Israel

We docked in the port of Haifa in the north of Israel and were there for 2 days. The first day I went on a panoramic tour of the Sea of Galilee, Nazareth and the Golan Heights. On the second day, it was a tour with private guide through the old city of Jerusalem. What was most interesting with both days is you heard all the stories and names of places in Sunday school growing up, but actually seeing these places including where they are geographically and what they really looked like really puts a lot of that into a real perspective. Our guides were very good with helping understand the difference from places that are really known to be a spot where something occurred and the places where they know this is the area, but no one really knows the exact spot so sometimes, the “place” is created such as where Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River. They know the general area, but no one has the exact place. Also on the Via Dolorosa, they have markers on the buildings for the different stations of the cross and our guide told us they are generally close, but sometimes change when a building changes ownership for example and the new owner doesn’t want all the attention. Some of the highlights of Jerusalem were seeing the city from the top of Mount Olive, then to Mount Zion and the church where the last supper was held, King David’s tomb, entering through the Zion Gate, all four quarters of the city which are Armenian, Christian, Muslim and Jewish quarters. This included the Western Wall, the Via Dolorosa and the Sepulchre which is the church where Jesus died and was entombed and then we exited through the Jaffa Gate. Probably the oddest thing was a place we stopped on our way there to take a break which was the Elvis Restaurant and gas station. It has statues of Elvis, murals, a giant guitar and inside all the Elvis memorabilia you can imagine including the obligatory coffee cups and Elvis wine. These are just a few of the pictures to share with you.

Jerusalem