Update from Israel

            November 28 Monday - We’re up at 7:00 to see our room has a great view of the beach at Tel Aviv,

 then have a great breakfast, and are ready in the lobby on time.  We drive along to several hotels to pick up the other tour members

and then we’re off to Caesarea, capital of Judea under the Romans. We watched a video about the history of the site, dating back to the time of King Herod the Great who built a fortress and deep sea harbor to impress Caesar Augustus - this happened a lot of the time when they’d build structures in honor of the ruler of the time  The fortress/settlement of Caesarea was destroyed 25 times and rebuilt 25 times, each time differently depending on the victor.  We toured the site which had structures similar to other Roman fortresses, aqueduct, theatre, hippodrome, market, bath house, temple and palaces.

J even modelled for a Roman public toilet, although the privacy curtain no longer exists.

We even saw influences from Louis VI era, 1100 - 1200’s with walls, entrances and drawbridges similar to the one we had seen in the French Hautes-Alps in June. 

Our guide showed us a portion of the plant that the crown of thorns was made of that was put on Jesus when he was crucified.

            Next we continued to Megiddo, identified as the site of Armageddon and visited the archaeological excavations that included a really cool underground water supply system developed long ago to capture the waters of the mountain springs. We were able to walk through this underground tunnel system.

There we also saw a date palm tree up close loaded with fresh dates.

We continued onto Haifa to overlook  the Persian Gardens at the Bahai Temple.

            Our final stop of the day, the ancient crusader port city of Acco is a UNESCO town with excavations 1000 years old. We wandered among Crusader Halls, the underground tunnels and pathways.

            Our next two nights will be spent at a Kibbutz Guest House.  The Kibbutz are a Jewish community who live communally originally based on agriculture but now operate on a more capitalist system. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises, and this one has the guest house (which is really a hotel) and also make furniture for synagogues. We enjoy dinner with the rest of the tour group and then head off to bed as it has been the longest day we have had on the adventure up at 7:00 AM and we finally arrived at the kibbutz at 7:15 PM.

            November 28 Tuesday - We’re on the road at 8:15.  First stop is Mount of the Beatitudes.  The grounds are beautifully kept and the church is octagonal symbolic of the 8 beatitudes.  It was designed and built by the Italians during Mussolini rule.  It is just below this church where Jesus gave his ”Sermon on the Mount.”   A great view of the northern part of the Sea of Galilee and the area. 

            Our next stop is to the Sea of Galilee where Jesus walked on the water, we enjoyed a ride in a wooden boat similar to the one used in ancient times in the sunshine (although they likely did not have an inboard diesel engine).  Hikim, our guide explained the various landmarks surrounding the lake. 

Next we were driven to Tabgha to the Church of the Multiplication, the traditional site of the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes to feed the 5000 which has a stone where Jesus sat.  Later this area was the third resurrection appearance of Jesus.

We also saw a great example of an ancient olive press that made cold pressed virgin olive oil.

            Stop four for the morning is to the site of Capernaem, the historic ruins of the home town of the apostles Peter, Matthew, Andrew, James and John.  It was here that Jesus would come to stay with Peter and his parents when in the area.  Today there is the  Church Of St. Peter built by the Fransciscan order over top of the ruins of the home of Peter.  It is an octagonal shape built on pillars with a glass floor so we can see Peter’s parents home where Jesus stayed overnight.  The site is well-preserved with many walls on former buildings giving us an understanding of the layout and life of the community.  At the same area we also toured the remains of a 2nd century synagogue built upon the site of the synagogue where Jesus preached and performed miracles.

            We had lunch at a restaurant serving fish from the Sea of Galilee - St. Peter’s fish (talapia).  It was very good.  Once we were back into the van, we had an hour’s drive to our next site. We drove by a section of the Jordan River before it runs into the Sea of Galilee.

Saw some more of the farm lands in Israel.

  Our final stop for the day, we drove along the east side of the Sea of Galilee to Yardenit, the Israeli baptismal site for tourists on the Jordan River.  It was not nearly as meaningful for us as the original baptismal site we visited last week in Jordan at a different location along the Jordan River.  After our long day on the road, we returned to the Kibbutz for the rest of the evening of chatting with our fellow tour members, eating dinner and then watching an English movie on TV.

            November 30 Wednesday - We began the morning with a tour of Tiberias.  We stopped at a Diamond Centre to learn about the process of diamond cutting and polishing as Israel is known world wide for this, and to learn that about half of the world’s diamonds are shipped to Israel to be polished before resale.  It was interesting and they had some cool inventory and smooth salespeople.
         We left this modern city to drive to Nazareth via Cana of Galilee.  We saw the location of the boyhood home of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. 

