Month: November 2015

I was up at 5:30 am and the air mattress that I had was partially deflated … This is a bitch! I couldn’t think of what to do with it so I went back to sleep until 7:30.

Kevin and Sheila are up when I get up. I had a cup of coffee with them. The sun is peaking out behind the mountain.

Slowly, but slowly everyone started to wake up. Breakfast was in stages along with going swimming in the Sea of Galilee.

We took down the tents and mattresses – all very fine – and we did get out before Sheila’s car went kaput. It was the batteries. We stood in the parking lot borrowing cables from another tourist. Believe it or not, the men in my party couldn’t get the cables to hook up. They were scratching their heads about it and Jack, the 17 year old nephew of Kevin had the brilliant idea of hooking it up right. And so the car was fixed!

Capernaum was the next stop around the sea. It was famous for it’s architecture. Looking at it I can see how it used to be.
We arrived at Meshushim Pool, the largest reserve in the Golan Heights, after that. I sat outside and wrote because my hip was fragile but before that I was treated to the VIEW. This is one of the pictures.

I couldn’t go down to the Pools … it was way down the stairs, and I mean that quite literally.  The stone ‘stairs’ crisscrossed down the valley. But I got pool photos from the brochure. This is it.

We were at the Jerusalem Gardens Hotel and had Sheila’s car. At 8:45 am we set out for Caesarea National Park, Israel.

During the Persian period and the Hellenistic period (until 37 BCE), the village was in Dor county called Straton’s Tower. In 103 BCE they were conquered by the Romans and in 30 BCE, the village was awarded to Herold who ruled.

 

He built a large port city at the site. It took 12 years to build the planned city and he called it Caesarea in honour of his patron Octavian Augustus Caesar. It had networks of crisscrossing roads, a temple, theatre, amphitheatre, markets and residential quarters.

The aqueducts, bringing in water from Shuni springs (a 7.5 km northeast of Caesarea), are terrific. We ate lunch under one of the aqueducts at noon – spreading out along the beach, windy and nice and sunny.

In the afternoon we went to Nazareth to a thing called Nazareth Village. With the guide we explored the Nazareth side all these years later.

We ate dinner at Younis Restaurant; Kevin favourite place. It was getting late so we got it the Sea of Galilee and pitched (a lot of) tents, in the dark. We were sleeping outside this evening …

Day 1 – Friday October 15th and 16th

I got on the flight – I had the ticket but with 250 people getting on it was a chore. I succeeded! A HUGE wing was in my way; a couldn’t see either taking off or landing and 10 hours later I was at Tel Aviv, Israel the next day. Sheila met me, I was so glad and we went off around Israel to the bakery and to buy a hairdryer (she wanted one for the house).

We went home and met everybody for lunch. I slept, walked, helping Sheila make dinner and now I’m writing … just a day in the life!

Day 2 – Saturday October 17th

I woke up to a munching of cereal outside my door. I didn’t know what time it was so I was checking my cell phone – it was 7:22 am. I slept!! and I woke 7 hours ahead, I had 11 hours of sleep. Go figure! I showered – that was really good – I hadn’t showered for 2 days, believe it or not.

My niece, Naomi, was getting married so I gave her THE PRESENT and we went to her apartment. The Ben Gurion airport was our next stop and we pick up our sister, Mary and her husband Derek, with all the suitcases.

We went looking for monkeys at the Monkey Park along the way. There were a lot of monkeys!

 

And Emu’s too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mary, Derek and I had dinner at the Jerusalem Gardens Hotel and went to bed …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 3 – Sunday October 18th

I woke up in Jerusalem! And the place provided breakfast … It was so exciting to see the place from my window. Cars rolling by … On Day 2, there were not cars; in this area the cars are parked for the Jewish Sabbath Day. There weren’t many cars, other than us.

We (Mary, Derek and I) went to the Bible Lands Museum and had a tour of the place with a little woman who talked and talked about Babylon.

Then we went home to our hotel. Mary and Derek had a sleep and I waited for Sheila. She came and we talked. Eventually Mary and Derek joined us and we went out for dinner. Sheila promised us Sharma but she didn’t find any — the place had moved. Derek found a place just down the road a bit. It was opened 5 days ago and it was so good!