The Dead Sea

After Masada, Mom and I drove about 10 minutes further south along the Dead Sea to Ein Bokek and the Lot Hotel. My expectations were fairly low as no one has ever really given rave reviews of any of the hotels down at Ein Bokek. I chose the Lot Hotel because of favorable reviews on tripadvisor.com.

The hotel was actually pretty decent. The room was not fancy by any means (old flat carpet, dated bedspread), but it was clean and we had a great view of the Dead Sea. The buffet dinner satisfied my vegetarian tooth and Mom seemed to fare well also.

The hotel clientele was mostly Europeans and Russians. Lots of Norwegians on a tour. And Israelis (one of whom rammed Mom and me into the tiny elevator with a stroller -- completely ignoring us and refusing to let us get out. I was furious and we both had to literally crawl over the stroller).

The next morning, we made our way down to the beach. The water was still surprisingly warm (considering it's mid-November) and I thought the beach was much nicer than what I experienced at Ein Gedi last year (further north along the Dead Sea). The beach was sandy and there weren't any rocks, so it was all rather pleasant. Mom and I did our little floating tricks (Mom also did the "I've rolled-over-and-I-can't-get-up-trick" but luckily I was there to intervene) and I actually did not want to get out after the recommended 15-minute limit.

But, I did get out, and we checked out and drove north to Jerusalem.