Author: Greg Long

Here is a link to our Israel pictures

At the moment they are mostly unsorted, unfiltered and not even viewed. And not all of them are there yet.

Look for the ones with a circular arrow or a globe-like symbol. These are 360° panoramas or full spherical pictures that you can scroll through.

Started off badly. Our flight has been delayed 3 hours and 20 minutes. Fortunately we got to stay at the hotel until 11 instead of 7:15. Several of us decided to go for a walk. Pastor Jim joined us and took us to the old city. We got to see some interesting things. Unfortunately it was a looong way.

Cheryl and I decided to turn around and go back. We made several wrong turns but finally made it back. So far I have more than 11,000 steps. That is more steps than most of our days here. And it is not even 11am!

Now off to the airport to wait.

Today we only had two stops.

First we stopped at En Gedi. After a short hike, we came to a spring fed waterfall. There were a number of people standing in it enjoying the cool water.

Then we went to the Dead Sea. We had lunch then went down to the beach. By down, I mean way down.

We just waded in the water. It was very slippery and muddy.

At the moment, we are on the bus headed to Jerusalem for our last night in Israel.

Cheryl was one happy camper today. She asked about Gluten-free food and someone went away and came back with two plates of bread that she could have. One of them was really moist with chocolate chips. I thought that it was better than the non-gluten-free chocolate muffin.

After that we got on the bus for a trip to Petra in Jordan. It took about an hour to actually get across the border. We had to leave the bus, show our passports 4 different time, and change bus, driver and guide. After a 2 hour drive plus a break, we arrived at Petra around noon. We walked to the Treasury. With stops for the guide to describe features it took close to an hour and a half to get there. It was downhill all the way. Cheryl rode a camel while there. At this point, we had about an hour and a half to look around and get back to the top. It was quite the hike, but we made it.

After that we had a lunch buffet at about 3:15. It was OK, but I was not really hungry after the long hike.

We left the restaurant at 4 to make it back to the border by 6.

Made it back across the Israeli border. We had to show our passports about 7 times to get through.

We are now sitting on the bus while most everyone else is in Eilat Stone looking for bargains.

Most of the day we have been traveling from Jerusalem to Eilat.

We stopped in Qumran to see where the Dead Sea scroll’s were found.

We also drove past the Dead Sea.

For lunch we stopped at what would be called along the Ohio turnpike a service center. We choose McDonald’s. I had the McWings and they were delicious! They were real chicken wings with a fantastic breading.

For the most part, we drove through a desert. Not the sand dunes type , but mountains, rock, and dirt.

5pm: Checked into the Crowne Plaza hotel in Eilat. It is a beautiful room with a balcony overlooking the Red Sea.

My step counter is only saying 10700 steps but I’m sure it was a lot more than that. It doesn’t count if my left arm isn’t swinging and there was a lot of handrail hold going up and down hundreds of steps and steep ramps.

We were already awake at the 6:30 wakeup call. Had breakfast and on the bus by 8, as usual.

We went to (not necessarily in this order):

• The upper room – this is actually a church built on the traditional site of the last supper.
• King David’s tomb – another church built on the traditional site of King David’s burial tomb.
• Caiaphas house – this is believed to be the location where Jesus was tried.
• Peter the Rooster is Calling church and Antonio’s fortress – actually the name of the church is in Latin, but this is what it means. It is built on what is believed to be the site of Antonio’s Fortress where Jesus tortured and held.
• The garden tomb and Golgotha – these two sites are very close together. They may not be the actual sites, but the evidence is compelling. After exiting the tomb, we went to a private area and had communion, it was a very moving experience.
• Lunch and shopping in Old Jerusalem – the marketplace in Old Jerusalem was a very interesting place. Vendors everywhere selling everything with no price on anything. Bargaining was how it was done. A common line was: I’ll love you anyway but I’ll love you more if you buy something.
• St. Anne church – this was next to the pool of Bethesda which has been partially uncovered. It was no small pool, but was up to 40 feet deep and held 10’s of millions of gallons of water. The church was built by the Crusaders and the acoustics were amazing. We sang several songs and after each one the sound reverberated for several seconds.
• Walked the Via Dolorosa

Wake-up call again at 6:30. We are not checking out of the hotel today, so no bags to pack, yeah.

