Day 16 - the tour concludes

Today was the last day of the tour and we all met in the lobby to get an update on the general airport strike that was planned to close Ben Gurion Airport this morning on top of the El Al strike that would effect most of the people on the tour. The great news is that the strike was called off at midnight so there was much relief at breakfast. The food manager looked after us and, even though we were rushing because of our 8:00am start, he still introduced us to "svinch" which is a Moroccan donut that swims in strawberry jam after being deep-cooked in hot oil. It's kinda like a Polish paczki so we're talking a massive cholesterol hit!! But we got stuck into the plate full of them before we rolled onto the mini-bus for our last day together.

So we waved goodbye to Eilat and headed to Tel Aviv. The first stop on the way was a visit to Mitzpeh Ramon to spend time at the Ramon Crater. It is 3,000 feet above sea level and, in the midst of the Negev Desert, it snowed on this place during this last winter. Snow in the desert - funny that.

Next stop is a visit to kibbutz Sde Boker where we saw David Ben Gurion's Hut and his grave. We looked out over the amazing Valley of Zin, where Ben Gurion spent many a reflective moment.

Then it was time for lunch which was spent at Mamshit Bedouin Camp. Some of us went for a quick camel ride (no, not me, they were butt ugly) before entering a Bedouin tent for a traditional meal.

The last stop of the day (& the tour) is the Air Force Museum at Hatzerim. We received a tour of the museum and gained an understanding of the machinery that Israel has put into the air since independence in 1948.

Then we fight peak hour traffic coming into Tel Aviv and get dropped off at our hotels, the same hotels from where we were picked up when the tour journey began two weeks ago.

Lots of goodbyes tonight as everyone else plans for their departure from Israel.It has been an amazing experience for me, to meet such wonderful travel buddies, to have a guide like Uri to introduce me to Israel, and for me to experience this great country. It has been a more emotional experience than I would have ever imagined and I will leave knowing more, understanding more and feeling more about Israel.

Since the next few days is about "me time" catching up with Nao, Debbie and Rosy this will be the last blog update, so I'll see you all in Sydney next week. In the meantime the weather will be warming up over here over the next day or two, before I have to face the impending Sydney winter. 

David Ben Gurion's grave overlooking the Valley of Zin

Driving towards the top of the Ramon Crater

Lunch in the Bedouin tent 

Days 14 and 15 - From the cold of Jerusalem to sunny Eilat

Greetings from Eilat. Israelis call this place the Israeli Riviera but to me it's more like Israel's Las Vegas by the (Red) Sea.

Yesterday we waved goodbye to cold, windy and wet Jerusalem (yes, it really started to pour as we were packing up the bus to hit the road). But an hour or so along the way the weather started clearing and once we'd made our first stop, in the middle of nowhere to get fuel for the mini-bus and stretch our legs the rain had cleared and it was warming up. Yes, we've swapped the big 43-seater bus which worked when we had 39 people touring to the small 15-seater now that there are only 10 of us heading south. There is no talk on the bus about the fact that two missiles landed in Eilat last week so I wasn't going to start that conversation. The biggest talking point is the fact that the staff at El-Al and Israel's two internal airlines have gone on strike. Since all the group, except me, is flying out tomorrow night or Wednesday morning and all of them are booked one of the three airlines there is much hectic emailing going on to their travel agents! The talk is that the airlines are out until at least Wednesday to make a point to the Government about the Minister's decision not to increase subsidies to allow greater price competitiveness. The airlines want to attract more patrons on the Israeli carriers without compromising the high levels of security but need Govt help to reduce their prices.

As we're heading down Highway 90 we make a quick stop by the road-side to look at a rock formation (& there are a lot of rocks around here - we're in desert country) called Lot's Wife, a symbolic memory of Lot's wife turning to stone (ok, so you have to use your imagination a bit when you see the rock to "see" the picture!)

