Israel–Day Seven

Wednesday had been busy and exhausting – I forgot to mention also going to the Temple Mount and the Christian Quarter and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and King David’s Tomb and the room of the Last Supper. By the end of the day my head was ready to explode and I was full to bursting with the sound of Arie’s voice and all those facts and dates and geographic locations. I was sorely tempted to take a pass on Thursday’s tour and just explore Jerusalem on my own in blissful silence.
Whew, am I glad I didn’t! Thursday was the day we went to Masada which I think was my very favorite part of the tour.
It’s possible I learned about Masada in Sunday School but that was too long ago to even think about, and even if I did I wasn’t interested in history back then (some things don’t change) so I had no memory of it.  

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Arie, our guide, told the story with such passion - and truly, he’s an amazing guide – so smart and so knowledgeable, but the amount of information he has is encyclopedic and exhausting and overwhelming. Nine days isn’t enough to hear it all.
Anyway, the tour of Masada was very emotional for me, mainly because of how personal it is for Arie and the obvious pride and admiration he has for what the Jewish people did in the face of such struggle.
Masada is the excavated ruins of a fortress where about a thousand Jews defended themselves against Roman occupation. They were vastly outnumbered and in the end they chose to die rather than be taken into slavery. The women and children were killed by the men (suicide is forbidden by Jewish law), then the last ten men drew lots to see who would kill the last nine and then kill himself.
It’s a story of courage, and of the cost and value of freedom. I had tears rolling down my cheeks as I listened and walked among the ruins.

Later we went to a spa at the Dead Sea where we had a delicious (albeit buffet) lunch and then some people (who’d thought to bring bathing suits – I wasn’t one of them) floated in the Dead Sea. 

For dinner that night my BFFs and I found another wonderful restaurant with great food, where a huge family (20-30 people) celebrated some major event with a singer (accompanied by her computer), while children played games and threw balls next to our table. When we asked the waitress if she could kindly ask someone to control the children she puffed up with purpose and went off happily to do just that. I think she’d been hoping someone would ask her to do that.

On the way back to the hotel we came across a small park with this tribute:

Israel–Day Six

The sun was actually shining on Wednesday in Jerusalem. Yippee! It was short-lived, but nice to see.

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We did a walking tour of the old city, the Mount of Olives and the Wailing Wall, where it’s tradition to put prayer notes in the cracks in the wall. Some of our group did that but it’s probably unnecessary to say I wasn’t one of them.
And we walked the Via Dolorosa and the stations of the cross, said to be where Jesus carried his cross on the way to his crucifixion. Lots of old stone buildings and stalls with vendors selling everything imaginable.
Had lunch at an outdoor café and then the afternoon was free to explore the city on our own. I took a nap.
Tony, Nel and I went to a seafood restaurant for dinner. Not our favorite place for food but the wine was good. (See my attentive companions, below.)
After dinner we went in search of a nightclub that someone had told us about and didn’t find it until we were too exhausted to go inside.

Israel–Day Five

Tuesday was another gray day but at least it wasn't raining. We did not luck out with the weather, I have to say.
We went to the Man in the Galilee Museum which we just sort of whipped through on our way to a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. The boat ride was sweet – they played music, including the hora (which we didn’t dance to) but I have a lovely video of Elaine and Sanford from Cleveland dancing to something else. (I'm going to bore you with pictures of the whole group - it's the only time I got pictures of everyone.)

Elaine and Sandy

You know how when you travel with a group there's usually one colossal jerk? Well, that didn't happen on this trip - everyone was great; easy to get along with (okay, maybe not ALL the time, but mostly), flexible, not complaining...pretty amazing, actually.
Cool, I just found a way to embed the pictures in an album that you can view as a slide show.
After the boat ride we went to Tiberias to visit Capernaum, the site of an ancient Byzantine synagogue and a church believed to be on the site of St. Peter’s house. (I’m quoting the itinerary because at this point I was so overwhelmed by all the facts and dates and stories, and my brain had ceased to process the data. But I loved looking at it so enjoy the pictures.)
What I really liked about this tour was the balance between Jewish stuff and Christian. Half of us were Jewish, half not, so there was something for everyone and it was interesting to all.

Day Five VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Then we drove through the Jordan River Valley and into Jerusalem. Our hotel, the Dan Panorama, was very nice and in a great location near the Old City and near lots of stores and restaurants.
Tony, Nel and I went to dinner that night at a restaurant called (I think) Gabriela, a kosher Italian restaurant where we had delicious food. Nice not to be eating at a buffet.

Israel–Day Four

Monday morning was another gray, rainy, cold day. Off we went to Safed (pronounced tzvat - try that out!), the highest city in the Galilee region at 3000 ft. It's a quaint artist's colony with narrow cobblestone streets of shops filled with beautiful art, jewelry, scarves...whatever you're looking for. And some of what you're not. But really, if I had any space left on my walls I could have bought some wonderful pieces.
We visited a synagogue that was founded in the 1500s. Check out Tony’s little dome-shaped yarmulke (below).
Safed is also the center of Kabbalah (but we didn't see Madonna there).
Then on we went to a kibbutz for lunch – great food (they’re big on buffets in Israel, at least where we were) and plenty of it. We had a guide who told us about kibbutz life and how it works, what it takes to get in. She said it’s good to be a tuchas-licker. I thought I hadn’t heard her correctly but then she explained, “ass-kisser,” for the goyim.
She also told us how when she was young she took care of the cows and how good the warm cow shit (her words) felt oozing into her boots on a cold winter morning. Very colorful.
Kibbutz life is very strange and cult-like to me, and the housing is less than elegant. But, whatever floats your ark.
After lunch we toured the area (I think it was the Golan Heights) but I can’t remember what all we were looking at so enjoy the pictures. I really needed a documentarian.

Day Four VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I didn’t need one, tho, for our next stop – it was a winery where we toured and sampled. One of our group wasn’t feeling well and I couldn’t resist taking her picture lying on the window sill like a cat.
Whew! That was a full day, wasn’t it?
Dinner that night was at our Kibbutz hotel. Another buffet.

 

 

 

 

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Israel - Day Three

Goodbye to Tel Aviv. On Sunday morning we drove north along the coast to Caesarea. I'm putting up a link to the history of Caesarea because there's no way I could explain it to you, being that I'm history-challenged, but it's an amazing archeological site with a huge amphitheater and port. Unfortunately it was a cold, blustery day - not the best time to visit a port.

Amphitheater

Then on to Haifa to see the Baha'i Shrine. Did a drive-by on that one due to the driving rain (no pun intended) and then drove on to Nazareth to see the Basilica of the Annunciation.

Basillica of the Annunciation 

For Bill

No idea what this is - maybe one of the group will know

Our new hotel was in the Galilee region and was a Kibbutz hotel. I didn't have high hopes for that one but it was nice. The rooms could have used a little accessorizing but they had free WiFi so that tipped the scales in its favor.
Breakfast and dinner were enormous buffets of fine food - not like in 'fine dining' - more like in 'okay' dining, but I have to say I liked the way they poured wine - right to the rim. Another scale-tipper. One has to have priorities, after all.

Lavi Kibbutz Hotel