Bob in Jerusalem
Trip Start
Nov 13, 2008
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Trip End
Dec 15, 2008
We just arrived in Jerusalem. Started off in Tel Aviv with its high rise hotels along the Mediterranean coast and high rise core of office buildings. Good highways with LA type traffic. No problem with food and water everywhere here. Hotels are all kosher so breakfast buffet has lots of eggs and dairy but no meat of any kind--don't mix dairy and meat. Lunch and dinners start off with "mezze"--salad type appetizers--followed by grilled meat(chicken or beef) or fish--the two times we had fish it was a whole fish, head and tail, deep fried. From Tel Aviv we headed north along the coast to Haifa stopping at Caeseria- a Roman era ruin with a hippodrome and theater well restored. Then east to Nazareth to the Church of the Annunciation. Our tour guide- a jewish Israeli woman, usually reads us passages from the new testament pertinent to where we are. She named the 14stations of the cross in correct order at one church-- something neither Shirley or I agreed we could have done. Then on to the Sea of Galilee and the Golan Heights. Visited the battle sites of the Yom Kippur war which Syria launched with 1000 tanks in 1973. Israel defeated them and annexed the area. Stayed in a Kibbutz in very modern cabins. Kibbutzim started off as hippie style communes but are now more like socialistic communities with tourist facilities, small factories, etc. Met with a family who told us about life in a kibbutz and provided a typical meal. In Tel Aviv we met with two young men from a ultra orthodox neighborhood who told us about their life style. Our travel company OAT is very good in this respect and we have only 12 in our group which makes many other things possible as well. Today we visited sites around the Sea of Galilee where Jesus spent much time. Visited the Mt Beatitude where the sermon on the mount occurred, Caphernum of loaves and fishes fame, and where the Jordan river leaves the Sea--the site where John the Baptist baptized Jesus. Forgot to say that in the northern Golan we had lunch at the home of a Druze family, sitting on a carpeted living room floor, eating a typical meal prepared by the wife and talking about the Druze religion with the English speaking daughter. Most road signs are Hebrew on top followed by Arabic and then English on the bottom but many signs on restaurants, etc. are only in hebrew and English is not as widely used as we were led to believe. Then followed the river south through the Jordan valley and crossed into the West Bank. The palestinian authority doesn't closely control this part of the West Bank so our tour guide said it was part of "our land" but when I pressed her she admitted it was not "officially" part of the state of Israel. We are taking a tour of Bethlehem in a few days, which is in the West Bank and our guide cannot take us there because she is Israeli. We will be allowed to go--it is only a few miles south of Jerusalem--because we will have an Arab guide and because we are tourists. We saw some of the wall the Israelis are building around the arab areas of the city to wall them in. Already getting some idea of why these folks don't get along. We are scheduled to do about 6 hours of walking tomorrow in the Old City part of Jerusalem--just like our Patagonia trip, this is adventure travel not a relaxing vacation. But is has already been a great educational experience. Weather also great, sunny and warm , temps in the 70's. Checked into our hotel tired after a long day and had a great cheeseburger in the bar lounge! Shirley couldn't stay awake so let me have my turn with the blog. Bob in the promised land.
Comments
Hey
Sounds like you're having a great time. Both you and mom have second careers as travel writers! Love and miss you guys.
Belloli Jr.