Israel

For many moons have I wanted to travel to Israel. Last month we jumped at the chance to go; Ryan had a slow work week and it wasn't too hot there yet, so we were off!

Day 1 Jaffa/Tel Aviv

Our first day we decided to take it slooow. We flew into Tel Aviv on a Saturday night and spent the following day in Jaffa. We stayed at the Old Jaffa hostel, a 5 star (well, maybe 1 or 2 star) joint where we all slept in bunk beds and shared community bathrooms with our neighbors. Awesome. The first night was a long one; Mia recalls seeing me with a towel over my head in the morning, and I recall listening to her sawing logs ALL night long.

We found a tasty bakery that was open early, stocked up on chocolate and feta croissants and enjoyed breakfast on the garden roof of our hostel overlooking the Jaffa flea market ("Where I do believe we could find our fair share of fleas"...Ryans words). I think Jake would have died if we hadn't busted out his sand toys that day, so we did, and walked along the water front to a Tel Aviv beach. Found a pretty little spot and played there for a good long while.

Yaffa Cafe for lunch; "best gnocchi I've ever had," recalls Ryan. And pretty tasty apple pie pizza. We wandered the street markets afterwards, where I scored a beautiful $25 rag rug (forget the Turkish flying carpets). I could have wandered through the market streets for a few more hours, but not the kids. We walked with them into Old Jaffa, where some of the streets and old city are nicely preserved. As we noted old ruins along our path, Jake comments: "Ah great...just some more old junk." Delicately put, buddy.

At one point during our wanderings, we noticed Josie had lost a shoe (she was sleeping and her sandal had fallen off). Jake said he saw it fall off, but didn't bother to tell us or pick it up. Sooo, we found some cheapy crocs at a corner store to replace the only pair of shoes we'd brought for Beany. This trip should be called, "The Trip Where Josie Lost a Shoe Every Day." I think we replaced 3 pair of Josie shoes during the week for the same reason every time. Josie would fall asleep in our arms and a shoe would fall off. We should have just taken them off altogether and let her go barefoot the whole while. Seems we were slow to learn.

Had frozen yoghurt for dinner (yup! reminded me of 'Red's' in Salt Lake...so yummy!), and headed back to the five star. Great first day!


At the five star


Beach combing


Sand drippings


Josie


Mia walks along the promenade: Old Jaffa lies behind


Old Jaffa


Jake runs through the old streets


Day 2 Caesarea

Day 1 had me thinking the whole rest of the week was going to be as dreamy and relaxing. Day 2 I was singing, "Back to Life, Back to Reality!"

Drove to Caesarea our second day in Israel, city built by Herod the Great in honor of Caesar. Caesarea is only an hour north of Tel Aviv/Jaffa and lies along the Meditteranean coast just south of Haifa. We were excited to take a peek at ancient theatres, hippodrome, aquaduct, bathhouses, palace overlooking the see, etc. On our way up the coastline, Thys announced from the back seat that he wasn't feeling so good. I looked behind me to see his face turning a greenish-greyish color, and suddenly he lunged for the van door (we were driving 100 kmph). Jake was the unfortunate creature situated in front of Thys in the van; as Thys lost his breakfast all over his younger brother, Jake sickeningly touched his wet hair and soggy clothes. "Sick, Thys-ee!!" (to be read with Jakes lisp: "Thick...Thy-thee!!"). Mia started to panic, Josie stared wide-eyed, I started laughing, and Ryan started mumbling things under his breath. Took us a while to clean a few kids + rental car up, but so glad to have it happen in a rental and not our own. We continued cautiously, watching Thys through the rear-view for a while, trying to decide if he ate something bad or was coming down with a bug. About 20 minutes later, as we were pulling into a gas station just outside of Caesarea, Jake started to turn the same greenish-greyish color. He asked to use the bathroom; we ran. While in his little stall, he starts to groan, "I think I'm gonna be dead!" As we left the gas station I wondered if the worst was over. Fifteen minutes later, as we step out of our car, Jake lost his breakfast all over his shoe. Variation on a shoe? I resigned myself to car-duty with sick kids, wondering if I would ever make it back to Israel to see what I wanted to see that day. But 5 minutes later, Jake perked up and said he was ready to go "explore the palace." One hour later he and Thys were eating ice cream on the "palace" lawn. Tainted from a 2 hour bug, or whatever it was, didn't hold the boys back for long.