Our first real stop of the day is Timna Valley Park - a copper mine from Egyptian times. Uri says that this is the Israeli Grand Canyon because the valley was formed millions of years ago when the rivers flowed through the area. As the river levels dropped the path of the river and the erosion that the water caused in the rocks created this valley. We look at three different rock formations (remember, this is desert country - lots of rock formations!) - the lizard, the mushroom, and Solomon's Pillars. This last site is actually a formation of three now-dry waterfalls.

We drive on into Eilat. How strange is this - the town has established itself as a free trade zone and doesn't charge sales tax on any purchase so fuel, clothes, and food are all much cheaper than anywhere else we've been. On the outskirts of town and overlooking Jordan's airport we spot Israeli missile launchers, armed, just back for the road - this is the first time we've seen any military presence since we've been here.

We drive through town and on to the Underground Observatory Marine Park where see ........ fish. Ok, we saw some sharks and turtles too, but mainly we saw ........ fish. After an hour of looking at ......... fish, we get dropped off at the Dan Panorama Eilat for our two night stop-over. Seven of the 10 of us are staying there. So they get us all to fill out the registration paperwork, they scan our passports, they take imprints of our credit cards .... all the standard stuff. Only then they tell each of us that they have a surprise for us ..... they have no rooms for us (didn't they know that up front??). The good news is that we're all being upgraded to their 5-star hotel, the Dan Eilat, for the two nights. The beachfront promenade is divided into two halves with a lovely bridge in between. Basically we've been moved from the "plebs" 4-star end of the promenade to the posh 5-star end, and judging by the types of shops on both halves there IS a difference!!

The Dan Eilat is superb and we feel almost embarrassingly out of place here. Unlike our experience at the Crowne Plaza at the Dead Sea there seem fewer Russian-speaking Israelis here and more Hebrew-speaking Israelis. Breakfast is on until 12:00pm - a dangerous thing when I'm around! I stay for over an hour at breakfast but manage to sample less than a quarter of what's on offer! I must be losing my touch. Everyone else on the tour is off to Petra today. I had already decided that I preferred to have a rest day today and knowing that I'm spending it in 5-star comfort makes the decision feel even better.

We return to Tel Aviv tomorrow afternoon after stopping at three places on the way and that's where the tour will officially end of those of us still on it, and then the rest of the week will be mine to spend on my own before I fly out next Sunday.

"The Lizard" rock formation

Lot's Wife

Room view from Dan Eilat

Solomon's Pillars

Fish at Underwater Marine Park

Days 12 and 13 - Masada and the Dead Sea Area, and Shabbat in Jerusalem

Friday.
Yay, we're heading off to warmer weather!! Today will mainly be spent on the bus, travelling out to the Dead Sea area and back so we're up and at it at 7:40am. That's not a big challenge for me because I know that I'll be asleep on the bus within 5 minutes of being picked up. And so it came to pass .....!!! The first stop (after my half hour sleep that brings applause from everyone else on the bus because I now have the regulation of sleeping more on the bus than anyone else) is at Qumeran, the site where the Dead Sea scrolls were found. After a nice walk in the sun around the ruins of the town ( and the obligatory visit to the souvenir shop - actually a large one, and, yes, I finally buy some goodies there) we continue south to visit Masada.

Out of the window if the bus as we travel, what can I say - now this is desert!! And yet the Israelis have managed to provide enough irrigation to plant thousands of date trees - it really is amazing to see these dark-leaved trees spring up in the midst of rubble and rock, rubble and rock (I'm sure you get the picture). And then our tour guide Uri prepares us for Masada. Wow, what a site for a resistance fortress. It's big.

One of our group decides he wants to walk up the track to the top. The rest ride the cable car and start the tour - our walker reaches us 45 minutes later; he looks hot and bothered - actually we do too, but the sun is kind enough to hide behind clouds every so often to make it more bearable for the only idiot that his cap on the bus! The two hour tour provides me with a chance to take around 150 photos - it's an amazing location for a movie - oh yeah, there was one made here and many of the rehearsal areas are still visible down on the ground as we look down. The tour takes us to the ancient synagogue of Masada and onto explore all aspects of the ancient fortress. Here was the last struggle of the Jewish Zealots in their struggle against the Romans.. The Zealots held out for three years against legions of Flavius Silva and chose to die as free men at their own hands in preference to Roman slavery.

