Arrival in Jerusalem

Hi,

After 36 hours without much if any sleep I have made it to Jerusalem and the hotel Prima Kings Hotel. I was amazed that the driver actually was at the airport at 4:00 am. It was a thrilling ride through thick fog from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. To use frequent flyer miles I arrived a day ahead of the Exploritas group and so am sort of here on my own. The hotel does not seem to be near a retail district but as this is Saturday, most things are closed anyway. I tried lunch at the hotel but they wanted to charge me $50.00 for a buffet. I had a candy bar that was transported all the way from the US instead. My group rate starts tomorrow and meals are included. The attached pictures are of the hotel and a stone windmill that is next door. It was built by the Jewish English Baronet Moses Montefiore in the 1800's to promote industry in Israel.

All the best

Carl

Mount of Olives, old city holy sepulchre Israel museum 3-14-10

Hi,
I have spent another day walking around Jerusalem waiting for the tour to start. The other participants get in this afternoon with an orientation at 6:00 PM. The weather is delightful with temperatures in the 70's under a hazy sun. My hotel is on a ridge overlooking the walled old city of Jerusalem. I walked around some of the local shopping areas in the morning which are upscale in new and clean in this region of the city. The people in general are slim with only the ocasional fatty. Perhaps it's is th Kosher food but I did see a McDonalds. I wonder if they have cheezeburgers? In the afternoon I walked down the slope and across the valley to the walled old city that contains the via delarosa, dome of the rock and wailing wall. While walking along the city wall I encountered Zedekiah's cave which may have been begun by Solomon. It is under the streets of the old town and is rather large having been found in 1854 when a bible scholar went chaising after his dog which had just disappeared. I entered through the Damascus gate and wandered through the narrow streets and endless series of shops with very agressive shopkeepers. During this walk I avoided most of the important sites assuming that we would visit them in the next few days. I exitied and followed the wall all the way around. It was hilly and long so I was pretty beat by the time the hotel was in sight.

Carl

Jerusalem old city holocaust memorial gov center 3-15-10

Today we did our first tour which included the Mount of Olives, the Dolo Rosa in the old city and then the Israel Museum on the other side of town. This is a city of thin natives on motor scooters and fat tourists on in buses.

Our guide got rather exasperated trying to keep the group together. We did loose one or two ladies in the mornig who turned up later in the day. He has to realize that this is an old group that doesn't see or hear well. One guy has a hearing aid with a transmitter that he hangs around his neck. He stuck the transmitter in his wife's pocket and could hear everything going on around her. Fortunately she didn't say anything bad about him.

The Mount of Olives gives you a view across the Kidron valley to old walled Jerusalem providing a great perspective of the area. While there I took a short ride on a camel for $5. The camel seems to eat and work at the same time. We and a few million other people slowly walked through the narrow streets of old Jerusalem on the supposed path of Christ to his crucifixion. The group ended up at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher which also encloses Golgotha. Golgotha is much smaller than I expected. There would hardly have been room for three crosses on top. We had an excellent lunch at an Armenian restaurant in the old city and left for the Israel museum on the other side of the city. In addition to the dead sea scrolls on the inside; the outside had 1/50 scale model of Jerusalem at the time of Christ. It is about half the size of a football field and would be a great place for a model train. The natural stone display was something that provided a great perspective on the area and time. Tonight we have a lecture on the Palestinian view of things and the next night one from the Jewish perspective.

