My Trip to Israel- April 22- May 2, 2007
This past month I visited Israel with a huge group of new & old friends from my church, including my daughter & son-in-law, and his family, which we've adopted as our own... or is it the other way around?... At any rate, here's some picture highlights of my trip, which i LOVED, and highly recommend!
I really didn't feel nervous about this trip, because I had been told by several reliable sources, that the Iraelis, as well as the Palestinians, would go out of their way to help us feel secure. Not that we didn't witness the underlying tension that is a constant backdrop. We just never felt threatened ourselves, in any way.
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The Middle East is a study in contrasts. People live in modern cities, with all the conveniences, but everywhere it seemed, were snapshots of life as it probably was centuries ago, like this guy with his goat in Bethelem. One day, our tour bus was held up quite a time, while a goat herder drove his herd up a main street in Jerusalem, totally oblivious that traffic was backing up. He didn't even seem to notice or care, that his lead goat had torn down a huge tree branch in someone's front yard and was munching on it merrily, as he walked up the street!
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Touring in Israel is not for the feint at heart. There's LOTS of walking and LOTS of hills and stairs, and LOTS of uneven terrain. Most the folks in my family wore our favorite sandals... CHACOS! I know lots of other shoes and sandals claim to be easy on the feet, but all I know is... we were some of the very few to not be eat up with blisters and sores!! (Mine are the first on the left!) |
We took a nice boat ride on the Sea of Gallilee. It was early in the morning, and the water was as smooth as glass. The sea, which is really a very large lake is clear and cold, as it is fed with springwater and snowmelt.
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Look tasty? This was our lunch one day. It's a very cool fish called a St. Peter's Fish. Both the male and female protect their young by sucking them into their mouth, then blowing them back out, after the danger has passed. Legend says, that if there's no young to protect, then the little fish sucks up little stones, shells or trinkets. We were told to check the mouth for any contraband, but all mine had was tiny teeth, and lots of tiny BONES!!
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Here I am with Bubba, overlooking the Valley of Jezreel (Armageddon). I figured it would be big, but this was WAY bigger, and WAY lusher than I envisioned. An awesome sight. Look closely and you'll see that I am carrying a leatherette version of my "Tandem Tote", an IDEAL travel purse, holding my sunglasses, passport, camera, lipstick, tissues, and my new Cash-Keeper wallet (my NEW free pattern!). I wore it across my body for security, and it's so lightweight, I hardly even noticed it!
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I saw lots of unusual vegetation, like this cool bush. Don't the flowers look like a bottle brush? I was also thrilled to see flocks of storks, a herd of Ibex, and some very beautiful Bee Catchers, the most beautiful bird I have ever seen anywhere!
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Here i am in front of the Jordan river, very beautiful to look at, but quite polluted I am afraid.
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Of all the excavation sites we visited, this was the most interesting to me! You may not know this, but in my former life, (before retirement), I was in the field of waste water treatment, so I was thrilled to see an actual Roman unisex water closet! The stone "paddles" on the right served as a toilet seat, (you sit BETWEEN 2 of them), and there is water running beneath them to whisk anything away! Too much information? OK, so maybe I'm the only one who found this fascinating.
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Here is my daughter demonstrating the technique Gideon used to winnow his army of 22,000+ soldiers down to 300 good men. Archaeologists are quite certain that this is fact is the very well that Gideon used, as described in the book of Judges.
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Here I am enjoying a little swim (or should I say float), in the Dead Sea, with Bubba & our son-in-law, Steve. It is quite inpossible to sink in this water that is comprised of 40+% minerals. (It was also quite impossible to get the residue out of your hair, as several folks found out.) Thank goodness I didnt get it in MY hair, which already behaving badly enough, without adding that problem to the mix!
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One of the highlights of the trip for me, was our tour of the ancient fortress, Masada. It was here, that 700 Jewish zealots stood against Rome for almost a year, before committing mass suicide, when it was evident that they would be taken. It's a fascinating story which was made into a movie starring Peter O'Toole. I'm hunting for a copy of it, as much of the filming was actually done on site!
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We saw lots of Bedouins in the "wilderness" between Masada and Jerusalem. They live now, much as they did centuries ago. Their lives are quite simple, and their wealth is determined by how large a tent a man has. Here is a Bedouin child traveling to school.
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Here's our whole tour group of 91, standing on the Mt. of Olives, with Jerusalem behind us. You can see the muslim shrine, the Dome of the Rock, as well as a large expanse of the Eastern Wall. Jerusalem is a beautiful city, and i never tired of looking at it, or as it turned out, photographing it, from every imaginable angle!
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Here's another familiar site of Jerusalem, the Wailing Wall. It is sacred ground to the Jewish people, and the site of numerous Bar Mitzpahs. Much of the wall has been reconstructed thru the centuries since Jerusalem was leveled in 70AD, but this section of the Wall, except for the top 6ft., is original to the time of King Herod's temple.
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As you can imagine, security is an ever present issue in Jerusalem, and it was difficult getting used to seeing policemen carrying AK47's on their belts, instead of handguns. It is definitely more intimidating, that is for sure. Here is Erica posing with a Temple Mount guard. You can best believe that we asked for his permission first!
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Some of the trees in the Garden of Gethsemene are more than 2400 years old. Wouldn't it be cool of these trees could talk?
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Here is a tomb which was in use at the time of Christ's death, and MAY in fact be the actual one in which Christ was laid. Jewish burial customs in that day, like so many other things, were quite different than those of ours today, and I enjoyed learning about both the culture, and the history of this ancient land.
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