Day 11 Friday April 26th Holy Land Trip

Friday was a long, extended day.  We packed up and left the hotel with our baggage at 8 am and toured all day.  We got to the airport in time for our 12:30 am (Saturday) flight home.  We left on time, traveled to New York, where we did customs, then Atlanta, and finally arrived in Little Rock at 12:30 pm.  Twelve hours plus the eight hour time difference made for a 20 hour flight.

The following are some of the things we did on our last day.  We visited a memorial cemetery for the military men and women who had been killed in the wars Israel has fought.

                                                   Two flags flying over the cemetery.

We next went to the Yad Vashem Museum (Holocaust History Museum).  It is really an effective museum.  Our guide, Moti, shared with us some personal stories about his family members who were involved during this horrible time.  As the build-up to the Second World War took place, many people had their heads in the sand, ignoring what was taking place. It seems that the same thing is taking place today.  Will we learn from history or repeat it?

We next went to the Shrine of the Book Museum at the Israel Museum. Inside this building (shown below), with its distinctive onion-shaped top, are displays of the Dead Sea Scrolls that were discovered in 1947.  Directly beneath the dome is an imposing showcase (shaped like a wooden Torah rod) containing a replica of the Great Isaiah Scroll (written c. 100 BC).

Not far from the Dead Sea Scroll exhibit is a 50:1 scale model of Jerusalem in 66 AD.  It covers nearly an acre. You can walk all the way around it and take close up pictures of various parts of the city. 

 You can also see the Israeli Parliament building from the Israel Museum grounds.

                                                              Israeli Parliament building

It was less than 6 hours before Shabbat (Sabbath) started, and everyone in the street was hurrying to make last minute preparations, then heading for their synagogue.

 

 We stopped at Elvis' restaurant to take some photos and for a snack break.  

We felt right at home. 

We thought a Segway might be a good way to see Israel, but after reflecting on the terrain we had to navigate in several places we had been, it looked less inviting.

 

 

                                 We had a great view of Tel Aviv from this street in old Joppa.

          This area is another world compared to Jerusalem and many other parts of Israel.

                                  We had our final meal in Israel at this nice restaurant.

As we turned off the freeway at the airport sign and turned east we were greeted with this sunset picture.  A fitting image to end our trip report.

In the very near future we will be posting some follow-up blogs relating to our trip.  On each blog we will be looking at a specific place we visited, with more pictures and a tie-in to the scripture relating to each site.  We will also have a blog posting listing some of the resources we used during our year-long study in preparation for our trip.  Stay in touch.

We all would very highly recommend our guide, Moti.  He can be reached at:
 

Moti Kaufer - Israel Private Tours     www.private-guide.net     +972-(0)52-4448048

We will leave you with this question that has mystified many during the past ...  Where's Doris ???

Day 10 Thursday April 25th Holy Land Trip

This morning our first stop was at the Garden Tomb.  We had a place reserved to have communion there.  Scholars are divided between this location and the area under the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Where Jesus was crucified and buried for a short period of time becomes a non issue when we realize that we serve a risen living Savior, something no other religion can say.

This picture shows what many say is the resemblence of a skull.  The garden is really a nice place and one that inspires you to seek to get closer to God.  The people that work here say that no one knows for sure where the place that Jesus was crucified and buried is located, but they give some logical points why this area should be considered. 

                                        This is the tomb that could have been used for Jesus.

                                             Susie is entering. Notice the sign on the door.

                              Behind the iron bars is the place the bodies could have been laid.

                                                                Part of the Garden area.

                                                         Joe and Polly in the Garden

                                                                    Dale and Susie

                                                                          Jan and Mike

                                                                             Doris

                                                         Dale leading in Communion

                              Does this mean that the Stairs are holy or the people that use them?

                    There is a church on every place that has any remote connection to the Bible.

                            This beautiful flower was seen in many locations around Jerusalem.

We left the garden and headed for the town of Bethlehem, which is about 10 miles south of Jerusalem.  Bethlehem is in the West Bank and our guide, being a Jew could not go in.  He arranged for an Arab Christian (Greek Orthodox)  guide to take us into Bethlehem.  We drove to a meeting point and got out of our van and into his.  After our tour of Bethlehem we came back to the same area and changed vans again.  Interesting situation!

 Our Arab guide was named Sam.  He said we could call him Uncle Sam.  He had lived in Florida for many years but had to come back to Israel to help take care of his elderly mother.  He spoke English very well and was a good guide.  He took us to a local restaurant where we had lunch.

Doris is getting a Shawarma.  It's a bread pocket filled with various vegetables and chicken.  It was very good.

                        Mike is holding one so you can understand a little better what they are.

                            Slices of chicken are layered on a spitt and shaved off as needed.

We asked to be taken to the traditional area where the shepherds involved in the birth of Jesus might have been.  He was happy to do so and guess what we found?  A church.  After looking at the church we walked some paths where we were supposed to see the shepherds' fields.  This did not look anything like what we where shown the last time I was in Israel.  Win some, lose some and some get rained out.

We went next to the Church of the Nativity, the traditional birthplace of Jesus. 

 Jan is standing at the entrance to the church.  They say the reason for the low door was to keep camels from coming into the church.

                         Some of our group looking down into the original floor of the church.

 This is a statue of Jerome (ca. 340-420), whose full name was Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus, and is best known as the translator of the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin. Jerome's edition, the Vulgate, is still the official biblical text of the Roman Catholic Church.  We asked why the skull at his feet.  Our guide said that his superiors told him that if he did not get the translation finished he would be like that skull.  Ancient motivation.

