Israel Day 4: JERUSALEM!

We were fortunate to be able to spend multiple days visiting Jerusalem. Our first Jerusalem day covered the Tower of David, Hezekiah's Tunnel, the site of the Last Supper, and a Midnight Bike Tour through Jerusalem. 

 This breathtaking view is truly EPIC! In the background you can find the Dome of the Rock, the BYU Jerusalem Center, the Mount of Olives, Western Wall, and more!

 I could stare at this all day! ;)

 We took some time to tour the Tower of David Museum. It gave a great overview chronicling the history of Jerusalem and Israel as a whole, and also displayed layers of architecture thousands of years old.

 I think they were shorter back in some of those ancient times...

I had a major "Ah-Ha" moment when I looked at the timelines they had posted out the museum that outline the Israelite period, Cannanite Period, First and Second Temple Period, Persian Period, Hellenistic Period, Roman Period, Byzantine Period, etc.. Now a lot more history makes sense! Old Testament Gospel Doctrine class, here we come! 

 After the museum, we walked along the "Ramparts Walk", which is were we were able to actually walk along and on the wall of Old Jerusalem.

 We heard a bunch of music and singing and we followed the sound to a Bar Mitzvah parade taking place.

We next headed to the area of Mount Zion and visited King David's tomb. All the men are required to wear a skull cap, and Jim was pulled aside and blessed by a priest to "have the Spirit inside of him".

 This was one of the places it would have been nice to have a guide, because we nearly missed this spot: the location of the Last Supper.

 We must have looked a little clueless, because a friendly Israeli guide took it upon himself to guide us around Mt. Zion. In regards to the location of the Last Supper, it has since been a chapel and then a Mosque, so looking around this room and building, there are many different symbols and significance to many different religions - thus our confusion while we were looking around ourselves.

 Outside the wall - many layers of history.

 Present day Israel - the Palestinian side.

 Hezekiah's Tunnel is a underground tunnel thousands of years old that was built to provide people within the walls of Jerusalem a source of water while under siege.

 There is still water that flows in this tunnel! This was another highlight and off the beaten path adventure.

As a funny side note for posterity - it was completely dark in the tunnel, which is part of the adventure. However, my phone... aka light source... died about 50 feet into the tunnel. Additionally, I had a slight misunderstanding of when the end of the tunnel closes and thought we had 10 minutes to go through the whole length (instead of an hour and 10 minutes). Needless to say, I was trying to book it through the tunnel so we wouldn't be trapped overnight with no light and our feet submerged in water, while Jim was trying to slow down and savor its awesomeness;  it took us until almost the end of the tunnel to figure out why the other was acting the  way we were and get on the same page. My bad!

 Walking through the market is both fascinating and overwhelming. Fascinating for the people watching and various trinkets you can find, while overwhelming for the pushy, motivated shop-keepers.

 This is a sampling of the tourist industry infiltrating sacred historical sites.

 In the evening we headed back to the Tower of David for a Light Show. The Light Show was a presentation of the history of Jerusalem, but what made it REALLY awesome is they actually projected the images on the golden Jerusalem stone walls.

 To end the day we went on a "Midnight Bike Tour" through Jerusalem.

 The midnight bike tour began by going to a park that had a great view of Old Jerusalem at night.

 Then we got to ride through the streets of Old Jerusalem with no crowds, no traffic, and a spectacular experience covering a lot of ground. This was the only 'tour' we actually paid for and we loved it! It was such a unique way to see Jerusalem and very memorable.

 There was a mother and daughter also on our ride and it was fun to meet them.

You can see a Christmas tree up on the other side of the wall still lit up. Merry Christmas to all!

Israel Day 3: Galilee to Nazareth

Day 3 in Israel was technically New Years Day back home, so to ring in New Years in the Old World Jim and I went to the hot springs at Hamat Gader. Hamat Gader is located at the border of Israel and Jordan. The Spa complex comprised of several pools and fountains that spread out from the natural source of the main hot springs. The hottest hot spring was so hot we couldn't stay in the water more than a few minutes. The water was rich in minerals and smelled strongly of sulfur - it was super relaxing to start the day off this way. 

 Happy New Year!

 The closest we got to Jordan

 Our next stop was to travel up the windy road up Mt. Tabor, famously known as the Mount of Transfiguration.

 The Church of Mount Transfiguration. The current church standing is part of a Monastary that was completed in 1924, but it sits on top of ruins from 4-6th century Byzantine era and 12 century crusade era ruins.

 Nativity inside the Cathedral at the Mount of Transfiguration.

 This exposed rock is revered as the site where Jesus Christ was transfigured before his apostles and speaks to Moses and Elijah.

 There were some amazing views at the top of Mt Tabor. We enjoyed overlooking the valley below.

 Our next stop was Tel Megiddo, the future site of Armageddon.

 This site was inhabited from 7000 BC - 585 AD. There are 26 archaeological  layers at this site.