Our favorite part of Caesarea was simply hanging out by the aquaduct for the afternoon, playing on the beach there. And I love the picture below of Thys and Mia chariot racing.

We drove that night, however accidentally, through Nazareth (where Christ spent his growing up years). We wove our way through the crowded city on a hill and found the Church of the Annunciation (where Mary supposedly was visited by the Angel Gabriel). The church was lovely, the kids got a peek into their first Catholic mass, and we heard some of the most angelic music I've ever heard.

We wandered the streets a bit afterward; had schawarma and falafel for dinner, and then hit the road. Our destination: Rosh Pina, a little town in the Upper Galilee where we would spend the next few days. We stayed in a kibbutz there; many people recommended we stake one out in order to experience "kibbutz life". I left there under the impression that kibbutsim has probably evolved from what it once was, but still glad we did it. Ryan likes to call our accomodations "the trailer park." Jake lovingly referred to it as "our cottage", and I like to think of it as "the place that made me sick for the rest of our trip." Wasn't so bad if you don't have dust allergies, or don't mind a bit of flooding in the bathroom every time you shower (fortunately they equip you with a very long squee-gie, so you can squee-gie the water on the floor into the drain AS you shower). Redeeming attributes: the woman that cooked breakfast at the kibbutz was amazing. Anyone who makes cheesecake for breakfast for her guests is a friend of mine, and I'd go back just for her cooking.

Mia


Thys


Chariot racing


Sand drippings


Mom & Josie


Dragging Josie & Jake


Aquaduct

Day 3 Upper Galilee: Nimrod's Castle, Jordan River

The kids say that day 3 was their favorite day. We ventured up further northward in to "the Golan" (mountains in northern Israel), in search of Nimrod's Castle (midevil fortress built to guard the road to Damascus). Much more history to it than this, but I won't go into detail. The kids had great fun scrambling around among the ruins, chasing the hyrax (little rodents) that "guarded the castle", exploring the dungeons and lookout points, and HAVING THE WHOLE PLACE TO OURSELVES. Behold, the photo's.

We drove through the mountains, stopping for pita at the side of the road, made by a sweet little Druze woman; pita with nutella, pita with feta and hyssop. As we drove back to our kibbutz, we drove through the beautiful Golan mountains, and discovered that we'd be driving over the Jordan River. We decided to stop and see if there was a place we could hang out by the riverside, which we did. We had to hike down the river a ways, through some Dr. Seuss brickles, but found a nice little spot beside the water where the kids played for a while. The Jordan River is not a wide, rushing river; it is quiet and still and easy to swim across. We saw a lot of people floating down the river in rafts and kayaks. Mia says that the hour we spent riverside was her favorite part of the trip.

We made our way back in to Rosh Pina for yummy dinner; cool artsy little town, but fairly deserted that night because of a national holiday. We were lucky to find a little joint open for dinner. Back to our kibbutz.


Laying seige


Heaving


Ry & Josie


Girls on Castle Stairs


Defending the Castle


Stealth


Arched doors


Yum


Jordan River


Jake gets dunked


Thys' turn


Brickles


Awesome


Adventure is Out There!


Day 4 Upper Galilee to the Dead Sea

This morning we left our trailer park and drove south a bit, to the Mount of Beatitudes, where Christ delivered the Sermon on the Mount. Ironically, this is where Thys and Mia almost got in to a knock down, drag-out...and where I witnessed a little old nun run some photographers out of the church built on site (I think she was cursing in Italian...guess you can't take pictures in the chapel). Too many warm fuzzies to be found there, so we kept our stay short and sweet.

Blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are the meek, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the pure in heart.

We drove on to Capernaum, home to Simon Peter, where Christ spent much of his time during his ministering years. We loved Capernaum. The quiet ruins of this little old fishing town are situated on the north side of the Sea of Galilee. We walked among what remains of the fishing village and through the synagogue (built over the original) and got a taste of what it might have been like to be there 2,000 years ago. The hills above the Sea of Galilee are lovely and relatively quiet, unlike many of the other historical religious sites we've visited.

