If you ever visit a castle, BRING A FLASHLIGHT

Hello family and friends!

I feel very fortunate because in the past month or so, I have visited three castles! We visited one while in Galilee, and two in Jordan. The first castle we visited is called Nimrod's Castle. Apparently Nimrod is in the Bible and actually has nothing to do with that castle, but that's the name regardless. As soon as we got off the bus, we all "stormed the castle" and explored as many nooks and crannies as we could. It was a gray, stormy day, which just added to the mood. It was a huge castle and was very well preserved.



The second castle we visited was in Jordan and is called Shobak's Castle. We had blue skies that day, but I actually spent very little time above ground. We had about an hour to explore, and I ended up finding a "secret tunnel" with my friend Sadie. We went down the stairs, turned a couple of corners, and discovered that it was waaaay too dark to go forward. So we climbed back up to find someone who had a flashlight. Right as we reached the surface, we ran into my religion professor, Brother Muhlestein, and his son, B.J. We asked them if they had a flashlight because we had discovered a tunnel that was too dark to explore! Brother Muhlestein got really excited and told his son that maybe it was the same tunnel he had found last time! Both of these prepared men had tiny flashlights with them, so we all went down together! Brother Muhlestein confirmed that it was the same tunnel he had found last time. He didn't have a flashlight last time though, so he didn't get very far. We all clung to each other while climbing down this crumbling staircase. It was so much fun! A fairly large group ended up following us, but they didn't have flashlights! Yikes. For the most part they just crept their way down carefully and used their cameras to send random flashes of light into the dark abyss before them...ha ha. We didn't go to the very end, but Brother Muhlestein decided it was probably a cistern that we had discovered! We went as far as we could in the amount of time we had. It was so much fun! Climbing up was much easier. Right before we turned around though, two of my friends (who weren't in the original group) popped out of no where and scared us. I just about had a heart attack! Who do they think they are? ha ha It was pretty funny.
I didn't see any more of that castle because we were underneath it for most of the time! It sure was fun though.





We visited the last castle because another activity fell through. This castle was the first castle we visited where we weren't the only ones there! We've been lucky with regards to the other castles. I wandered around this castle with my new castle buddy, Sadie, and another girl Katie. We had lots of fun.



I sure wish I could have seen these castles in all their grandeur!