After the tour we have another cable car ride down to the bus - these are no small cable cars, they hold 80 passengers each (that's before lunch - I'm sure after an Israeli lunch each cable car would probably max out at 60 people).

So, back on the bus to head to the lowest point on the surface of the earth - the Dead Sea is 398 mtrs below sea level. But we're not heading to just part of the Dead Sea. Oh no, not us, we're going to a US$500 a night hotel with it's own private beach onto the Dead Sea. So we stop at the Crowne Plaze Hotel to have a smorgasbord lunch that brought tears to our eyes and 10kgs to our stomach-line! Some of the tour went for a swim to feel the buoyancy that 39% salt content can provide (compared to 7% in our normal swimming oceans). The rest of us took advantage of the Hotel's facilities and just sat around the pool in sun-lounges on beds of artificial and very green synthetic grass. It's sad to find out the water levels are dropping on the Dead Sea and what was once one Sea has already broken into two water areas as a sand-bank has been created by the falling waters.

After a few hours there it was back on the bus, saying goodbye to the 30C sunny weather to head back to Jerusalem where the temp was 14C and the skies were grey and gloomy. Uri, our tour guide, books a group dinner (it's Friday night, the beginning of Shabbat, so the hotel dinner rate is US$75 a head) at a fabulous place called Focaccia, which was walking distance from the hotel, where I finally had a slab of meat - a beautiful cut of steak prepared magnificently).

Then back to the hotel for a long night's sleep.

Saturday.
Today is a leisure day so it was a slow start. No buses to rush for, no breakfasts to gobble down. So a group of us met up at 11:00am to walk through the Mamilla Mall (which was pretty empty since no shops are open on Shabbat) and through the Jaffa Gate of the Old City. The weather today was cold, showery with a biting wind that made it feel like about 8C. We walked through the markets in the Muslim quarter which were doing a brisk trade and onto our second visit to the Western Wall. We thought that being there on Shabbat would be something special but we'd pretty well missed the action and there was only a small minyan being held by the Chabad group (wisely under cover to one side of the Western Wall). But I've got to say it was still very special to be there again. The rain held off until we got back under the partial cover of the market stalls so we found a place to be ripped off for lunch called Friends Restaurant where paid too much for a typical Israeli meal. But the restaurant was amazing inside so I don't think we minded too much that as we were charged more than we should have been. These places have no menus and therefore no prices displayed - the guy seemed to be making up our bill in his head when it was time to pay. But the food was fresh so it was all good.

We all went our separate ways after lunch so we could shop at our own pace. At one stage it began bucketing down but, as has been the case all tour, the rain passed in 2 or 3 minutes and then I walked back to the hotel for a two-hour afternoon nap.

We have heard that departure from Israel can be a big deal, with lots of queuing at security check points so I've booked a VIP express departure service that will escort me through the process without having to queue up. It's the same service I had provided to me on arrival and I think it will save me an hour or so of queuing when I leave.

Tonight a smaller group of us (many have left the tour already) went together for dinner (didn't I just eat lunch??). The weather and outside temperature helped us decide to eat at the hotel's dining room. We have to pack our suitcases again tonight because we're off, tomorrow morning to the warmer climate of Eilat for two days. It'll be nice if the Syrians don't send any missiles over the border (which they did earlier this week)!

