Day 10 Part 7 Heading Home

There is nothing I would like to do more than lay down for a nap but there is no time.  We must shower, change our clothes into something comfortable for the 12 hour flight back to the U.S.A. and get our suitcases out in the hall so they can be packed on the buses for our trip the the Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv.

We are treated kind of special as the hotel has given us our own banquet room with our own buffets.  The food is the same, but we have fewer people to contend with as we fill our plates.  By this time I have tried about everything they have offered us at least once and I choose the things I like best among the offerings.  I heap up the dill pickles.  The dill pickles here are the best I have ever had.  I wish I could take some home.

We eat with friends and the farewells begin as we will all take different routes as we head home.  There are several speakers to address our tour as we finish eating our food.  One is the owner of the tour company, a Mr. Amie.  He seems like a nice man.  His mother was a holocaust survivor and he offers us a free book of her story.  Dr. Wood, the General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God who has been with our "Red Bus" group most of the time addresses the tour as well.  Our guides, Eli, Ilan, Wave and one I can't remember his name, are all recognized.  Eli as typical gets the loudest ovation.  For some reason, Eli very much endears himself to everyone.

There is more but we are eventually instructed to go outside the hotel and find our suitcases and take them personally to our bus and ensure they are loaded on board.  It takes a few minutes but I am able to find both of our bags among the hundreds.  I escort them to the Red Bus and they are loaded.  I think this might be a good time to use the restrooms.  I find the banquet room restrooms and enter.  They are pretty much the most over-the-top nice rest rooms I have ever seen.  I don't know why here in Israel of all places where I have experienced the most primitive of potty  rooms, but wow.  I enter a private commode room that is huge with marble floors. It is big enough to throw a party in.  It is richly paneled.  It has a huge, heavy locking door.  Inside this commode room, it has it's own wash basin and fresh cloth towels.  Beautiful framed pictures adorn the walls. Fresh flowers in a vase on it's own shelf.  Care for a little cologne?  There are a few that you can try.  The mirrors are large and well lit.  I think I would like to hang out in here for a little while it is so nice. I leave feeling like I have seen how the rich and famous have it.

I find Indiana Jolie and we board our bus.  It will be just over an hour's ride to Tel Aviv and the Ben Gurion International Airport.  Ilan, one of our Israeli guides is our helper to get us through customs and security.  We are coached as we drive to the airport as what to say and what not to say when we get to customs and security.  Essentially we are told to keep it to "yes" or "no".  Do not volunteer information.  Do not elaborate.  Do not lie.  If we are singled out for questioning keep our answers short.  None of this is to be devious, it is just some experienced advice.  The more information that is volunteered, the more the security people have to cross check with the other security guards.  More information leads to more questions.  More questions lead to more volunteered information which leads to more questions, etc., etc.  Keep it simple, keep it short, keep it truthful.

We arrive at the check-in gates.  We get our suitcases checked quick enough.  Sure enough, while the entire group is standing there I am volunteered by one of the security people for some questions.  We step about 20 feet from the rest of the group.  She is a collage age lady that is home after attending university in America.  She peppers me with questions.  Where have I been?  How long have I been here?  What did I purchase?  Did anyone give me anything?  What is my occupation?  Who is the group I am traveling with?  Do I have anything I need to tell them?

This lady was pretty good. They way they ask the questions makes it easy to say too much.  The last question I was unprepared for, I wanted to think of something to tell her but kept my mouth shut.  After about 15 minutes and her conferring with other security people I am allowed to return to our group.  Everyone wants to know what she asked me.  I am a little nervous to talk about it much as she is still standing near by.  I shrug and say it was nothing.

From here we descend to another floor and we wait in line for customs with our passports in hand.  We get a short line but the guy in front of us must have had some sort of a rap sheet as they question him for a long time.  We are next to see the agent but we must wait for Mr. Terrorist to get done being questioned.  They finally take him somewhere else and after another five minutes of our agent fiddling around in his cubicle he motions us forward.  We slip our passports under the glass and he looks us up in his database.  We must look pretty benign because we pass pretty quickly.  

