullies. that's probably why i look so shocked!

a friendly israeli policeman. and the fiedler family door sign.

my room in the american colony hotel. it was heaven!

as i said before, the germans are everywhere.

ha-kotel, the western wall. used as an open air synagogue. this is the women's section.

huge bar-mitzvah parties all round!

and after the hustle and bustle at the western wall...
... the quiet of the temple mount.

inside the dome of the rock.

album ten - petra

petra. no comments necessary.




little petra, just outside of *big petra*, was temporarily transformed into an ancient village by an italian film crew. for a film set in the time of jesus.

he's seen it all.
petra by night. really!

our bedouin drivers in wadi rum... and nigel.