We drove south from there for a couple of hours on our way to the Dead Sea. The kids have great memories of this drive; we kept seeing caves built into the mountains along our way, so we finally decided to stop and explore some. We drove our rental offroad and up a rocky, hilly path to some big caves we had spotted. As we reached the hilltop a pack of wild dogs emerged from the cave, barring their teeth at us and chasing the mini-van. Mia started to panic and cry for Ryan to turn around. He assured her that they couldn't get INTO the van and that all would be well. Within 60 seconds a man covered in headress and veil appeared on his donkey, herding a bunch of goats. He glared us off the mountainside, and we were on our way.

Made pretty good time that day driving south, because of the holiday; the roads were literally empty. Stopped at a gas station on the northern tip of the Dead Sea. A teenage kid was hanging out there WITH HIS CAMEL, offering $5 rides around the gas station. I guess a gas station was as good a place as any to scrounge ourselves up a camel ride, so we went for it. This may well have been Jake and Josie's favorite part of the trip.

We pulled into the Ein Gedi National Park a short time later, where we hiked up some beautiful rocky mountainside and through pools of water deep enough to swim in. Great fun swimming in the pools and hunting for frogs. The Ein Gedi is the oasis mentioned in the bible where David supposedly hid from Saul. Beautiful, beautiful. The view of the Dead Sea was lovely from above. We were some of the last people to hike out of the part that day; a herd of mountain goats joined us (more liked probed us, looking for some food) on the walk out...and some more mountain hyrax.

Made it to our hotel on the Dead Sea that night. We decided we hadn't packed enough into our day, so we wandered down to the waterfront to see about some salt-water floating. Wading into the viscous water was strange; the Dead Sea has a high concentration of salt and other minerals...you can almost feel the elements run through your fingers. Thys and Mia were first to start bobbing in the water, then the rest of us gave it a go. Ryan eased his way in with Jake and I with Josie; however, I can hardly remember what it felt like to float in the Dead Sea, because the J Crew were scrambling out within 60 seconds. We didn't give much thought to all of the scrapes and cuts we'd collected from previous days; the salt in their little wounds left them HOWLING in pain! We pulled our circus out of the water and raced for the shoreside shower (in the meantime, the other half managed to get salt in their eyes, and all of our boomdies were ON FIRE!!). Holy cow, this was NOT the Dead Sea experience we expected to have, but I guess it was memorable.


Mt. of Beatitudes


Synagogue in Capernaum


Jake running on the shores of the Sea of Galilee


Mia & Jake camelback


Thys & Josie camelback


The Ein Gedi


Our own pool


Sumo wrestling


Sisters


View from Ein Gedi down to the Dead Sea


Oooo!


Ryan and Jake float


Day 5 Masada, then Jerusalem

Masada. Fortress built for and by Herod the Great shortly before Christ, and taken over by Jewish rebels in 50 or 60 AD. Masada is a fortress built on a mountain top just east of the Dead Sea, in the hottest and most remote of places. Ryan, Thys and Mia hiked the "snake-path" to the top of Masada; I took the cable car up with Jake and Josie. At top we wandered amongst the ruins of palaces, cisterns, bathhouses, barracks...all which Jewish rebels attempted to burn when Romans tried to overtake Masada again. The Romans discovered mass suicide when they laid seige; the Jewish rebels prefered death to imprisonment. We wandered around the fascinating mountain-city, soaked in too much sun, then precariously made our way down the snake path together. In order to coerce Jake in to the downward hike, we encouraged him to count all the stairs to see how many there were; he got to 400 (but there were 800 and something total). Phew!

From Masada we drove on to Jerusalem and to our plush hostel quarters. That evening we walked in to the Old City and to the Western Wall (Wailing Wall). The Western Wall is the last remaining wall of Solomons Temple (rebuilt and restored), and held sacred to Jew and Christian alike. The Jews worship, and mourn, at the wall. We watched for some time and then walked closer. The boys had to wear skull caps and separate from us; the men and women worship separately. Mia, Josie and I joined the womenfolk. Some women were sitting, reading from the Old Testament in Hebrew. Many others were praying audibly, usually mournfully. Men and women often write a prayer on a peice of paper and slip it in to a crack in the wall, which we saw some women do (there were thousands of peices of paper slipped into cracks and crevices). We make our way close enough to touch the stone, which was pretty special. After finding our way back to the boys, we watched a group of men at the wall get together in a large circle; they started to sing as they went round and round, some dancing as they went; it was quite fun to watch. The men were jovial and energetic. Jake commented, "Wow, how cool! They are playing Ring-around-the-Rosie!" Classic! This was certainly an unforgettable night.