We walk down the long concourse to our gate and wait for our flight.  it is the beginning of another endless night since I can't possibly sleep on airplanes.  Hopefully my seat will have a working movie screen and a working earplug port this time.  

We board and the flight is very full.  Our seats are right next to the restrooms.  Oh joy.  There is a cute Jewish family in front of us.  The young dad and mom sit across the aisle one row in front of us.  Their two young boys are right in front of me and Indiana Jolie.  The boys are a non-stop whirl of motion.  They wrestle, they climb up and down the seats.  The need this, they need that, and the parents are the accommodating kind.  They have me worn out before we taxi to the runway.

We lift off and Israel is soon a cluster of small lights in the distance.  As we gain altitude flying west we get a longer version of sunset.  Wow.  Time has passed so quickly but we have been gone from home so long.  

We are served a meal.  Do we wish kosher?  Sure, why not.  It is ok.  I eat my meal as it hops up and down on the tray that descends from the seat back that holds the fury of a miniature whirling dervish that barely slows down to eat.  

Soon all the meals and drinks and blankets and pillows are all passed out and the plane quiets down except for the perpetual motion machines in the seats in front of us and the line of people that form next to me to use the facilities.  
I look at the choices of movies that are offered.  Good deal, both the screen and the earplug port are in working order.  I look at my watch and determine that if I get right on it, I can watch four full length movies before we touch down in Philadelphia.  I do.  About the equivalent of 2 a.m., the inexhaustible energy sources in front of me pass out.  About every 20 minutes or so the stewards walk up and down the aisles offering water to anyone who wants it. They must be hoping to prevent dehydration or deep vein thrombosis or something.  This of course keeps the line to the restroom always past where I am sitting.  Indiana Jolie sleeps blissfully through most of the flight.  

When we arrive in Philadelphia we grab a quick breakfast at the airport before we have to board our flight to Phoenix.  We snap our pictures by the Lego brick Liberty Bell.

We have another three hours to fly before we get to where we will attempt to sleep off some of our jet lag.  Ha ha!  That is a joke.

We smartly and strategically booked a hotel that is on the light rail line that runs through Phoenix.  We arrive at the International terminal and get a shuttle to our hotel where we stashed our other suitcases while we were in Israel.  It will be great to wear some different clothes!  We are happy to check in and sleep for a couple hours before making ourselves get up at the standard time to get back on our regular awake/sleep schedule.  

We decide that we need to stay busy all day so we can sleep all night.  Indiana Jolie says she would like to visit the Phoenix Zoo.  I can think of nothing better so we head out.  We pay our $4 to ride the light rail all day.  This also covers all the transfers we need to catch two different buses that will actually take us to the zoo.  It is too easy.  We get to the zoo bright and early before it is actually open.  We are there waiting in line with all the stroller moms and toddlers.  It is a nice zoo as far as zoos go.  Indiana Jolie got to feed a giraffe as well which made her day.  We see much and enjoy the experience.  About mid afternoon we kind of "hit the wall" energy wise and decide to catch the bus back to the light rail.  We go to the bus stop which lists the time.  We have to wait an hour and twenty minutes which feels more like one hundred days.  

The right bus finally arrives and we catch the light rail back to Tempe.  We get off at Tempe to find some food which is more walking in our depleted state.  Tempe is the University town for ASU.  There are lots of fun places to eat and shop but I just want to eat and drop.  Indiana Jolie wants to look at shoes and clothes.  I in zombie like fashion follow.

We finally board the light rail and return to our room.  It is a little early to go to bed so I decide to try the spa down by the pool.  This feels fabulous. I am in the mood for an all night sleep which I do.

We get ourselves up in time for breakfast and head out to explore Mesa at the end of the light rail system.  After waking a half dozen additional block we find the places where there are some antique stores and junk shops.  We easily fill our time until we have to come back and ready ourselves for our flight back to Alaska and home.  

It is surreal that we have been half way around the world and back.  We have seen more than we have anticipated and have grown in knowledge and experience.  It indeed has been a trip of a lifetime.

The end.

Day 10 Part 6 The Southern Wall of Temple Mount

We trudge along the western Temple Mount wall until we can turn east and walk up the broad stairs that end at the southern Temple Mount wall.  We are all tired and for the first time in the trip, I see some of the elderly people on our tour begin to struggle to keep up.  

