Arrival

Most of our family and friends seemed quite concerned about our safety in Israel.  Certainly Mom and Dad seemed deeply concerned.  I was also just a bit concerned.  I joked a few times that my plan was to see if Hertz would rent me one of those popular, modified, Toyota trucks, with an optional missile launcher mount in the back.  Wasn't really funny I know. And in an attempt to blend in there, I decided to go with the unshaven, nomadic, lost shepherd look, for the week.

I arrived in Tel Aviv around 5pm on 3/8/15.  Randi had already arrived from India around midnight the night before.  I had to find my prearranged driver and find Stephanie, girlfriend of Randi's co-worker Kevin, who was arriving from Boston around the same time I was.  I had never met Stephanie or our driver, so it turned out to be a little difficult. 

One of the many drivers awaiting their customers was holding a sign with "Moses" on it. I found this to be pretty incredible.  I wanted to imitate Charlton Heston and tell him [in a low hushed voice]... "I'm Moses. And I'm here to bring the people out of bondage and into the promised land"
What a way to kick off the trip this would be!  But I thought it would be best if I could find Stephanie and find our ride to the Daniel Herzliya Hotel first, which we did.

After checking in and waiting for Randi to come back from her office there, Kevin suggested that we walk the boardwalk down the beach, to choose a place for dinner, from a few different options by the marina there.  My first reaction was that maybe walking the beach at night is not the safest thing to do, but Kevin had been there before and he felt pretty confident that it's not a problem.  And he was right. We immediately felt comfortable there and that never changed the whole time we were there.  We would find that all week the boardwalk would be filled with families playing, people out jogging and biking, day and night.  The beach area there was huge and had multiple bars, with padded lounge chairs left out on the beach through the night.

We decided to go to the Derbi Bar, which turned out to be an excellent fish and seafood restaurant, located right across from the marina.  Amazingly, when we sat down the waiters came to us in force.  They brought water and bread...and then 14 small dishes, showcasing many different Mediterranean treats. We were speechless and had a good laugh about that when they left us. 

They were even replacing them as we finished them.  We found out that it was complimentary, if an entree was purchased.  Otherwise it would have been 40 sheckels a person (around $13 a person). It would still be well worth it.  The rest of the trip we looked for the '14 dish' treatment ...and almost found it one other time in Nazareth (around 10 dishes there). My only complaint about the whole experience was that the only tool they could provide to open our shellfish was a shell cracker, with strange and completely useless tiny tongs out in front of it that didn't line up.  It seemed the mysteries of the Middle East were upon us!

Tel Aviv

We had planned to work Monday and Tuesday.  With Randi going into the PTC office there in Herzliya and me workin from Israel ("WFI").

Our hotel room office was nothing too special but it did have one big amenity ...a great view of the Mediterranean.

For my lunch break I decided to walk the beach north, to the Apollonia National Park. What a wonderful work break it was to walk the shoreline and explore, Crusader-style.






Apollonia was nicely located from the hotel, with roughly a 40 minute beach hike there. It was completed deserted when I got there. Just another day of it's ancient existence, quietly eroding, isolated on the coast of the Mediterranean.  It made the experience of seeing it a little more personal, it seemed.






We had dinner with Ziv and Mickey at Claro in Tel Aviv. We parked next to Israeli defense IDF (CIA-like). Apparently they owned a lot of land there

downtown in Tel Aviv and recently returned some of this prime real estate back to the city, so they could put it to better use...and it looks like they really did. There were bars, restaurants, playgrounds and green space there, with no cars allowed to drive through it.  The Claro restaurant was originally a distillery from the 1860s that had been renovated into a really large interesting dining room. The food there was terrific, with noted chef Ran Shmueli and we had a couple bottles of really nice Upper Galilee wine from Shvo Vineyards.
Just a couple days prior to our arrival in Israel they celebrated their Purim holiday.  Ziv and Mickey showed us a couple pictures and told us about their celebrating it with their families, with everyone getting dressed up.
We talked briefly about the mandatory Israeli Army service at the age of 18.  The boys are in for 4 yrs and the girls for around 2 1/2 years.  It sounds like it's life training and the Israeli children grow up a lot there. We also talked about the Iron Dome.  PTC's Creo software is used by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems to assist in providing this military solution. It's believed it has roughly a 90% success rate. It's really impressive that it's in place and functional like it is.  It definitely provides everyone there some sense of security and no matter what the cost, seems worth it.