Carl

Bethleham 3-16-10

Today in the morning we were to see the wailing wall and the Al Aqsa Mosque where the temple once stood in the old city. However, Jerusalem is in lock down, especially the religious sites. I have heard that this is because of the issues with the new settlement in the West Bank announced during the vice president's visit and a new synagogue in the west bank that was to be dedicated. I haven't heard of any trouble so I assume they are just being careful. Therefore, we went with plan B, a trip to Bethlehem that was not on the original agenda. Bethlehem is less than 7 miles from Jerusalem and is totally enclosed with a 9 meter wall. You go through security similar to a border crossing and it is very difficult for Palestinians to get out. As a result there are few jobs and many empty shops. In general Israel is taking the West Bank area piece by piece (through settlements which are all over the place and very large) and squeezing out the Palestinians. We had a talk by a liberal Israeli who explained the strategy. It is like there would be a 9 meter (~27 ft) wall around Groton MA and one would have to go through security to get to Ayer MA next door. Also, for example, if you weren't Irish it would be very difficult to leave Groton.

We visited the church over the accepted birthplace of Christ and visited another church where the sheppards attended their flocks in the nativity story. They were singing Christmas carols (holy night) in a newer section of the church. The area though hilly does have some green grass growing. I have been impressed with the cleanliness of all the areas we have visited both Israeli and Palestinian. We had lunch in a Palestinian restaurant that included a talk on Israeli politics which is complex to say the least. The speaker was originally from the US and had to return to marry his Israeli bride because the conservative Jewish groups wouldn't approve his marriage because he and his parents were reform Jews in the US. There is no such thing as a civil marriage in Israel. The conservative groups have to approve each one. The population of Jerusalem is actually decreasing as many of the more secular people both Jewish and Palestinian are leaving resulting in a concentration of the radial right of both ethnic groups in the city. Also, it is a rather expensive place to live.

After the talk and lunch we went to the holocaust museum outside the western edge of Jerusalem. The west side of Jerusalem is very different with treed hills and much less exposed rock. The museum was very impressive and packed, perhaps because so much of the rest of Jerusalem was closed.

Our guide had more trouble keeping us together exclaiming that we are the worst group he has ever guided, young or old.

Tomorrow we go to Caesarea and the sea of Galilee.

Carl

Wailing wall med coast Caesarea Akko Crusader Fortress

Things were tense in Jerusalem but they opened up the wailing wall at the temple so that was back on our schedule. It was our first stop before leaving Jerusalem for the Mediterranean coast. There were guards all over with machine guns but I wearing a complementary yarmulke made it to the wall to pay my respects. We then hoped on the bus and headed out of town to the west. As one leaves Jerusalem in the central mountains the land gets better and greener. In general this is a green time of year in Israel. It is obvious to me that the Canaanites and Philistines on the coast had much better land than the Israelites in the hills. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin who had Jerusalem south had the worst land. The other tribes who were north of Jerusalem had much better land even if it was in the hills. Our first stop was at Caesarea where Harrod the great built a very advanced port city and palace. It included a race track where I was able to practice my chariot driving. We then drove to the very beautiful Haifa on the sea and had lunch at a restaurant high on a hill overlooking the harbor. It is the best place in Israel to live. After lunch we traveled to Akko also on the coast to visit an extensive fort that was the headquarters for the Knights Templar and the Hospitaliers during the crusades. Our guide took us through a bunch of vendors in an alley where a portly native American lady in our group purchased a belly dancing outfit. I hope she doesn't feel inclined to model it. Later I encountered an Arabian horse that is the only one I have seen in Israel. Then we headed back across Israel through the green Karmiel valley with mountains on either side. We descended to the sea of Gaililee to the Nof Ginosar Kibbutz near the city of Tiberias. The Kibbutz is 670 feet below sea level per my Garmin Oregon 300 GPS. I knew that the dead sea was below sea level but didn't realize that the upstream sea of Galilee was also so far below sea level. This means that it is warmer here than in Jerusalem.

Carl

Kibbutz Capernaum Synagogue Peter's house 3-18-10

Today we toured the sea of Galilee with its green hills and banana plantations. The Kibbutz we are staying at is about 650 ft below sea level and has a warm micro climate in general although today the temperatures were in the 70s. About thirty miles away at mt. Hermon in the Golan Heights there is a ski area. The hills are green and the valleys are filled with agriculture from olive and mango trees to wheat and vegetables. There is a lot of good grazing for horses but only a few to be found. The area is populated by Palestinians (Moslem and Christian) and Israelies with no walls between the areas as there is in the west bank.