We had a leisurely breakfast because we did not need to be on the bus until 8:15.

Went to the city of David. No, not Bethlehem, but old Jerusalem. The part of the city that existed when David captured, what was then called Salem. We walked through a water supply tunnel. The tunnel exited near the pool of Shilom.

We then went to the Museum of Israel which contains a 1/50th scale model of Jerusalem in 70AD. It also had a lot of information on the Dead Sea scrolls, including actual scrolls.

Went to lunch at another mall food court. We found a vendor who was originally from NY, NY. He was quite the salesman. Cheryl had a lamb steak that she really enjoyed and I had a wonderful lamb kabobs. Not sure of the exact cost, but think that it was somewhere around $45 (178 shekels).

After that we went to the William Davidson Center which is an archeological site containing the southern steps on the western wall. Some of the steps date back to the time of Christ, and we got to walk on them! There were other ruins there that also contained the original paving tiles that Jesus would have walked on. And so did I!

Finally we went back to the Wailing Wall plaza. By sheer happenstance, there was a big celebration going on.

Then back to the hotel. We got back early today, about 5:30. The dinner buffet starts at 6:30, that’s why the update is a bit early today. The pictures should start appearing at: https://goo.gl/photos/DofLYYDQuY3feLEA8

Wake up call at 6:30.

Bags out the door by 7.

Check out

Have breakfast

On the bus by 7:45

Drive 1.5 to 2 hours to get to Mount Carmel. The view was beautiful! We could see all the way to the Mediterranean Sea.

Drive another hour or more to get to Caesarea Maritima. This was described to us as the Las Vegas of 2000 years ago. It had a nearly complete amphitheatre, a place where chariot races would have taken place, and the remains of Herod’s summer palace, which probably housed Paul while he was imprisoned in Caesarea.

Went to a mall food court for lunch.

Another hour plus drive to the Mount of Olives.

From there walked to the Garden of Gethsemane and a nearby church

Stopped at a gift shop. The proprietor was trying really hard to sell Cheryl stuff with a sticker price over $3500 for only $2000 including taxes and shipping. Cheryl wasn’t biting, but he was persistent in a good natured way.

Got to the hotel around 5.

Dinner buffet at 6.

On the bus at 7 to tour the Western Wall tunnel. Well, is not really a tunnel, but Jerusalem, west of the Wailing Wall is built on a whole series of arched bridges.

Back to the hotel around 9.

Spent 15 minutes typing this in so I did not forget what we did today.

Then spent another 15 minutes doing it again because the Internet went out.

Did I ever sleep good last night! Cheryl, no worse than normal. We received a 6:30 wakeup call, dressed and went to breakfast. The food was interesting. They had the most amazing pastry that tasted very much like a cream cheese danish. It was wonderful!

We left shortly after 8 to begin the day’s adventures.

First was Capernaum.This was a large archeological site. It had the remains of a 3rd or 4th century synagogue and underneath it you could see the foundation of an older synagogue.Jesus probably taught there.

Next was the Mount of Beatitudes.

Afer that was a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee and a boat museum. My original thought was: there are all these things to see and we are going on a boat ride? It was actually quite good. It started with the US and Israeli national anthems followed by contemporary Christian music while we cruised out into the lake. Our guide Erez (a Messianic Jew) then pointed out that from where we were, two-thirds of the Gospels took place. The boat museum had a 1st century boat that was discovered several years ago.

We Then stopped for lunch – Israeli fast food. We had chicken and lamb shawarma. They understood gluten free, so Cheryl was able to get her’s without the pita bread. Too bad for her, it was the best pita bread I’ve ever had.

Then we went to Magdala. This is a relatively new archeological site.

Finally, we went to the Jordan River where about half of our group was baptized, including Cheryl.

We returned to the lodge (for lack of a better term) Ein-Gev about 4:30. Dinner is promptly at 6:15.