After dinner we went downstairs to see the original distillery rooms with connecting tunnels.

After dinner Mickey offered to take us on a late night tour ride to Jaffa.  The 4 of us were pretty exhausted from the jetlag still but we all agreed that we should go for sight-seeing ride over to Jaffa while we had the chance.   And it was nice of Mickey to want to continue his long day and show us around more.


It was an interesting ride through Tel Aviv.   It seemed we hit around 20 red lights, which was actually kinda cool.  It allowed us to get a feel for the people and the nightlife there.

Then Mickey said something I had never heard before. Something very deep and very moving.  He was looking off into the distance when he said... "When the sea is in the west, love is on your right".  I sat there and let that sink in for a few moments. Wow, that was deep!  But then I realized I was in the passenger seat, sitting on Mickey's right.  So I said to Kevin in the back seat "this is good for you but not so good for me right now".   Everyone looked at me strangely.  So I repeated what I thought Mickey said.  As it turns out, what I thought was probably some wise ancient Israeli proverb, was actually just a hearing issue I have.  He didn't say "love" is on your right.  He said "the north" is on your right.
Oh, yea...the north is on your right. :)   Man, we had some laughs with that throughout the week.

After a quick walk to see the water, we got back in the car to go back to Herzliya.  I think Mickey sensed we were all tired at that point.  The tour ended peacefully. :)

Herzliya

The four of us met in the dining room and had our extensive Daniel Herzliya breakfast buffet to start the day.  They didn't have any meat but it had almost everything else you could think of... eggs, fruit, yogurt, bread, cereal and some pretty awesome little pastries.  I found that these same little pastries could be found in the business center throughout the day.   The business center also had complimentary beer and wine.  Business was good there!

We all walked to PTC after breakfast.  It was around a 20 minute walk through a residential area of Herzliya before getting to the business area off Market street.  They had a nice spot there in Herzliya, just down the road a little past a new Apple store that recently opened.  And I thought the green space out in front of the office there, was inviting and very well done.

As badgeless PTC representatives, Stephanie and I were able to continue walking onto Arcaffe, a popular coffee location there in Herzliya, recommended by Mickey the night before.

Afterward we went back to work and study in the hotel.  For lunch we met at Yam 7 off the beach boardwalk.  Again the food there seemed very good.  The beach looked very inviting but I was still pretending to be working at that time.

Dinner that night was planned with Hila from PTC.  She picked us all up at the hotel and tok us to Sebastian's in Herzliya.  It was a very nice dinner.  Hela was so nice.  She told us some of her family's history, with her parents who lived in a kibbutz there. We seemed to hear a lot about kibbutz while we were there.  They were pointed out to us by our guide, while on the road, a few different times. Everybody wanted to talk about the kibbutz because if nothing else, it's kinda fun to say.  The word "kibbutz" means group in Hebrew.  It's like a democratic community, where a smaller group of people live and work together. It's like a commune, that we sometimes associate with hippies of the 60s, in that they are attempting to be an economically and socially independent society.   But I don't think these are Hebrew hippies. These folks are said to have played a crucial role in the idealism and development of the State of Israel.  There seemed to be a real sense of romanticism almost, whenever anyone there talked about the kibbutz.  Hila seemed very proud of her parents being an early part of that kibbutz movement.  And we came to know that Israelis are very proud of the State of Israel. It hasn't been an easy road to get there and they certainly should be proud.  It was really great to be able to meet her and hear her family's story.

Again some really good entrees, deserts and wine from the Judean Hills!

Jerusalem

We were really excited to take our first tour and we lined it up to start out with a private tour to Jerusalem.  It would be the six of us taking the tour; Ziv, Mickey, Kevin, Stephanie, Randi and I.

On the drive to Jerusalem we got to sit in a little bit of morning rush hour, which was caused mostly by new construction of the widening of the highway, Route 1.  Apparently there's something drawing billions of people to the center of the earth.

