Travel has not always been as easy as it is now. My journey from San Francisco to Frankfurt to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates was a scant 26 hours, relaxing in Boeing and Airbus comfort. Compare this to fourteenth-century traveler Ibn Battuta….
Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the site where Jesus was buried according to early legend, is a very busy place. Tour guides pass through with endless groups of picture-snapping visitors…
After five days of the fast hurly-burly of modern Dubai, hi-rise towers and freeways, I was eager to see the surroundings, an older, traditional, desert land stretching inland to the mountains…