                                    This is the spot that Jesus was supposed to have been born.

 We saw this KFC sign on the way from the Church of the Nativity to a place we could buy products made in Bethlehem.  Sam said that it had just been opened for about 2 months.

 This is what you see when you go out the front door of the place we were shopping in.  You see part of the 30 foot concrete fence that has been installed around much of the West Bank.  Many people say that Israel is terrible for putting up this fence.  Some statistics show as high as 90% reduction in suicide bombers and terrorist acts since the fence has been installed.  If this information is taken into consideration it gives pretty good justification for what Israel has done.

                                                    The olive wood store where we shopped.

This was an interesting art piece, the Lord's Supper with his disciples made entirely out of olive wood.

After the transfer back to Moti's van we traveled back to Jerusalem and some wanted to go back to Old Town to do a little more shopping.  We then went to the hotel and had dinner and started packing.

We leave from the hotel at 8:15 in the morning and will tour all day.  Moti will take us to the airport late in the day.  Our plane leaves at 12:40 am on Saturday.  We are scheduled to arrive in Little Rock a little after noon Saturday.

No blog tomorrow.

Day 9 Wednesday April 24th Holy Land Trip

Moti picked us up at the hotel at 7:30 as we had a scheduled tour of the Western Wall tunnels at 9:30 and we wanted to go up on the Mount of Olives to get some pictures of the Old City area with the good light of early morning.  Since Rodja has to leave us tomorrow morning we wanted to get a group shot.  Doris hid a little behind Polly but she is there.

 
An Arab man and his donkey just happened to be in the area and Doris wanted a picture with him.  He gladly obliged (for a fee of course).
 

 Doris was on a spending spree and did some bargaining with this man for some of his goods.
 

Many of the streets in Jerusalem are like this one.  They are two way streets with room for only one car in many places.  

We got back to the Temple area for our 9:30 Tour of the tunnels below the Temple Mount.  Rodja is standing beside a rock that goes all the way from the joint you can see between him and the camera and nearly all the way to the end wall in back of him.  We were told that this stone weighs some 500 tons and is one of the 3 or 4 largest cut stones that have been found.  The question arises as to how the First Century workers put in place stones of this magnitude.  Nobody knows for sure.

 Joe has just come through a tunnel and kidded me that he did not have to duck (but with not much room to spare) like I did.
 

 Deep down in the tunnel we saw this egg that a bird had apparently deposited there. Interesting place for a nest, if that was what it was.

                                          Another of our friends that we were glad to see.  

 One would assume that a lady is under this clothing and I think was begging for money.

                                                           A typical street in Old Town.

There a lot of steps in the Old Town streets as Jerusalem is built on hills.  Polly had just taken a tumble when her foot caught a single step in the middle of an apparently level area.  The locals around were quick to get a chair for her.  We are thankful that she was ok and only had a couple of scratches.  Someone told her that this was a good way to get on the blog. 

We had another interesting lunch time when Moti treated us to a typical quick lunch.  He bought some bread from one of the many bread sellers and we stopped at this 'restaurant' and had hot mint tea and bread dipped in Hyssop.  Hyssop was used in Biblical times as a medicine.  They found several chairs for us and we created a restaurant setting in the street.  The entertainment was great.  We could witness the local culture all around us.  This was not a tourist area but one that the local Arabs used.  Everyone was very friendly to us.

           I'm not sure what all this is but the dish in the lower right corner looked interesting.

 

We visited the Wailing Wall which is the only part of the former Temple that is left that the Jews have access to.  We had to go through security similar to what you go through at an airport, to get in.  This area is where most of the tensions boil over into rioting but there was plenty of Israeli military presence.  

These are the large stones that make up the wall.  In between the cracks are small pieces of paper.  People write prayers on them and stuff them in the cracks, possibly thinking that this will insure God hearing them.
 

This group of pilgrims were carrying a cross through the streets.  You can see this a lot as they follow the Via Dolorosa, the traditional route that Jesus traveled to the place of the crucifixion.  There are 14 stations on the Via Dolorosa, each a memorial to some event that involved Jesus on His way to the cross.

                                                This area is a haven for bread lovers.

We made a visit to the City of David.  You do not hear much about this area but this was the start of  the Jews presence in what we now refer to as Jerusalem.  One of the early actions of David after he became king was to move his capital to this area which is just south of the Temple Mount complex. Excavations are ongoing here.  This area is mostly Arabic and there is a lot of tension in this general area.  The town of Silwan is next to this area and one can google Silwan and read all about the ongoing struggle between the Jews and Arabs regarding the City of David.

                                               Rodja had no idea Mike was behind him.

                Joe and Polly, maybe wanting all of us to leave and give them some private time.

We ended the day with a visit to the Pool of Siloam, close to the City of David.  This is a picture of the road that was used in the First Century. These are the original stones. This area was covered up for many years.

We got back to the hotel around 4 pm.  Some walked down the street to see the Prime Minister's house and some walked a few blocks to a shopping area.

Tomorrow we will be going to Bethlehem, which is about 10 miles south of Jerusalem.  We will be corssing over into the West Bank as Bethlehem is now located in that area.  We will be going through or around the 30 foot wall that has been constructed around much of the West Bank.  Many people criticize Israel for building this barrier, but when one is made aware of the fact that it has reduced human suicide bombers by 90% this knocks the props out of the argument against the barrier.