There is so much to see no matter what direction you look. Even beneath our feet.  The area is paved with smooth pavement stones as are most places in this area.  However, for the first time, I see that the material between the pavement stones are ancient pottery shards.  In this area the shards must represent millions of broken pottery vessels.  I want to stop and pry some out from between the stones but I am flagging and I don't want to get into some kind of trouble.  

As we arrive at the broad staircase on the southern wall, it feels larger than life.  Here I am staring in real time at something I have seen depicted in photographs all my life.  It is a little overwhelming.  The broad staircase looks like one part of it has been refurbished with new stone, the other half looks quite weathered, worn and ancient.  

On the left side of the southern wall is a later addition of building that sticks out from the wall.  It forms a nice shadow providing a little shade that looks welcoming in the heat. 

Our group assembles there on the steps as we prepare to hear a lecture on the significance of this place.  I admit I am pretty beat and there is no way to sit comfortably on these stone stairs.  I attempt vainly to find a way to sit there in a position I can stay in for longer than a minute.  I am sure that I have missed much of what is being said because of this and because I am surrounded by such fascinating things to look at.  I can look south, straight ahead of me and I can oversee the slope of Mt. Zion down to the City of David.  To my left, east, I look over the Kidron Valley at the face Mt. of Olives and it's million graves where we began this longest day of discovery early in the morning.  It is hard to think that literally within just a few hours we will be on a jet heading west and back to the U.S.A.

One of the surprising things that Dr. Turnage shares with us is that this area where we are seated has a lot of evidence that points to it being the place of the "upper room" that is mentioned on the Day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2.  I am trying to imagine what it must have looked like 2000 years ago.  I study the bricks of the southern wall and notice some bricked up gates with round tops on them.  
Obviously they are pre-byzantine gates that must date to the first century or so.  There is a set of two and then further east down the southern wall is a set of three round top gates that are also bricked up.  

Dr. Turnage speaks much about the history of Pentecost with it's initial start taking place right where we sit.  He invites us to stand and he begins to walk east to the top of the broad stairs and up against the southern wall.  We continue to walk along the southern wall until we are in front of the three round top gates that are bricked up.  These gates as well as the the two previous ones date back to the first century or the time when Jesus himself would have actually been in this very location.  These gates served as access points through the wall of Jerusalem Jews would have walked through to staircases that would have elevated them to the top of the mount where the Temple stood.

As is the case everywhere we have been, the possibility of walking on any surface that Jesus actually walked on has been pretty remote.  Things being built upon previous built layers or things destroyed and removed through the centuries has left little of what was the Israel Jesus lived in.  However, Dr. Turnage points to the paved stones we are standing on.  They are replacements of the original stones that Jesus would have walked on.  Except three.  There are three distinctly different stones directly in front of this three gate opening.  Dr. Turnage tells us that of all the places we have been in Israel and Jerusalem these three stones are the most like location of any that Jesus would have touched as he walked through these very gates.  

This final bit of Dr. Turnage's lecture serves as the punchline of the whole day.  The group surges to see these stones and grab a snapshot, touch them, kneel down on them or just stand on them.  To think Jesus himself, in the flesh standing in this very spot.  The connection to the Bible, to antiquity and Jesus himself is very real.  It makes all the Bible stories of Sunday School and the scriptures much more a reality.  It was a real high point of the day and a good way to end the tour of Israel.

It is now time to head back to our hotels, shower, eat and dress for our flights out of Tel Aviv later tonight.  We all turn to go, descend the stairs, cross the pottery paved plaza and catch our buses that wait on the edge of the road jamming up traffic in the evening rush hour. 

We pause to assist some of the elderly who are clearly played out and can barely walk back to the buses.  I feel the way they do but have enough left to help them and get myself on the bus.

It has been the longest day of the tour both in terms of time spent walking and all that we have taken in.  We could have filled days with just what we touched on in one.  

It doesn't take our buses long to pull into the Jerusalem Ramada where we have been staying since our time in Jerusalem.  We will not sleep here tonight.  We shower, change our clothes and head down to our closing banquet of the tour.

