Israel Travel Tip

If you overland from Jordan to Israel, don’t make our mistake, which was to assume that we could return any time we wanted, specifically, on a Saturday morning. All surface-exit points into Jordan are closed from Friday afternoon until Sunday morning, and on this particular occasion the bridge was closed Sunday as well for a Jewish holy day. Also, if you plan to go on to an Arab country (other than Egypt or Jordan), don’t make our other mistake, which was to fail to emphasize to the Israeli immigration official that we did not want our passports stamped. Averting our gaze from that official for about two seconds, resulted in one of our passports being stamped, thereby forcing us to cancel plans to proceed to Damascus, resulting in considerable expense (changing restricted air tickets, etc.), inconvenience and disappointment.

JOHN R. HURT

San Diego