We visited the Church of the Annunciation where the angel came to Mary and told her about the divine birth, built by the contributions of many countries.  Each country that contributed to the cost of the church also contributed an incredible mosaic that was placed in the church depicting the occasion of the Annunciation.  The Church was beautiful to go through.  

            After lunch, we continued onto Beit Shean, the city where Saul and his sons where hung up on the city walls by the Philistines. The Talmud mentions this city as being the 'entrance to paradise', this excavated city is not as big as Jerash, Jordan, nor is it as well preserved.

It did however, have a great reconstruction of a Roman bath house that provided great detail to workings of the caldorarium (the steam room).  We hadn’t seen this anywhere else on our travels, and we’ve seen a few ruins of ancient bath houses.

            Later we drove up along the Golan Heights and noticed the signs of Danger keep out! Land mines! posted along each side of the road, left over from the 1967 conflict.  This was our first time seeing land that still had mines in it.

There are cleared lands now being used for farming, but other, not being used. As we drove along the road we came about 50 m from the Syrian border.  We were shown where the border used to be and where it is now.  The borders are well guarded and there’s serious security posts overlooking the lands on either side of the border.  Once we finished the tour of these areas, we headed drove along the Jordan River to Jerusalem.  We did have to go through a checkpoint leaving the West Bank area to Jerusalem. After checking into our hotel in downtown Jerusalem, M and T went for a walk and had a good cap and dessert while J watched a movie in our room. Our room had a great view of the city.

            December 1 Thursday -  This morning’s tour began with a drive up to the Mount of Olives for a panoramic view of Jerusalem.  We could see the Old and New City and the oldest Jewish Cemetery in the world dating back thousands of years. Hilik explained the layout of the Old and New City and the landmarks of various historic significance. 

This dome marks the site where Abraham built the altar upon which he was willing to sacrifice Isaac.

We visited the church of All Nations. the location within the garden where Jesus was arrested before his crucifixion. In this church we saw the rock where Jesus was praying when he was arrested. 

            We walked through Zion’s Gate to enter the walls of the Old Jerusalem. 

We visited the area near the Temple Mount the holiest place in Judaism today, and the Western Wall, the “wailing wall”

and learned its called thus because when the Temple was still there only high priests could enter, and after it was destroyed the modern Jews cannot know where the wall of the temple stood, all the know for sure is that the West Wall is definietely outside whre the temple was, so they go no farther. A number of young Jewish boys were making their Bar Mitzvahin the square while we were there. 

Our walking tour led us through tunnels (under present day buildings)  as well as narrow ways amongst shops.

We even saw a mural depicting what the streets looked like in Roam times and someone who looked like J was in the picture way back then!

We passed from the Jewish quarter to the Muslim quarter.  There was a definite shift in surroundings, from preserved to many shops selling the typical things we had seen in these kind of shops in other countries.

            The rest of our tour of Old Jerusalem was along the route of Dolorosa, starting at the location of Jesus falling for the first time with the Cross to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

This Church is said to be built backing onto the Mount of Calvary and there’s a spot marking where the cross was put into the ground.  We saw a rock upon which Jesus was laid to be prepared to be buried as well as the tomb said to be the burial place of Jesus.

 The Church is actually shared amongst 4 denominations, who seem unable to share very well. As an example our guide pointed out a ladder (used at one time to fix something) that was leaning against the wall outside the church, and apparently the four groups cannot agree which one of them should take it down at least for the last 38 years that our guide has been guiding!

            Next we went to see King David's tomb and as well as the room of Last Supper on Mt. Zion. The upper room where the Last Supper was has only the floor of the room remaining, now located within a church.  Our last visit of the day was to the Garden Tomb, a location that some think was the location the of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection took place. No one knows for sure which one of these two locations is correct.

            December 2 Friday - After breakfast we drove to visit the Israel Museum where we saw an amazing miniature model of Jerusalem as it was during the second temple period.  The model is a great representation of the layout of the buildings and sites we visited the day before, and what the Temple would have looked like.

Also there is the Shrine of the Book where the Dead Sea Scrolls are housed. The scrolls were made by the Essenes, a small ultra religious sect, who had left Jerusalem to move to Qumran and there made copies of the Old Testament. After the Romans put down the Jewish rebellion in 66 AD the Essenes sealed the scrolls in pottery jars and hid them in caves which they sealed as well. By accident a shepherd looking for one of his flock found them in 1947.

            Next we went to Ein Karem to visit the Church of Visitation where Mary went to visit Elizabeth when they were both pregnant with Jesus and John the Baptist respectively.