Day 10 Part 5 Underground!

The relief from the heat is immediate as we descend down the steep ladder stairs.  It is quite agreeable below ground being about fifteen degrees cooler.  

Our eyes adjust quickly to the dimmer light which is provided by some make-shift power lines with light bulbs attached to the stone ceiling.  

It is very clear that this is still a very active archaeological site.  Very near the ladder on which we are descending into the dig are metal gates with locks on them with signs in Hebrew / Arab that clearly are warning us to stay out of that area.  

It only makes one wonder what could be so important.  If one were to access that area, it would quickly take you to the area below the "Wailing Wall" portion of the western wall of the temple mount.  Hmmm...

We assemble in a round room with a high ceiling.  We are about 40 feet underground.  

In the center of the ceiling is a square hole.  If you look up into it, you can see the blue sky above.  The curved walls of this room are very smooth and each end has a rough entrance / exit.  It is explained that this was once a cistern. The square hole is where they would lower their water jars down to fill them with water.  When the cisterns were not needed any longer they broke into the with the tunnels to provide a passage way.  There is a series of these cistern / passageways as we walk down the passage.

The history of this area is more than fascinating.  Jews hid in these passage ways when the Romans sacked Jerusalem.  When walking away from the Wailing Wall area the passage way clearly descends downhill.  

Eli, our Israeli archaeologist guide tells us that this very underground passage way ends at the Pool of Siloam we were at only a few days ago.  When Eli discovered the Pool of Siloam, they uncovered the lower entrance to this passageway which had been unknown and sealed off for centuries.  Inside the passage way they found cooking pots and personal possessions of the Jews who tried to hide from the Romans during the destruction of Jerusalem.  This is almost more than I can stand.  How exciting to find such things.  One can only wonder what fate the owners of those artifacts met.  

The passageway was the means by which the pilgrim Jew to Jerusalem would take to the Temple Mount after being purified in the Pool of Siloam.  This way they would avoid being defiled by Gentiles or other things on their way.  Originally, the passage way was a small valley that was on the west side of the City of David.  Over time, it was bridged to allow people to cross over the little valley without having to climb down and then up again to get across.  Eventually the entirety of the valley was covered over creating this underground passage way.  

Our group begins the southward descent underground.  We see below level stones of the temple mount walls that are just as impressive as those above ground.  There are places where it is obvious they are actively digging next to those stones.  

The little paper prayers are stuffed in around the cracks of the stones even here here as they are at the Wailing Wall.  The passageway meanders left and right and back again.  The floor is a bit uneven but very smooth stone.  How many Jews have walked exactly where I am walking?  

Even down below here we have our little blue receivers on so we can hear the running commentary of our guides.  They have a particular destination in mind for us to see down here.  I can't imagine what it could be.  We walk for what feels is quite a ways, hard to tell since we are underground.  The line we are walking in stops and we listen to what our guides are telling us up ahead.  Eli, has identified the very stone of the corner of the temple mount walls.  It juts out into the passage way which makes a dogleg around it.  

We all await our turn to get our pictures taken as we stand beside it.  This takes some time but that's OK as it is quite cool and agreeable to me down here.  

I eventually take my place as I grasp the corner of this great stone.  Since I am now the first one in the entire line, I can look down the passage way ahead of me as it continues it meandering downhill into the distance.  I want to breakaway and run down the passage and emerge at the Pool of Siloam.  Wouldn't it be awesome to have traveled the entire length of the passage?  I can hardly restrain myself.

Indiana Jolie and I take our pictures and then head back to where we began moving against the line of those awaiting to take their pictures by the corner stone.  I am in no hurry to get out of here and instead of feeling claustrophobic in tight quarters underground I feel quite good.  

What I am not looking forward to is the hot, dry air we will return to when we climb the ladder out of here.

