Let me quickly update you on our last stop in the summer extravaganza of 2008: Israel.
Here's the quick version of what we did:
Day 1: We crossed the border into Israel and started our journey in Jerusalem. One of our friends from Jordan (we met in Jordan, but he is from the US) came with us and acted as a tour guide and honestly, he was probably more knowledgeable about the stuff we saw than any tour guide you could hire. So, thank you Jason. He also told us how wonderful and magical Jerusalem was before we got there. We didn't believe him until we got there. The first thing we did was wander around the Old City. Old City Jerusalem consists of the boundaries that were set by the last Muslim conquerors. We then headed over to West Jerusalem (the Jewish side of town) and discovered that Jason wasn't lying. This was indeed a magical place where food is delicious, things are clean, and it even reminded us a bit of the Promenade in Santa Monica. We also visited the Garden Tomb, Golgotha, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Wailing Wall.
Here are Jason and I in the Old City:
Brett at the Garden Tomb:
Another Garden Tomb picture:
Golgotha:
Western Wall (Wailing Wall) And yes, people really do wail there.
Day 2: We did some more Jerusalem stuff including the Dome of the Rock, Pools of Bethesda, and the Mount of Olives. Covering all we wanted to do in a few days required A LOT of walking. For instance:
Here is Brett after hiking to the Mount of Olives and beyond:
Notice the tiny gold dome in the background. And remember we had already walked up that giant hill in the middle of the hot day.
And now here we are at that tiny gold dome-- the Dome of the Rock:
You might be wondering why in that much heat I was so covered... well, most of these places ask that you dress modestly, so I did my best. I mean, check out this sign:
The fine print says, "Modest clothes include: Closed Blouse, with long sleeves. Long skirt - No Trousers, no tight-fitting clothes. Please do not disturb the sanctity of our neighborhood, and our way of life as Jews committed to G-D and His Torah." They won't write out God--that's what the G-D is about.
Then we headed into Bethlehem. To get into Bethlehem, you have to go into the West Bank through this giant wall:
We found the juxtaposition of the "Peace Be With You" sign on a giant barbed-wire fence to be funny too. There wasn't a lot to see in Bethlehem, so we went to the Church of the Nativity, which is built over the cave that marks the place of Christ's birth, and then headed back out.
This is me "kissing" the silver star that marks the birthplace.
It took forever to get back through the wall because some Spaniards couldn't figure out how to work the revolving door. While we were standing in line we did meet a very interesting Polish nun though. She says that some Palestinians have to get in line at 4am just to get through the wall to get to work, so I guess we didn't have it that bad.
Day 3: We took a bus up to Tel Aviv and hung out on the beach. It was nice to be in the nice cool water, but there were a few too many gross people there including some speedoed Israeli who made a point of talking to me and following me around for a while. From there we drove up to Nazareth. We were having a difficult time finding a place to stay but lucky for us the local law enforcement came through. We ended up staying in a 300 year-old house owned by a police officer.
Here we are in Tel Aviv:
Day 4: We walked around Nazareth and went to the Basilica of the Annunciation. It incorporates the cave in which the Virgin Mary received the news from Gabriel that she would give birth to Jesus. We also drove to to the Church of the Beatitudes on the Northern Coast of the Sea of Galilee. This is the traditional spot of the Sermon on the Mount. It was absolutely amazing.
Here's a view out to the Sea of Galilee.
We also visited the Church of the Loaves and Fishes. (Have you noticed yet that a church has been built on every holy or possibly holy site?) This is also on the northwest shore of Galilee in Tabgha, for you scriptorians that's ancient Heptapegon. It's not 100% proven that this is where the 5,000 were fed with a loaf of bread and two fish, but it is a possible site.
This is one of the most famous mosaics out there--it's a depiction of the bread and fishes:
After we had seen mostly everything (including Peter's house and the Valley of Armageddon), we drove back to Tel Aviv to stay there.
What's left of Peter's house:
We also apparently stayed in the nastiest hotel. It wasn't dirty in the "unclean" sense, but it was apparently meant for dirty things. While flipping through the channels, I discovered that porn came free with the room and that our next door neighbors had no concept of "quiet so as not to disturb our hotel neighbors" sex. So we ended up watching Olympics coverage and then trying to get some frequently disturbed sleep.
Day 5: We drove back to Jerusalem to do some last minute souvenir shopping before heading back to Jordan. We purchased some things and then hopped on a bus to get back to Jordan. We had only been on the bus about 5 minutes when it crashed into another car.... right in front of the Garden Tomb. It was ridiculous and hilarious at the same time. No one was hurt, but plenty of Arabs were there to cause a scene. Another bus came around to pick us up and then we headed back to Jordan.
All in all it was a sweaty but incredible trip. I would highly recommend a trip to Israel if you are ever given the chance. The whole thing was a bit surreal. It's hard to imagine that we walked in the same places that Christ once did. While Jordan is not a place that I think I will need to revisit, possibly ever, I would definitely go back to Israel.
Some of the other highlights were: Managing to get a tour of the BYU Jerusalem center because one of the professors just happened to drive up when we were trying to get inside after hours... oh and he just happened to be someone we knew from our ward in Provo. And another truly unique experience was watching "Killer Klowns from Outer Space" in our hotel room the first night we were in Jerusalem.