The view from Qumeran. The Dead Sea is just visible below the sky on the horizon 

Mamilla Mall on Saturday - all shops closed but a thoroughfare to the Jaffa Gate of the Old City

Masada - taken from the bus window

The Crowne Plaza Hotel at the Dead Sea

Our tour guide, Uri, explaining the significance of sitting in the ruins of the synagogue at Masada

Friends Restaurant in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City

The grey skies made the Dome of the Rock stand out behind the Western Wall

Day 11 - Out and About in Jerusalem

Another 8:00am start and we were off to tour around Jerusalem. First we drove past Mea Shearim where the ultra-orthodox hang out. Because they mostly don't own cars they're very dependent on public transport. But because of their orthodox lifestyle provisions have bee made to accommodate their needs. We're all used to buses having route numbers on them - well here there is a bus number of a bus going through the ultra-orthodox area that can only be used by women and one bus number that can only be used by men. There is also a bus number where the bus has a front and rear door - women must use the back door and sit in the back of the bus and men must use the front door and sit at the front of the bus.

Our first stop today is at Ammunition Hill, a memorial that was established after the Six-Day war in 1967 and Jerusalem was taken back from Jordanian control. it is a memorial to the paratroopers who have lost their lives fighting for Israel's existence. It still has the trenches used by the Jordanian fighters during the fight. It's hill position overlooking Jerusalem made it a difficult site to regain control of. We saw an excellent multi-media presentation that described the troop movements during the Six-Day war and how this hill, that housed so much of the Jordanians' ammunition, was taken back.

Next stop was Israel's House of parliament, The Knesset. Security is a bit tougher there than it is at Australia's Parliament House, so there was no popping in for a chat with the politicians. It's a strangely plain building (hence no photos), but just outside is the Menorah with the biblical emblems on it.

Next up was the Israel Museum. We were taken through the Shrine of Book Museum, where the Dead Sea scrolls are housed, and the Holy Land model, a miniature replica of Jerusalem as it was at the time of the Second Temple period. It is actually built from limestone consistent with the material used to construct nearly all of the buildings here.

Then the big one - Yad Hashem, the most famous Holocaust Museum in the world. It is intensely moving experience with a huge display of static reminders of mankind's darkest period, inter-mixed with many, many video interviews with Holocaust survivors. On the same site we also visited the Children's Pavillion which is in itself a haunting and desperately sad commemoration to the 1.5 million children murdered by the Nazis.

The energy in the bus after that was flat, sad and tired. I could only stay at the Museum for a little over 2 hours because it had such a huge impact on me, given my parents' plight during the war and the desecration of my grandparents' family on both my mother's and father's side.

So I joined the rest of the tour to visit the Chagall windows in the synagogue inside the Hadassah Hospital. Every pane of the twelve windows is a microcosm of Chagall's world, real, and imaginary, with vivid imagery, symbolism and his unique floating figured.. the windows took two years to make. The synagogue was dedicated in 1962 in Chagall's presence. He drew his inspiration from the Bible, particularly Jacob's blessings upon his 12 sons and Moses' blessing on the 12 tribes.

Many of the tour headed to the light show at King David's Tower but I just joined them for dinner in a restaurant at Mamilla Mall and then headed back to the hotel. Tomorrow we're on the road and heading for warmer weather as we go to the Dead Sea area.

Ammunition Hill

The Menorah outside The Knesset

The entrance to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum

Day 10 - The Old City of Jerusalem

So today was going to be the day of walking - and we did. Other than a 30-minute lunch break we walked from 8:30am through 5:00pm. Tired at the end? You bet.. We climbed up steps, down other steps, walked inside in tunnels, and outside in markets and archaeological sites.

The weather was windy, cold and showery when left the hotel but we might as well have been in Melbourne because no sooner were we caught in a shower of rain then we'd be sweating in the sun, and five minutes later shivering in the cold wind. But, really, it showered for no more than 10 minutes all day which was so against the weather forecast. And we were happy about that.

We started the day at Mt. Zion where we visited the tomb of King David and then we walked back to enter the walled city and the Jewish Quarter, which was constructed after the city was unified at the conclusion of the Six-Day War in 1967.

We then stopped at the Cardo, meaning the "heart" of this Byzantine city. We saw the ancient Roman thoroughfare and marketplace lined with columns.