We arrive at the place where the ladder will return us back to the terrestrial level just in time to see three of our guides, Eli, Marc Turnage and his wife, Amy unlock and enter the forbidden gate!  Eli obviously has a key!  We are told we cannot go with them and the door is locked behind them.  We are told that this area is highly sensitive to the Arabs and should they find out what Eli has found behind that locked gate that there could very well cause some problems.  The Arabs are very adamant about quashing any evidence of Jewish connection to the Temple Mount.  They would riot if there was found Jewish  artifacts showing Jewish heritage of the Temple Mount.  Our imaginations run wild.  What could possibly be so important back there.  Our eyes strain to see but it is too dark and twisty.  

I decide I will wait in the underground until our guides return.  Maybe they will whisper what they have seen to us.  Others returning from the cornerstone ascend the ladder back up to the surface.  I like where I am.  

After some time, our guides reappear with coy smiles on their faces.  They will not reveal what they have seen other than to say, "it is amazing."  Eli, tells us that were he to reveal what they have found that it would be very possible that we would be on the evening news that night.  And not in a good way.

With our leaders back, we all ascend the ladder.  In reverse from when we came down, the air become warmer and warmer until it is hot and muggy as we emerge from below.  I want to turn back and stay but we have the end of our day close at hand.  The heat of the day is probably at its high point with the sun heating up the stones of the southern wall and the heat reflecting back upon us.  I am withering.

We continue to walk along the southern wall until we approach the broad steps that ascend to the southern wall itself.  Here we assemble again to hear about Acts chapter 2.

Day 10 Part 4 Bagels!

We arrive in the Jewish Quarter through Zion Gate and I already feel at home.

We join a couple of friends for lunch which is up a narrow alley way that I think eventually leads to Jaffa Gate.  It is a little sit in diner that is very tight.  We do manage to get a table but we are sitting so close it feels odd.  The street outside is kind of steep and runs right past the window.  We are half way below the street level as we sit looking at people's legs as they walk by.  

Once again, the service is not fast.  We play it safe and order pizza again just because it seems less confusing than other options and we think we might get it quicker and have a little more time to look around.  Once again we get some glass bottles of Dr. Pepper to go with lunch.  For a place to eat that is hardly bigger than a walk in closet they sure do pack a lot of people in here.

After what seems like a little too long, our food arrives.  It is a little more than the Joseph's Pizza we had the day before which is just around the corner so my appetite is a little more sated than it was after lunch yesterday.  We eat and talk.  Soon we are trying to un-wedge ourselves out of our little booth and we venture into the Christian Quarter once again.  

I stop and go into a little t-shirt shop on the edge of the square.  It has a pretty cool Harley-Davidson design that I decide I am gong to get.  What?  They are out of those.  Would I like something else?  I can't find anything else and knowing that these little shops tend to repeat themselves every so often, I think I might get lucky and find one somewhere else.  

I walk down a busy corridor reading the signs in front of the little shops.  Antiquities, a dress shop, jewelery and what?  A bagel shop?  YES, a real honest-to-goodness bagel shop!  I am full from lunch but I am going to fulfill a wish I have had since day one.  I am going to get a "bagel and a schmear" in Jerusalem.  I step right up and order my bagel and schmear.  They do it up right and I wonder how I am going to eat my prize.  I dive in.  It is heavenly.  The cream cheese must have a high sour cream content and the bagel is warm and toasted just right.  If I wasn't already full it would be even better.  I eat as I wander and notice right across the way there is another bagel shop!  What?  I have hit the only two bagel shops in Jerusalem and they are in the same place!  I do not stop at the other bagel shop as I think I might explode if I eat any more. 

It is really getting warm today and the large square where are to gather offers little shade.  It is perhaps the warmest day we have experienced so far.  We have already walked quite a ways and climbed a number of stairs, combined with the heat I can feel the effects of fatigue already.  I keep the water handy so as not to dehydrate.  

We are assembled and off we go again walking to our next destination, The Davidson Center of Jerusalem and the Archaeological Park.  This area is where the southern wall of the Temple Mount and the western wall meet.   It is much too hard to explain in just words.  You Tube has several great videos.

We don't spend long in the Davidson Center itself, but move to the corner of the the west and south walls of the Temple Mount.  Getting a close up look at the size of the immense stones of the wall is fascinating.  One stone is over 40 feet long and must weigh many tons.  How did they get it up as high as it is on the wall?  I would have put that one on the bottom.  The stones are all random sizes, I assumed they were uniform in size but that is not the case.  They fit so tight that there is no daylight or room between them.  They are all dressed beautifully.  Our Israeli archaeologist guide, Eli found an actual iron chisel at the base of this wall that was used to dress these stones.  It is amazing.  