Ryan, Thys & Mia hike up the Snake Path


Into the Cistern


Mia & Jake


Overlooking the Dead Sea


Peeking through the Palace


At the base of the mountain


The Western Wall


"Ring Around the Rosie"


Walking home through the Arab Market

Day 6 Jerusalem

This morning we had ambitious intentions to see and do all we could in Jerusalem before the Jewish Sabbath started. And well, we did alright, but I am already pushing Ryan to take me back to Israel and Jerusalem before we leave the Eastern Hemisphere...so much to see. Jerusalem is simply the most fascinating of cities, a melting pot of religion and culture that cannot possibly exist anywhere else in the world (at least not that I've ever experienced). Anyhow, we wandered into the city again this morning through the Jaffa gate and took a different turn through the Arab market, trying to make our way to the starting point of the Via Dolorosa. Ryan was our tour guide for this one, having been to Jerusalem and walked the walk before.

The Via Dolorosa marks the traditional path that Christ would have followed as he carried his cross, from his sentence by Pilate, to the possible place of His crucifiction (Church of the Holy Sepulchre). Along the way you see different numbers along the streets, indicating places where Christ may have stumbled, where he encountered people who were important to him (his Mother, Simon Peter, etc.) and where he may have stopped to rest. The actual path that is marked and labeled may not have been the true path he followed, but we wanted to see it and get a feel for it. The streets were so very crowded with tour groups and street vendors; we should have pulled ourselves out of bed early for a less hectic experience. We ended the walk at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We lost Mia right off the bat in the crowds of people, making for a nerve-racking ending to our walk. We found her a minute or two later and made a quick escape from the crowds.

We hurried out of the Old City at this point; Ryan's friend and co-worker (Eric Rait, who lives in Israel), had come to meet us and take us to a different part of the city for lunch. We welcomed the change of pace, and the yummy Israeli food we ate. Eric took us the the Machenah Yehuda market in Jerusalem to do his pre-Sabbath shopping. We ate some of the best ice cream there I've ever had, and thoroughly enjoyed the colors and corners of the market. Afterward, Eric drove us to lookout
point above the city for an amazing view of Jerusalem.

The kids were totally sick of walking at this point; Ryan and I could have kept going, but we finished off our evening relaxing at our hostel and playing at a park down the street.


The Via Dolorosa begins


We snuck into this church along our way


in order to get a bird's eye view of the city



Jake's camel (in his hand) sang us funky music the whole a.m. We kept hoping he'd lose it somewhere...


Triplets


Triple scoop


Where He paused to rest?


Church of the Holy Sepulchre


Josie at the entrance


Day 7 Jerusalem

Packed it up this morning and headed the the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies. Their lovely facility was built on the Mount of Olives, overlooking the Old City.

On our last afternoon in Jerusalem and before the Jewish Sabbath ended, we found our way to the Garden Tomb, where it is believed by some to be the place where Christ was buried and then resurrected...also the possible sight of Golgotha, where Christ was crucified. This was a tranquil respite hidden in the busy Arab quarter of the city; the garden grounds were peaceful, well manicured and inviting. We were able to step inside of the tomb and take a peek at what it looked like, and then we just sat outside it for a bit, soaking in a bit of the peaceful surroundings.

From there, we drove to Gethsemane. Gethsemane is gated and a large cathedral has been built on the sight, but some ancient olive trees still grow there, unlike any we have seen in the country. We stepped into the cathedral, but mostly sat and looked into the gardens at the aging trees. It is hard to imagine sacred moments in time when the physical landscape is not what it would have been, and when hundreds of people are swarming around you, trying to envision a bit of the same. Even still, it was reverencing, just being there.


Possible site of Golgotha, "Place of the Skull"



The Garden Tomb


Gethsemane


Tired


Peering into Gethsemane


Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives


It is interesting to be in Turkey now, one month later, after much has transpired in the past month between Israel and surrounding countries. There have been riots and protests downtown outside of the Israeli consolate because of the Gaza convoy raid. There are strong feelings against Israel on behalf of the Turks (and obviously vice versa). I guess we came home in good time.

In the meantime, it was a pleasure traveling with you guys...when you weren't puking or complaining, or tired of walking or feeling homesick. Let's do it again sometime!