Tel Aviv & off to Istanbul!

Mesa & I had a nice relaxing day today!

We slept in - til about 8:30 - and when we woke up, we went right to the beach.

It wasn't a difficult walk but the roads didn't really have much of a sense to them, so it took us a little longer than it should have.  We basically spent our whole time at the beach.  It was cool and cloudy in the morning, and we even got sprinkled on for about 5 minutes - which has been the worst weather we've had all trip.  After that passed, it was beautiful and we definitely got some sun!  Maybe a little too much.

We left the beach to check out of the hostel and catch our flight to Istanbul.

We had a lot of questions and security stops throughout the airport.  But we caught our plane just fine and the flight was pretty empty.

We just got checked into our hostel.  We even walked past the Blue Mosque since the closest ATM was right near it.

More to come tomorrow!

Bethlehem & Tel Aviv

Hi Everyone, and a special Happy Birthday Head! Hope you're having a great day!

Today has been an interesting day.  We got up early and caught the bus to go into Bethlehem.  It was pretty easy getting there.  Bethlehem is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank and we had to go through checkpoints to enter.  We didn't have any problems!

We then caught a cab to Manger Square and the Church of Nativity.  It was beautiful.  There's the grotto where it's believed Baby Jesus was born.  There was a service being held in the grotto, so we weren't able to go inside to see the star on the ground.  But we did explore the rest of the church.

There is a beautiful newly updated church attached to the main church - which is the one they always show on TV on Christmas Day in Bethlehem.

When we tried to catch the bus back to Jerusalem, we were told at the checkpoint that all tourists had to get off because we couldn't go through that one.  There were 5 of us so we just went back into the main part of Bethlehem and went to the other checkpoint.   Apparently they said there wasn't a way to scan our passports at the original checkpoint, which is just weird since they didn't do anything with them when we entered the city.

The other checkpoint was CRAZY.  We had to wait in this insane line for 2.5 hours where we were crammed together like cattle and everyone was pushing.  It was awful.  When we did finally make it through the security, we only had to walk through the scanner and hold up our passports to the guy in the window - who barely nodded at us.   We were pretty frustrated, but it was nice to get back into Jerusalem.

We decided then to just check out of the hostel and caught another sherut to Tel Aviv!

We got a little lost, and walked quite a bit to find our hostel, but we made it!
We  got checked in and grabbed something to eat.  Probably will take it pretty easy the rest of the night.
Tomorrow we plan to spend the day at the beach - can't wait!

The picture for today is in front of the grotto where Baby Jesus was born inside the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem.

Masada & the Dead Sea

Hi Everyone!  

Today we did another group tour. 

We went first to Masada.  A giant fortress built by Herod the Great as a refuge from his enemies and a getaway.  After he died the Jews rebelled against Rome and the Roman Empire had destroyed Jerusalem.  So almost 1000 Jews isolated themselves at Masada.  The Romans built camps around the fortress but couldn't get up.  They eventually built a ramp but the night before they would reach the fortress, the Jews killed themselves - for the belief of "serving no Roman or any other God". 

It was pretty amazing.  They had built dams on the streams and cut holes in the fortress to make water cisterns.  They had food storage rooms and lived up there for 4-5 years! Quite amazing!

From there we went to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth at -410 meters below sea level.  It smelled like sulfur (think Old Faithful x10!)  We went to Ein Gedi Spa and from here could change and walk down to the "beach" (really, it's all salt).  The spa used to be located right at the water, but the sea has evaporated so much that it is now much further back.  So, if you want to ever see the Dead Sea, you better go soon before it's gone for good.  

We started by first getting all muddy! There were these big vats of Dead Sea mud and we smeared it all over our bodies.  It's supposed to have rejuvenating qualities so we made sure we put it all over to keep our youthful figures (and fix all of our imperfections - hey, they said it works miracles).  We washed off in sulfur showers - which burns your eyes! But then rinsed off further in fresh water showers.  We then went down the long path to the water so we could float! The water feels slimy and greasy, but it really is easy to float.  

They had some more fresh water showers on the beach too, but they are freezing compared to the sulfur ones.  We took the trolley back to the mud vats for a 2nd dead sea mud treatment, just for good measure and of course photos!  

Basically you sit in the sun for 10 minutes to get all crusy and mummy-like and then wash off, leaving your skin all smooth!

We took the bus back to Jerusalem and are going to take it pretty easy tonight since we have another busy day tomorrow! 

Sending love from the tiny room in Jerusalem - yeah, we never got moved to a different space.

Happy Easter from Jerusalem!

Good Morning All!

It's actually 2:30 PM here, but it's 6:30 AM Easter Sunday back in Minnesota (and I think in Peru for Christa :))

Today was a great day, we went to the sunrise service at the Garden Tomb.  We got there a little before 6 am and there was a huge line.  But we had good seats.  We couldn't see the band, they were down by the tomb.  But we were in the 3rd row next to the spot where they did all of the readings.  

The service was excellent.  There was a perfect mix of contemporary songs and traditional ones. I'm sure you sang My Redeemer Lives or Thine Be the Glory too. 

The sermon did a great job of tying in the location we were without making it a big spectacle.  He spoke about this book called Dates in History That Changed the World.  In the book it lists Jesus' death, but not the resurrection. When the resurrection should be there because the death of Jesus paid for our sins - but it was God accepting that sacrifice that signed off on that deal with having him rise 3 days later.  

It was a really good service. 

