Travel Ideas

A Honeymoon In The Mountains Is Best, But Watch Out

by: Carlingue Demontagne

If you’re looking for the best honeymoon possible, then you need to consider the Smokey Mountains as your destination.
Don’t get a motel room or stay in Gatlinburg. Find a cabin to rent that has all the amenities of a 5 star hotel but in the serenity, solitude and secrecy of the mountains.
My family and I just had one of the most awesome and relaxing vacations ever and we spent it in a cabin that was fully furnished. It had a pool table, 2 indoor jacuzzis and an 2 person hot tub on the deck overlooking the mountains.
The cabin we stayed in would sleep 8 so there will be more than enough space for two. While we were there we saw wild turkeys, deer, a wild peacock and scorpions.
Now when I say cabin, don’t think for one minute that this was a cabin like the old settlers used to call home. This cabin was more like a luxury vacation home than a log cabin. The price range for the cabin was from $130-160 per night with a 2 night minimum and a price break if you stay more than 3 nights.
Cabins are located all over the area, so it pays to shop around, but almost all of the cabins are located within 15 minutes of the main highway and 25 minutes from the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. You are close to true outlet malls as well.
The Smokey Mountains offer some of the best times and places to create lasting memories with the love of your life. Make sure you take a hike to one of the many waterfalls and be certain to do a horseback ride.
The best deals on cabins are found on the internet. Do a search for Smokey Mountain cabins and you’ll get more results than you know what to do with.
Our cabin was rented from Fireside Cabins and Chalet rental. They can be found on the internet with a websearch.
The weather in the Smokies is fairly mild, even in the winter and you’ll really enjoy your honeymoon there!

About The Author

Carlingue Demontagne is the manager and developer of Any Honeymoon which is an awesome site on the internet to learn more about planning a honeymoon. To learn more about visiting the Smokies, please visit my website at: http://www.anyhoneymoon.com.

by: Stephen Schochet

Since it was built in 1929, The Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel has attracted rich and famous guests from around the world. To the general public the hotel is most famous for being used in the 1990 movie Pretty Woman. They have disappointed thousands of people by turning down requests from around the world who would like to stay in the same suite that Julia Roberts and Richard Gere had in the movie because it does not exist, it was filmed at the Walt Disney studio.
Julia Robert’s character in the film was not the only pretty woman who stayed there. In the 60’s the hotel became a swinging hangout for Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson, with parades of women going in and out of their rooms. A little old lady who stayed beneath Beatty constantly banged her ceiling with her broom, to try and get him and his lady friends to stop making so much noise.
Not everyone was having fun in the hotel. Michael Caine spent his honeymoon there with his beautiful wife Shakira. Caine was and is a favorite of the staff. In honor of Shakira they decided to give them the authentic Indian honeymoon suite. In India, the honeymoon beds hang from the ceiling with bells hanging from the bottom. The neighbors like to hear the bells go off for the happy couple, but in this case Shakira was already pregnant and Caine was jetlagged. All they wanted was to get some sleep but they couldn’t do it because of the blankety blank bells! The English actor ended up ordering four hamburgers from room service and stuffed the buns into the bells so that they could get through the night!

About The Author

Stephen Schochet is the author and narrator of the audiobooks Fascinating Walt Disney and Tales Of Hollywood. The Saint Louis Post Dispatch says,” these two elaborate productions are exceptionally entertaining.” Hear realaudio samples of these great, unique gifts at www.hollywoodstories.com.

orgofhlly@aol.com

by: Colin Hartness

A Honeymoon Cruise as the name suggests offers a gateway to paradise for honeymooners away from the pressures of daily life and enjoy the bliss of togetherness. This provides an opportunity for you to start your married life in a state of togetherness by exploring the unknown and enjoying nature and life.
The Honeymoon cruise offers the comforts of a five star luxury and provides a period of unending excitement, adventure, the opportunity to get to know each other and enjoying life as nature had wanted it to be.

This is an ideal way to start a life of togetherness for fulfillment of one?s desires and daresay this is a golden getaway. The excitement of togetherness under the moonlit sky with the stars twinkling and the rustle of the water and the gentle breeze flowing from the sea is an experience, which will be etched in your memory for life.
The honeymoon cruise package usually includes:

• Champagne and Strawberries in the Stateroom on embarkment
• Canap?s delivered to your cabin on the evening of your choice.
• A special Honeymooner?s party
• Honeymoon Photographs.
• Champagne breakfast in bed

The following Honeymoon cruises satisfy the forever romantics and provide luxury unheard of:-
1. A Silver Sea Cruise is a love nest and provides Bed-breakfast, pre-dinner cocktails, a private verandah with canap?s, complimentary Champagne and wine, a mini-bar stocked with the choicest of drinks to enhance your mood, delicious cuisine are the attractions of this Honeymoon Cruise.
2. Crystal Cruises are midsize luxury liners which provides all the above . Penthouses with personal butlers are also available at a nominal extra cost at this Honeymoon Cruise.
3. Wind Star Cruises offers everything you would have dreamt. This Honeymoon Cruise offers boats with which you sail away from ports at sunset and feel the exhilaration of cruising under white billowing sails. The spirited can go for scuba diving, kayaking, Windsailing, snorkeling etc.
4. Norwegian Cruise Line - The Norwegian Star is a specialty for romantic couples. Resort casual dining offers an alternative following a formal wedding at this Honeymoon Cruise. The destination is Hawaii (world?s most romantic destination) departing every Sunday and has a Wedding Chapel for intimate ceremonies and vow renewals.
The destination shall be of your choice depending upon your taste ? be it the romantic hills, historical monuments, beaches, tropical rain forests etc. All the cruise ships offering a Honeymoon Cruise have exquisitely done suites, gyms, swimming pools, beauty parlors and casinos to pamper the cruiser and energize the mind, body and spirit.

