A delayed trip

One year ago, our church in Chicago offered a trip to Israel with 2 of the pastors as leaders. We wanted to join this group and it seemed a good way to spend our 40th Anniversary. We couldn't go because of the Fulbright orientation in Washington, so here we are --- a year later --- finally taking the trip to Isreal. We had a window of opportunity - between the last class at the university and the final exams! This time our guide was Ezra, a 72 year old Isreali. Ezra has done a little bit of everything, including serving in the army, growing up in a kibbutz, driving a bus, marrying an artist, hiking all over the country, building air bases in southern Israel, assisting in the assimiliation of the Jews after the second world war, learning the history of Israel to guide tours, .... and crafting his own bit of history from the jewish perspective. He was entertaining to say the least and as long as we remembered his one sided perspective on this part of the world, we were just fine. I must say, we enjoyed our trip immensely and wonder why we waited so long and why we had such concerns about safety issues. We saw little evidence of conflict or trouble. Perhaps with news of fighting in Syria and concerns about Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan, Israel has taken a "back seat". Jerusalem was my favorite city of the trip. It is a place that Christians, Jews and Muslims consider "holy" and they all seem to be able to live together in this amazing area of the world. This was a "highlights" tour, so we took in Nazareth, Bethlehem, Capernum, Haifa, Mt. Olive, Jericho, Ceasarea, Sea of Galilee, and the Jordan River. Personally, I was amazed at how truly beautiful and green and mountainous the country is. I just didn't picture it that way. Jerusalem is pedestrian friendly in the Old City and very easy to find your way around. Souks are everywhere. Selling to tourists (and locals) is "big business" in Old Jerusalem. We wandered in and out of the different sections of the city -- Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Armenian. In the evening, we even walked on top of the souks to see a bit of the city from the perspective of those who live within the walls. The apartment living in the Old City is cramped and appears simple. Children play in the alleys. One group of little girls tried to stop us from crossing thru the alleyway -- giggling all the while! Outside the walls of the old city, the public transportation makes it an easy city to navigate. We took public transportation, but mostly enjoyed the walking. One evening we ate at a lovely restaurant just outside the old city on a hill overlooking the Jaffa Gate. We ate on an outside veranda and the view was lovely. Another nice part of this tour ---- we had evenings free and we ate wherever we wanted to each evening. The Dome of the Rock, the Wailing Wall, the Via DelaRosa were well worth the trip --- and we were pleasantly surprised at the relative lack of tourists, despite the wonderful weather and the politically calm times. We had to laugh when we asked about the thousands of graves along the Kibron Valley just outside the walls of the Old City. Those grave sights are costly, but people believe that if they are buried there, they will be the first to rise when the new Jerusalem comes. We took a boat trip across the Sea of Galilee and enjoyed 2 nights in a kibbutz on the northern tip of Isreal not far from the border of Lebanon. The kibbutz was located in the hills in a quiet setting surrounded by barbed wire fencing, a reminder no doubt of times past and the fear of conflict in the future. Look out towers surrounded the kibbutz. We saw bomb shelters, a nursery school, a grade school and a small high school. Children played in a field by the school, families had small apartments and were eating on their small patios, and we saw older people walking or riding on old motorized carts along the narrow roads. There was a barn on the kibbutz, with over 100 cows, orchards with fruit trees, a chicken coup, and a small retail store with handmade gift items. We shopped at the kibbutz grocery store for our dinner (good old bread and cheese!) and ate on the patio with views of the surrounding hills and the watch towers of the hills of Lebanon. I think the "money-maker" for the kibbutz is the hotel we stayed in. It's located on the kibbutz grounds, with very simple (but clean) rooms, and a dining room. The buffet breakfast was great! Mt. Hermon is nearby. We traveled along the West Bank and the Golan Heights. Now we have some perspective on what this is! The Bahi Temple and gardens in Haifa are amazing. Finally, we stayed overnight in Tel Aviv before catching a plane back to Amman,Jordan and back to Doha. Tel Aviv is a huge city on the Mediterranean. A bustling, rather dirty city. We could have skipped that city as far as I was concerned, although we enjoyed a walk along the beach and dinner along the beach while watching the sun set. We left on the Sabbath, so very few planes were operational and the airport was virtually empty. None of the Isreali planes fly on the Sabbath, so we took Royal Jordanian back to Doha. I can see why people live in Israel. I would return.