Eilat

We flew down to Eilat from Jerusalem's tiny Atarot airport: one gate, three vending machines, and a bunch of seats. They handed us umbrellas as we left the terminal for the walk over to the plane, as it had started to hail.

Eilat is quickly becoming Vegas without the gambling, but with the Red Sea. The King Herod, The Queen of Sheba, and other hotels are becoming more and more glitzy. Our hotel, the King Solomon, which was once the peak of glitziness, has been far surpassed in less than a decade.

We took a boat ride on the Jules Verne, which had a glass hull through which you can view the coral reefs.

For more than 40 years, the city of Aqaba had been right next door to Eilat without being at all accessible. We got up Friday early and went across the new border checkpoint to Jordan.