If you study the corner of the western wall, you will see the last remnants of what is known as the "Robinson's Arch."  Google Robinson's Arch and you will find some great pictures of how it appeared in the first century.

We sit under what was once the arch and examine the very stones and rubble that the Romans pushed off the temple mount in 70 A.D. These large stones sit exactly where the Romans threw them down.  

Right at the corner of the walls there is a very special stone that was once at the top of the walls in the corner.  There is ancient Hebrew writing chiseled on that says something to the effect of: "This is where the Priest stands to blow the trumpet".  It is the actual place where the trumpet were blown to signify the beginning of a feast or other special events.  It is pretty neat to think the priest's feet touched this very stone.

Click on this picture to see the ancient writing on the stone

There is much information to absorb and understand and I don't have my journal to scratch it down.  There is so much to see with so many stones from the wall jumbled up and down the wall.  It is easy to discern old foundations of what must have been shops or rooms among the rubble.  I want to get out a little trowel and metal detector and dig...

We are on our feet again and we head to a little gated off area that we have been sitting next to the whole time with a ladder that goes steeply underground.  We are in for some really neat exploration.

Day 10 Part 3 The Cathedral of St. Anne and Bethesda

We gather in the square in front of St. Anne's Cathedral.  I have no idea who St. Anne is until I read the little sign in front of the church.  Anne was the mother of Mary, the mother of Jesus!  I had no idea anyone knew Mary's mother's name.  It's Anne.  Now you know.  And this is the church named after her.

On the north side of the church square are many ruins and I expect that these will be explained to us.  Many ask about them and Ilan, one of our Jewish guides kind of rolls his eyes and says, "This is the most confusing archaeological site in all of Israel."  "Nobody can make any sense out of it."  I am a little surprised by this and I look with more interest.  With a sweep of his hand Ilan says that so many different eras, styles and ruins are all built on top of each other, different layers of buildings in the "wrong" order, with newer under older and vice versa.  With my newly trained archaeologist eyes I survey the abundant jumble of walls and arches and pillars and such.  It sure looks confusing to me, but then again so does all of the rest of the things we see like this in Jerusalem.  I count four distinct levels of differing eras of construction.

Sure enough, at the very bottom, there is water in what might have been pools at one time.  It doesn't look like it would make anyone well or like the angel has troubled it in quite a while. The archaeologists guess this area is the most like location for the Pool of Bethesda.  How it got to be so confusing is still a mystery.  There are lots of rocks here and Indiana Jolie is in full picture taking mode.  

We move on to the Cathedral of St. Anne.  It is a crusader era structure.  It has immense columns and high arched ceilings with beautiful details.  It is not as adorned with beautiful paintings and the stained glass windows as most of the cathedrals have been.  The interior is only lit by the light coming through the windows and the front doors.  It is cool and the stone columns and smooth stone benches lining the walls feel wonderful after the hot sun we have been under.  

Once again it is suggested that we sing.  It might be my imagination or it might be because of the larger building we are in or it might be because after a few times of singing together that this time we sing it is the most beautiful sound we have made so far.  The reverberating harmonies seem to echo on and on in the domes above us when we pause to take a breath.  Leave it to a large group of Assembly of God church people who have been singing all their lives to make a heavenly sound such as this!  Wow, I could have done that all day.  

After not-long-enough, we leave the cathedral and enter the bright, searing sun once again.  It is discovered that there are restrooms here.  Once again, the people who designed the restrooms do not take any consideration to create modesty angles in their design.  When heading to the men's restrooms you have to walk the hallways that looks straight into the women's restroom.  You don't know this of course until you all of a you sudden realize this.  My recommendation is go to the bathroom before your leave the USA and then just hold it until you get home.  Crazy.

Wow, it has already been a full day and it is just now lunch time.  We are told that we can go to the Christian Quarter for lunch!  Yay!  I have a much better idea of where to go.  I also find a fun surprise...