 One of the main attractions is this underground tunnel that leads to water springs. City under siege? No problem! We've got access to water.

 We said goodbye to the site of Armageddon and Hello to Nazareth. As we drove up to this city, Jim remarked how the phrase "A city set upon a hill cannot be hid" has new meaning after seeing how some of these old cities have been constructed - literally built upon a hill.

 We went to the Church of the Annunciation. This site is traditionally the location of Mary's childhood home. There were a lot of Mary statues as well as Mary mosaics from around the world on display.

 Nativity at the Church of Annunciation

 Ruins of "Mary's old home".

 Nazareth

 As we headed out of Nazareth, we had another amazing Israel sunset.

Before our day was through we stopped in Haifa and stuck our feet in the Mediterranean Sea for the first time.

 To end the day we got to Tel Aviv and checked into our hotel. We were able to Skype the kids and go find some amazing falafel and crepes. Another amazing day in Israel!

Israel Day 2: Galilee area

I had great intentions to do a proper recap of our Israel trip promptly when I got home. However with real life happening and the weeks flying by, I am becoming more intimidated talking about the trip and being able to do it justice. So I decided I just need to start and take it day by day and here is to hoping I haven't already forgot a bunch of details. 

We woke on day 2 of our trip at the Shavit Family Guesthouse in Arbel, Israel. It was a beautiful, quiet little property surrounded by beautiful garden areas.  Jim and I ventured out on a morning run and had great views of Arbel cliffs. We headed back to the Shavit Family restaurant for a Galilean style breakfast that consisted of Shakshuka, bread, goat cheese, fruit, and olives - yum!

 As we began exploring the Galilee area, we came across this little museum that had the "Jesus boat". A boat excavated recently that dates back 2000 years.

 We then walked around the Sea of Galilee and watched the boats out on the water.

 Our next stop was to the Mount of Beatitudes, this cathedral marks the area where Christ taught the Sermon on the Mount.

 We found a place to sit and read Matthew 5. It was very serene. We could imagine the crowds of people following Jesus up the Mount and this area providing a great scenic view of the Sea of Galilee, and also functionally allowing great numbers of people to meet.

 There were various groups traveling together that would hold little worship services on the grounds. It was fascinating to listen to prayers in many different languages.

 Next we headed to Capernaum, where we ran into our friend, Amber Jensen. It was so fun to be on the other side of the world and recognize a friend.

 Capernaum was Christ's home base for much of his ministry. Peter lived here.  

 This white synagogue is pretty iconic for Capernaum. It is remains of a synagogue build about 300 AD

 This "White Synagogue" was built on the remains of the previous synagogue (darker grey stones), which is the place the place Christ would have taught there (thus called 'Synagogue of Jesus').

 Statue of Peter, with Keys in his hand.

 You can really tell where the rooms, homes, and streets existed in Capernaum. These towns were packed in pretty tightly back then. We would soon find out that many of the remains we would visit were reconstructions to varying degrees, but Capernaum was so interesting because the actual structural remains were left for display (rather than rebuilding it to what it would have looked like).

We also visited the excavations at Bethsaida. A few significant miracles happened here, namely where Christ walked on water and healed the blind man. Bethsaida holds significance to Old Testament and New Testament life.
I found it interesting to note that certain towns were rebuked by Christ for unbelief... Two thousand years later there are some cities that are still inhabited today (Tiberius, Nazareth), and some cities that are no longer inhabited (Bethsaida, Capernaum).

 In Tagba, we visited the cathedral that celebrates the place where Christ fed the 5000. The mosaics covering the floors and walls were amazing. This mosaic featured by two fish and a loaf of bread, next to exposed rock where it is said that miracle occurred. 

 Olive press

 Korazim or Corazin ruins featured black basalt ruins. These ruins date back thousands of years and have been partly reconstructed.

 These are really old rocks!

 Our daylight was running out so we decided to circle around the whole Sea of Galilee. We pulled off the side of the road in the norther Golan area to bask in the beautiful sunset.

 This day of travel happened to fall on December 31st, so this was not a bad way to close out 2013. We felt very blessed.

 As we watched the sun retire for the day I reflected on all that we had seen that day. The Galilee area is very scenic and beautiful. Christ's ministry was largely in this area. Jesus would go to the mountains/hills to escape the crowds and teach the people who followed him. It was probably refreshing to get away from the busy, bustling towns.

As we were enjoying the sunset we noticed this tall, metal pillar and there was this big button on the pillar. Since all the signs on the pillar were in Hebrew AND we were technically in Upper Golan (just a few miles away from Syria) AND there were a few signs in the area warning of hidden mines, I was staying clear of "the button". However, Jim is braver and more curious than me and went ahead and touched this mysterious button. Turns out this was some kind of memorial (I mentioned signs warning of mines, right?), there was a recorded message that started playing and read off about 20 names. That is our best guess, anyway, since we don't speak Hebrew.  Would YOU touch the button?