We then went to the Dome of the Rock / Temple Mount.  We hadn't been up close so it was an amazing site.  Very beautiful.  To this day, non-Muslims are not allowed to enter the interior of the building.  But it was still an amazing site.  Muslims believe this to be the site where Mohammad rose to heaven.  Christian tradition identifies the site as where Jesus was tried.  

From here we went to Hezekiah's Tunnel.  Used 2700 years ago to supply the city with water, you can still walk through the water tunnel for about 580 yards - with water still flowing!  We started to do this, but the water was getting up to our knees and they expected it to reach our hips.  So we backed out to take the dry route.  But the 20 feet we did in the water tunnel was pretty cool. 

After that we went to The Room of the Last Supper. The room was quite beautiful, but there wasn't anything inside other than all of the people.  

Afterwards we did Ramparts Walk - which is a narrow walkway on top of the Old City's walls.  We could look out all of the old shooting niches and it really made it easy to feel like what it could have been like back then. 

Now onto a nice evening of eating and shopping!

Happy Easter! 

Nazareth & Galilee

Wow, another busy day in the Holy Land!

We had a tour today that brought us into Lower Galilee.

We stopped in Nazareth and saw the Church of the Annunciation - where Gabriel appeared to Mary and announced that she would have Jesus.  We also saw where Jesus grew up and did his carpentry.

We drove through Cana (the site of His 1st miracle of turning water into wine), Mount Tabor (the site of Jesus' Transfiguration).  We drove through Tiberias (the capital of Galilee in AD 20).  We drove through Tabgha (site of the Multiplication of Loaves and Fish).  We saw the Mount of Beatitudes from a distance (the site of the Sermon on the Mount).  THEN, we arrived in Capernaum, the center of Jesus' ministry.

We saw the house of St. Peter and the old church and synagogue.  Here we also had great views of the Sea of Galilee.  We then came around and stopped at the Jordan River.  This was pretty cook.  We went in the water where the still do baptisms, which was going on when we arrived.

When we got back to Jerusalem, we were pretty tired.  We went and had falafels for dinner again, and then went back to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  There were less people this time, so we were able to go upstairs and touch the site believed to be the location of Jesus' cross.  We had heard they were having a candlelit service tonight but couldn't find any information on it.  So we decided to call it an early day since tomorrow we're getting up early for the Easter service.

Busy day in Jerusalem!

Jerusalem is AMAZING!  We have done so much today!

We go up early and hiked to the Mount of Olives observation point where you could see the whole city!  It was a beautiful day and it felt great to walk around and not be on one of the big tourist buses.

We also went to Pater Noster Convent that had the Lords Prayer displayed in over 200 languages.  We also went to Dominus Flevit (where Jesus wept), walked past the Church of Mary Magdalene (not open today), went to the Garden of Gethsemane, Church of All Nations, and the Tomb of the Virgin - which was very powerful and quite amazing.

We then walked over to the Garden Tomb, where more Protestant visitors identify as the site of Jesus' burial place.  The tomb was closed because it's Good Friday, but we plan to go back.

We also walked around the exterior of the Old City's wall.  We were up on Mount Zion and then went inside the Old City walls to the Western Wall (or the Wailing Wall).  Men and women have different entrances and sides that they must pray on.  It was pretty unbelievable.  We were there at a time of prayer and there were a lot of people there!

We also walked to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, believed to be the true site where Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected. It was UNBELIEVABLE!  There were so many people and it was beautiful.  We touched the Stone of Unction - believed to be where Jesus' body was prepared for burial after he was taken off the cross. And the rotunda under the great dome that encases the tomb itself.

We then did a little shopping inside the Old City and had falafels outside our hostel for dinner.  They were delicious!

We have another busy day tomorrow! Time is going so fast!

Oh, I also met a person from Faribault! Everywhere we walk people ask where we're from and we say "USA".  They sometimes ask where in the US - and we say Minnesota.  But then this guy said "Oh where, Faribault?  I'm living there."  He's Israeli, but has a shop with his family in Faribault.  Small world!

This picture is from the observation point at the Mount of Olives looking out on the city.  You should see the big Dome of the Rock in the background.

Jerusalem!

Well, we had a busy travel day today.

We got up and checked out of our nice beach-side hostel and caught a cab to the bus station.  We took the bus to Taba and from there walked across the border.  I must have been their next random drug check because they routed my passport to a different station and made me pull out my phone and camera...but, no drugs on me! :)

We crossed into no-mans-land until we made it to the Israeli gateway.  It's a lot like the airport and we had no problems.  We then walked into Israel!

Right away we met some Americans - the first we have met in a week since being gone.  They were waiting for a bus to Eilat - which was the same one we needed to take.  We then caught a Sherut (a shared taxi) that brought us to Jerusalem.

We drove past the Dead Sea and smelled the sulfur and saw some people floating.  We're hoping to get that direction later during our stay.

After we were dropped off, we walked to our hostel.  It was crazy there! Apparently a group was supposed to check out and had not done so yet because of a lost passport.  So there were a bunch of people waiting for HOURS to get checked in, even with reservations.  We had to wait about 2 hours, and then they put us in this tiny space in the back of the hostel.  It's seriously a room back by the laundry machines with a piece of paper and the room number written in highlighter taped to the door.  They said that we'll get a new room tomorrow.

Good thing we booked this 5 months ago because for the 5 nights we are staying we paid a little over 900 Sheckels and he said now it is over 2000.  Prices are up because of the Easter holiday.

We were happy that we were prepared.

We walked out for dinner (and dessert) and just got back to the hostel now to plan for our day tomorrow.
Time for bed, more interesting stuff to come!

Love from the Holy Land :)