            We spent the rest of the morning at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum.  The visit to this museum was not without sadness and giving us cause to ponder the atrocity of those years. Within the garden there are trees planted with names of people who were known to have helped Jewish people throughout Europe.  We visited an incredibly moving exhibit at the Children's Pavilion, commemorating the death of over 1.5 million Jewish children. Also the Valley of the Communities - a man-made valley in the form of the European Map built in remembrance of where over 5000 names of communities are engraved on the stone walls, each one remembering a Jewish community that was damaged or destroyed during the Holocaust.  The museum was extremely well done, and very moving. It made us think about more than just the Holocaust itself, also about how many other terrible things were done to many more than Jews during wartime, as well as how people risked their lives to save others they did not even know.

            After lunch, we traveled to the ancient city of Bethlehem.  Bethlehem is on the West Bank, the Palestinian side of Israel, so our guide could not bring us across, for to his safety (meaning the Israel government do not want Israelis there to avoid the risk of their capture for ransom or exchange for Palestinian terrorist prisoners).   Once things were cleared at the checkpoint, we were led across (a crossing that reminder M of what crossing into East Berlin would have been like before the Wall came down) by foot to meet a driver who took us to the Church of Nativity.  Our guide, a Palestinian Christian, who is in the minority in Bethlehem, led us through the Church. To enter the church we all had to bow (the door had been made small to cause this motion for all).

 There was a long lineup to see the site where Jesus was born and the “manger” that we found out was actually a cave (as have many of the houses from that time in this part of the world).  Both of these sites were on the lower level on the Church, shared by the Catholic, Armenian, and Greek Orthodox. The lineup to see both was really long, our guide figured about 1 1/2 hour wait.  He “talked” to someone to see if we could avoid the long line.  Well, half of us we taken to the exit to enter through the back and our half of the group we led to right near the front of the line.  We felt somewhat uneasy once we saw what had happened, but not going to go back to the end of the line ....  Getting down into the birthplace took a bit of doing, but we did manage to eventually squeeze into the opening to enter the chamber.  J was able to use his crowd passing prowess to get ahead of us, we did manage to meet up with him about 5 min. later where he was waiting for us at the scene.

Once we had managed to see both spots, we left the Church to enter into the Catholic St. Catherine Church  where midnight mass at Christmas is held and broadcast throughout the world.  A mass was being celebrated when we entered it.  This Church is much simpler in design than other Churches in our travels, yet seemed right for this spot. 

Once we were finished, we were escorted to our van to transport us back to the checkpoint. Then we went back to Jerusalem and enjoyed an evening out at a restaurant - something we have missed with all this touring with the requisite hotel buffet meals. 

            December 3 Saturday -  We left Jerusalem and began our descent through the Judean Desert to the Dead Sea for today’s touring. It was interesting to drive along the West Bank across from where we stayed last week in Jordan, this part of Israel looks more like Jordan - much drier!

 Today the breeze was up more, so we actually saw water movement compared to last week’s glass like surface.  We also saw many posted signs warning of sink holes along the shore.  We’re told that the sea loses a meter a year.  As we drive along we saw where the water had been 80 years ago compared to now, it’s amazing the difference. The River Jordan no longer flows into it as most is used for agricultural purposes in Israel, so what is left isn’t a lot. 

            We drove to Qumran where we toured the settlement where the Essenes, who wrote the Dead Scrolls, hid from the Roman enemy, saw the main cave the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in, and learned more about their life. 

We drove by the oasis where David stayed while hiding from Saul.

            We continued along the shores of the Dead Sea to Massada. We climbed by cable car to the mountaintop to explore the ancient fortress built by Herod the Freat although he never used it. Here’s a short version of the story. It was the last stronghold of the Jewish Zealots in their struggle against the Romans. The Zealots held out for three years against the legions of Flavius Silva and chose to die as free men at their own hands rather than submit to Roman slavery. From the top of Massada, we could see outlines of the Roman encampments still visible far below.

            After lunch we stopped at the Ahava Dead Sea Products factory.  J watched a short film on how the minerals are extracted for these skin products while T did a bit of shopping. We had an opportunity to float on the Dead Sea once again, but only J went in for a bit. The salt content began to irritate his skin, so he gave up and got out. Today’s experience was so different from last week as there were about 10 busses of tourists at this private beach area, so it was very crowded. Quite different than sharing the beach in Jordan with all of 8 other people for 3 hours!  As well, along the shore, the cumulation of salt and other mineral crystals at the shore made walking in and out of the water to be done with care.

  We much preferred last week’s warm, sunny and peaceful experience!  It was funny to see all the people coated in black mud!

            Back in Jerusalem we enjoyed another evening out to celebrate our last evening in Israel and our last day touring until we get to Morocco in mid-January.