After flying from Anchorage to Tel Aviv with a 5.5 hour layover in Frankfurt, we arrived safe and sound to our hotel in Jerusalem. The view… so at 2:30am, there is not much to see but in the morning we had a view of the Old City walls.
Breakfast was delicious as only an Israeli hotel buffet can be! ...except there was no smoked mackerel. We did watch the birds fly in and out of the dining room. I was also treated to them thoroughly enjoying themselves, the mullion was blocking his view.
That afternoon we joined some of the group to hike through Hezikiah's tunnel. Some explanation then we were off through a dark tunnel - not lighted at all! As we entered, i followed a man with his iPhone flashlight and actually left Mark behind. He had an adventure. Our very prepared Mark, usually, had no light but the ladies behind him did have one. He had shoes not sandals so no stubbed toes. Mark was also with the few who were a little nervous about the whole trek. They did just fine but it got a bit dicey when there was a fork in the path. We were ? feet underground and no road signs!
Friday: tour of the Kotel-the Western Wall and the tunnels along the Wall. The part that is outside that we pray is about 57 meters long. The total length is about 480 meters. It is quite spectacular to see, hear and feel the sights and sounds here.
Later that afternoon we went to Machane Yehuda. If you have ever been there, you know what to expect, if not… well then it can be a bit of an experience. People doing their last minute shopping before Shabbat, strollers, carts, tourists all packed in tight for a few blocks buying fresh fruit, vegetables, freshly baked breads: pita, challah, lachuoch (Yemenite bread, sort of like a humongous thin crumpet), rugelach, laffa and more kinds, nuts, popcorn, fish, cheeses, meat, wine, beer... shoelaces, brooms and dustpans… I had a blast and Mark was initially overwhelmed but after a pause to have a beer and do some serious people watching, we headed out to make a few purchases.
Shabbat morning we went on a walking tour of the Armenian and Christian Quarters. A group of Ethiopian Coptics were touring the Christian sites and they do it by singing and accompanied by a very large drum.
In the afternoon we walked to Moses Montifiore’s windmill - it was supposed to grind grain for the newly established community in ~1840’s. He was wealthy and wanted Jews to live outside the Old City. It took quite a lot to get them to move - stipends, free housing and too much disease in the Old City before he got his community established in Yemin Moshe and Mishkenot Sheananim.
Sunday saw us at Yad VaShem World Holocaust Remembrance Center. In front of the section describing the uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto our docent told us it reminded her of the beginning of the ’73 war. Her Mother-in-law, a survivor of Auschwitz, started crying when the docent’s husband was dressed in his soldier’s uniform ready to go. The Mother-in-law was not crying because she was fearful for his life out because he was a Jew fighting for Jews.
After lunch we went to Beit Guvrin, an active archeology dig. Mark dug up a shard of glazed Greek pottery while I dug up four pieces of pottery! That was very exciting.
On to our next adventure, camel riding, a Bedouin dinner and tea and coffee. It reminded us of Medieval Times that we went to in New York with T’ing a few years ago.
Up to the top of Masada in 107*F - hottest day of the year so far! Unfortunately because it was so hot, our hike to Ein Gedi was cancelled. We “cooled” off in the Dead Sea! Quite fun to bob around a bit.
From there we drove to the southern tip of the Kinneret, the Sea of Galilee. Mark is definitely enjoying the cooler temperatures! Overnight at Kibbutz Maagan. Maagan means anchorage… we got a bit of teasing about feeling at home here!
Today we drove up to the Golan Heights and took a jeep tour to the Syrian border. Rather a sobering experience to hear that at night one could go up there and hear the shelling and see the tracer fire of the war in Syria that we read about.
The jeep tour took us to Ein Kinya, one of four Druze villages in the Golan. Nabil, our host talked to us about the Druze beliefs in reincarnation. He also shared a personal story of a 4 year old boy from a different village who knew all about a family in his village. The 4 year old could identify people by name and asked questions about them, he was the reincarnation of the wife’s husband! It was not until Nabil witnessed this happen that he became a believer in reincarnation.
Now that I have caught up, i hope to blog more regularly!