About The Author

Looking for information about cruises?

Go to: http://www.whatcruises.com

Indiana Jones and the cave of John the Baptist

by: Moshe Reinfeld

The discovery of “the cave of John the Baptist” not far away from Jerusalem was a great journalistic drama. Archaeological news easily lights the imagination. Remember the movie series of Indiana Jones. Is it true that John the Baptist began to baptize his followers in this cave? Let us go over the facts, and find out.
There are not many historical sources of information concerning the whereabouts of John the Baptist. Of these, the Gospels, especially St. Luke, give us the most accurate information. Another source may be “the Antiquities of the Jews” by Josephus Flavius.
St. Luke tells us that Zachary, the father of John, was a priest, who lived with John’s mother Elisabeth in “a city of Judah” in “the hill country”. No source tells us exactly where it was. But we should assume that people live near their work place. If so, that city was situated in the vicinity of Jerusalem, because priests worked in the Temple. Traditionally, it is believed that Zachary and Elisabeth lived in Ein Kerem, a small town near Jerusalem, but there are no archaeological findings which can prove it.
Some churches have been built in Ein Kerem since the Byzantine era, though we do not know if the earlier churches were dedicated to John the Baptist or related to him. The first ones who did associate Ein Kerem to John were the Crusaders, but it must be emphasized that those Christian conquerors of the Holy land used to adapt the Holy sites to the area they ruled.
When the Crusaders controlled the way to Jerusalem, they said that the village of Emmaus was situated in the village of Abu Ghosh, and built there a beautiful church. A hundred years later, after they were driven away by the Moslems from there, they did not hesitate to identify Kubeiba as the one and only Emmaus. Also there they built a church, a monastery and fortress.
Actually there has been always a town called Emmaus. It is located in the Ayalon valley. The early Christians believed that this is the real Emmaus, mentioned in the Gospels, and magnificent churches were built there during the Byzantine era, 1500 years ago. The problem with this identification was that the place is located more than 30 kilometers from Jerusalem, while according to St. Luke the distance was only 11 kilometers.
Back to John the Baptist. We have already considered the location of his birth place. And now let us ask ourselves: where did he preach and baptize? The Gospels tell us mainly two geographical facts. That he did his preaching and religious rituals in the Judea desert, and that he baptized people who came to him from Judea and Jerusalem, in the Jordan River.
St John mentions specifically a place called Aenon, near Salim. He says John the Baptist operated there “because there was much water there”. St John mentions another place called “Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing”. The only possible conclusion for those who are acquainted with the area should be that John baptized his fellow Jews in the vicinity of Jericho. It was the only place combining the water of the Jordan River, a convenient road from Jerusalem and Judea and a geographical closeness to a desert, Judea desert.
St. Luke tells us that John was born when Herod was the tetrarch of Galilee. It means John lived when Herod the 2nd, son of King Herod the Great, ruled the northern and the eastern part of the country. Many years later, this tetrarch (Roman prince) arrested John and executed him in a brutal way, by beheading him.
Why was he imprisoned and eliminated? Some of the Gospels tell us that John rebuked the tetrarch publicly for his evil deeds. But the great Jewish historian Josephus tells us another story. John was regarded as politically dangerous. St. Matthew insinuates that this version is reliable, when he says that Herod “feared the multitude, because they counted him (John) as a prophet”.
The main contribution of Josephus to our story is telling us where John was imprisoned and murdered. It was in the fortress of Machaerus (Mikhvar, in Hebrew), the remains of which can be seen nowadays in the kingdom of Jordan.
Kibutz Tzuba (the correct Hebrew name is Tzova) where the cave was found, is located only four kilometers from Ein kerem, which probably was the birthplace of John, as mentioned above. But we should recall that John did not operate there. He needed “much water”. In Tzuba-Ein-Kerem area water is scarce. The Historical sources put the scene in a different site: the Jordan River, apparently near Jericho. Why not believe them?
A few hundred meters from the Tzuba cave, on the top of another hill, the remains of a small fortress can be seen. The Crusaders built it to control a secondary way to Jerusalem, used by Pilgrims. Those days the Crusaders did not control the main road to Jerusalem any more, and had no choice but to use their productive imagination to “create” new “biblical sites”. Nearby Abu Ghosh is one of them. It became Emmaus.
Is the Tzuba Cave a modern such an adjustment of versions? May be .But it could also be a place where John the Baptist really did some baptizing. Why not? He was born not far away from there. His parents could still live in Ein Kerem. May be he used the cave when he came to visit them?
We are dealing here with speculations. And these are beyond the scope of our discussion. Most of the Holy sites in Israel are believed to be the original ones without having any firm scientific proof. Does it matter? Apparently the answer is negative. Belief is a matter of the heart, not of science.
What Archaeologists do know for sure is that the Tzuba cave was used by Jews for a long period of time, starting during the reign of the Judean kings some 600 years before John’s time. It continued to be used by Christians until 300- 400 years after John’s time. There are some carvings from that time on the wall which are symbols related to John the Baptist, including his image, a drawing of his decapitated head and a cross shape.
Inside the cave, archaeologists found many pottery shards, indicating the cave could be used for baptizing. Is it enough for proving anything? The answer is no. Is it worth a visit? The answer is absolutely yes. But for that purpose people should wait. The cave has not yet been opened to visitors.
Written: 9/9/2004

About The Author

COPYRIGHT 2004: Moshe Reinfeld
The Author is a freelance journalist and a tour guide in Israel
Websites:

http://israel.electrical-contractor.net/

http://pr4u.bravehost.com/

http://tourisrael.friendpages.com

moshereinfeld@yahoo.com