Then we visited the four Sephardic synagogues in one cluster building in the Jewish quarter, all of which have been beautifully restored.

No time for coffee breaks because it was time head down the stone stairway, past our first security check, down to the holy Western Wall - the Kotel.

In front of the Kotel is an incredible labyrinth of tunnels, arches and passageways that have remained untouched for centuries.  We visited the incredible excavation of the "Underground Rabbi Tunnels" of the Western Wall and then continued onto the Southern Wall excavations. Here we visited the Davidson Centre, one of the most significant archaeological sites in Israel.

Then via the Muslim Quarter markets we took our half-hour lunch break at a cafe that advertised "the best pizza in Jerusalem" - well i hope they're wrong about that otherwise Jerusalem is in pizza trouble. But we drank it down with freshly squeezed lemon & grapefruit juice with fresh mints sprinkled on top. now that was worth going there for.

once lunch was over we moved as a group to the Western Wall, but with time for each of us to spend at the Wall in our time of prayer or reflection. This is what many people came on the whole tour to experience. For me, after getting over the fact that the Wall that is above ground was very much smaller than I had imagined, I found it was a strangely emotional few minutes for me at the Wall and a time that I will never forget. After that we re-assembled as a group for a group photo with everyone's camera (that's 39 photos!) before heading off.

We moved next to the Jewish Quarter's markets for some free time for shopping, although my priority was finding a place for a decent cappuccino - I didn't realise how much I miss my coffee during the day. We also saw the large mural of the Cardo with many of us having our photos taken to blend in with the painting.

The last stop on this day was to walk out of the Old City via the Jaffa Gate to visit David's Tower Museum and see the ancient remains of the city beginning with the first Temple period.

Tonight, for me, it's a get-together with my friends Nao, David, Debbie and another couple visiting from Melbourne and that will be a lovely way of relaxing after a pretty hectic and emotional day.

King David's statue

Another King David? No, it's just me, at the Wailing Wall

Davidson Centre site

Day 9 - Heading For Jerusalem

Luggage packed, we were out the door of Kibbutz Lavi Hotel and back on the road.

First stop was a visit to Tiberius where we spent some time at the grave of Rambam where we each lit a memorial candle.

Back on the bus, the next stop was to the largest ongoing archaeological dig in Israel, Beit Shean. We spent nearly an hour going through the site looking at the bath-house, colonnaded Roman streets, mosaic pavements and Roman performance theatre and the sports amphitheatre (where was Russell Crowe hiding?). In that hour we experienced our first shower of rain but it only lasted about 10 minutes and then the sun came back out again. We've been so lucky with the weather although it is the time of the year that the weather should be warming up and the chances of rain reducing.

From there we travelled to Beit Alpha to see the beautiful mosaic floor of the Byzantine synagogue. To stand in places that are thousands of years old is quite a strange experience considering how young Australia. And to be here on Independence Day and get the feeling of the strength of the national pride here is also something beautiful to experience.

And we saw that in full view at our next stop, the Gan Hashlosha, which located at the foot of the Gilboa mountain, the famous mountain where King Saul was killed in the battle against the Phillistines. Some of our group went for a swim in the water which they said was quite warm, and the gardens were packed with families having BBQs, teenagers playing games on the grass, lots of sound, music and laughter.

Of course the downside of today being a public holiday was that every place the tour organisers would normally use for lunch were all closed so we finished up at a roadside diner connected to a petrol station. But food is plentiful and great in Israel so we still had a huge meal at little cost.

Then it was back on the bus for the uphill drive to Jerusalem which also gave me the chance to grab an hour's sleep on the bus.