We headed north around the sea of Galilee which seems about the size of the Quabin reservoir but with a more rounded shape. The Jordon river entering the sea is the size of a small stream. Even it's exit from the southern end isn't much bigger. It probably should be called the Jordon creek. Our first stop was at Capernaum a couple of miles north of our Kibbutz. We saw St. Peters home and the mount of the Beatitudes with their respective churches. The excavations at Capernaum provided a good feel of a tightly packed town of small stone houses with a large synagogue. It is all nicely done but the facilities are not as informative as those I encounter in Greece. Our guide just sort of recites the bible stories with little additional background so it is best to read up on your own before such a trip.

We continued around the sea of Galilee with the beautiful contrast between the green hills and blue sea. At the south end we visited the first Kibbutz which is about 100 years old. These were socialist communes but this one become more capitalist in the last 10 years with members responsible for most of their own finances. We had lunch at the Kibbutz which was consistent with dedicated suffering. Our next stop was the purported site of Christ's baptism by John the Baptist. A number of people (none from our group) took off their clothes and enter the water. The facility sold baptism robes but not all used them.

Nazareth was our next stop after another trip through the beautiful hills and valleys. The whole area is much nicer than I had expected. Nazareth was a very busy city and other than the church of the annunciation over what is purported to be Mary's home was just a crowed city. The church which is relatively new was beautiful with many nations providing impressive mosaics on the walls of the courtyard. It is built over the excavations of Mary's house with the lower level showing the excavations and the upper eve being an impressive church with a hole in the floor showing the excavations.

Tomorrow we head for Jordon.

Carl

　

Jordan valley Bethsehean ruins cross border Jerash ruins Amman Jordan 3-19-10

Hi,

I am now in Amman Jordan again surprised at the greenness of the land we traveled through. Only 8% of Jordan is arable land and we seem to have traveled through most of it. One hilly section is high enough to have a couple feet of snow in the winter. From now on as we head to Petra and then Egypt it will be a different thing with mainly arid land.

We left the Kibbutz in Capernaum in cool weather which continued all day. Our first stop was at Bethshean beside the Jordan creek that had extensive Roman ruins with bathhouses and all the usual stuff. The ruins were impressive but we didn't have enough time to see it all. There is a rather large hill or Tel next to the Roman city whose bottom layer dates to 4,500 BC. It seems that they just built one town after another in the same place.

We then spent two hours leaving Israel and entering Jordan by crossing the creek. We took our bus through an Israeli passport check then over to an area where we unloaded the bus and went through another passport check. Then the group loaded up on another bus after a long wait and drove ½ mile to Jordan security. We unloaded from that bus, went through another passport check and carried our luggage through a baggage check. Once through this we loaded our baggage and ourselves on the bus that would take us through Jordan. we also changed guides and I think that the new one will do better than the first.

After an hours trip through green hills and fields of wheat we arrived at an excellent lunch at about 2:00 in the afternoon. It was great middle eastern food with the ability to rent a hooka water pipe for $5.00 for an after lunch smoke. None of us took advantage of this opportunity although they must have had twenty of the things for rent so a fair number of people must use them.

We then stopped at the ruins of the city of Jerash which are immense. This Roman city is includes over two miles of collinated streets with a hippodrome for chariot races, an amphitheater theater and various temples. This was as good as anything I had seen in Greece but is not well known. We then drove through more green hills to Amman to stay at the excellent Amman Cham Palace Hotel where I have a small suite.

Tomorrow we head off for Mt. Nebo where Moses viewed the promised land in the south of Jordan ending up in Petra for the night.

Considering everything that is going on, it is good to be out of Israel.

Carl