On arrival in Jerusalem we were taken straight up to Mt Scopus (which is more than just a school in Melbourne - who would have known?) where we had a group Sheyichyanu blessing. It was an intensely emotional experience for me as this whole trip has been. Uri, our guide, had some beautiful words to say to us as a group and then came over for a private l'chaim with me which almost had me lose it completely. Because I am the only person travelling alone, I've become the tour "mascot" (as well as the tour photographer, apparently) and I've really appreciated the way everyone has made sure that I'm involved in whatever is going on - not that I'm backwards in coming forwards anyway on the tour but the Americans seem to be enjoying having an Australian accent at the table.

Then we were all dropped off at our chosen hotels. For me, it's the Dan Panorama, Jerusalem, which is not quite as nice as the sister hotel in Tel-Aviv, but it might be that the room is not that big or facing a view as my room was in Tel Aviv. but it's still nice and after I unpacked (we're here for 6 nights) I set off to explore the area around the hotel. I found my way to an upmarket shopping galleria called Mamilla Mall. Wow, what a place! An outdoor corridor/arcade with shops on either side with a second level that I didn't even get to on this visit - a combination of high-priced jewellery shops and nice fashion shops, together with quite a few eating places. I chose a low-end franchise cafe called CafeCafe. I have been desperate for a decent cappuccino since I've been in Israel and tonight I had one. The cannelloni was also great but the coffee was such a welcome part of the meal.

Off to bed early tonight because the whole tour day tomorrow will be on foot.

RamBam's grave. Men and women are separated (in this case by a wall the divides the grave), as they are in any religious setting.

Speeding past the Sea of Galilee; this winter's rain has seen the water level rise from 17' below capacity to just 3' below now

These columns are 2,000 years old!

A lunchtime swim (for some) at Gan Hashlosha

Standing at Mt Scopus with the Dome of the Rock just visible in the distance to the left of my head

Day 8 - travelling north along the borders

Another 8:00am start to the day, and today we're off to the religious and artistic town of Tzfat, one of the four Holy Cities, and the home of Kabalistic studies. We visited the amazing (no other word to describe it) artisan market, walking through a narrow lane way with artist's studios all along the way. We saw micro-calligraphy artwork, hand-woven religious clothes, ceramic art, brass and copper art works and acrylic painting using 24-carat gold mixed with the paint. We also visited the Joseph Caro and Ha' Ari synagogues looking at the damage caused by previous bombings of the town.

Tzfat has many narrow and winding roads and the bus driver showed great skill in manoeuvering along the roads and into tight parking area. We were in Tzfat at 11:00am when the two-minute siren sounded as a memorial to the fallen soldiers. Because there is an important cemetery in Tsfat there was a memorial service there at 11:00am and that caused a bit of a car-parking challenge. So much so that when we ready to leave town a car which had parked too close to one of the bends in a narrow exit road blocked the departure of the tourist buses. Traffic was quickly building up so what do they do?  Our bus driver, together with our tour guide and another driver who couldn't get past tried pushing the car out of the way. Within minutes 10 soldiers who had been at the cemetery came to help and together they picked the car up and moved it 2 metres onto the footpath so that the traffic could get through. Only in Israel ......

From there we went drove through the Golan Heights, stopping at an observation point over the city of Kineitra looking at the UN offices set up to manage the demilitarised zone. We saw Israeli intelligence observation posts set up on a dormant volcano.

Then it was off for a quick lunch and onto Banias Falls which gave us a bit of a workout walking sown about 100 rock stairs to walk down to the falls and of course the same walk back! The falls run from the foot of Mt Hermon through to the River Jordan. And the photos were worth it. The weather was still warm today ahead of 4 or 5 days of showers so the walk was hard work.

Next we were off for a 4WD adventure to travel down the Hula Valley to the River Jordan. And it really was an adventure as we got thrown around the back of the vehicle. We had the chance to take some photos at one of the bridges that crosses over the River Jordan.

Then back to a kibbutz Lavi Hotel for a v-e-r-y subdued Independence Day celebration dinner (a single glass of wine!) then off to bed.

Bomb shrapnel damage to buildings in Tzfat

Banias Springs waterfall

Hula valley near the Syrian border

Our 4WD adventure

Watch where you walk!