Kevin pulled a few strings and had the hotel provide a boxed breakfast buffet for our day.  So we had tuna and cheese sandwiches for the ride.  But the real star of the boxed breakfast was the chocolate cake!...that's right, for breakfast!  There was no doubt we were on vacation now.

With private tour guide Ori Stern made the first stop at Mount Scopus, where we could get a good view of Jerusalem and be private enough to have Stephanie hold up a map for a long period of time, while he described the different landmarks of the city.

The word scopus means "lookout." in Hebrew.  Scopus is a Latinisation of the Greek word for "watcher", skopos, the same as in the word "telescope".  

Being the overlook of Jerusalem it is, Mount Scopus has been a strategic base location from which to attack the city since antiquity. The Romans camped there in AD 66 and the Crusaders used it as a base in 1099.

From there we took a real short ride over to the popular Mount Olive, where we could view the city a little closer.  That view is like being able to watch all of history play out before you.  Just incredible. I've taken a lot of photos over the years...some say way too many.  But I couldn't capture this like I wanted, no matter how many shots I took.

The Jews believe that the Messiah will arrive in Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives.  The foreground in the pic above shows the oldest continually used cemetery in the world, with the Mount being used as a Jewish cemetery for over 3,000 years.  They said you can still squeeze ya in there and find a plot, if you pay enough money and have the right hat. Jewish tradition holds that the people buried here will be the first to to be redeemed by God and rise up, when the Messiah comes.
When the Muslims took control in the 13th century, they put their graves across the street, even closer to the center of the earth, where they believe the Messiah will come.
I imagine the Christians will be right behind both of them, waiting somewhere in the vineyards of the Judean Hills.

The Golden Gate, is the oldest of the current gates in Jerusalem's Old City Walls. According to Jewish tradition, the Messiah will enter Jerusalem through this gate. To prevent this, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent sealed it off in 1541. However, the Messiah is not expected to have too much trouble with it upon return.

Through the years one of my all-time favorite photographic subjects is Miss Randi Mae.  And while production costs of traveling to Jerusalem for these shots of her on a camel are high, it's well worth it.  I knew Ran would be the one who would down for this.  And her reaction of being on top of the very large, very tall creature, as he stood up, was priceless  :) 

From there we had a quick drive and then walk into the Garden of Gethsemani, located on the lower slope of the Mount of Olives.  This is where it's been written that Jesus went with his disciples to pray after the last supper and where he was betrayed by Judas and arrested.

The Church of All Nations or as it's also known, the Basilica of the Agony, can be found there.  The current basilica was built in the early 1920s but excavations have shown there was a Byzantine basilica on this spot, back in the 4th century. Inside the church is a section of bedrock where Jesus is said to have prayed before his arrest (Mark 14:32-42). There were mosaics on the outside facade and inside showing these moments.

Next we visited the Tomb of the Virgin Mary.  After being in the relatively new and modern Church of All Nations, this Church of Mary, centered around a quarried-out tomb that may date from the first century, was noticeably ancient. The hanging lamps throughout the church were really beautiful, almost enchanting, with the sunlight behind you, as you entered and walked down many steps into the cave.  I think it may have been my favorite site in Jerusalem.


Finally we made our way over to Jerusalem.  We parked near the City of David and entered the Old City of Jerusalem through Dung gate, right near the Western Wall.   Ori found that my camera was the perfect shape to use as a reference to how Jerusalem is laid out. He did this a few times while explaining the Old City to us.  I was so proud of my camera at the time.

We all went up to the Western Wall or Wailing Wall, with the guys going to an entrance on the left and the girls on the right.  The men were studying the Torah, in different levels of dedication.  Some were reading quieting, some chanting and some banging their heads to the wall.  Most of them sitting on cheap plastic chairs you'd find in a food court at the mall.  That part didn't seem right.  Ori gathered us together and asked what we thought of it.  When he looked at me, all I could respond with was "crazy".   I don't understand the Orthodox Jew customs or importance being put on them and just really felt out of place more than anything.

We made our way through the markets of the Jewish Quarter and then into the Muslim Quarter, where we all agreed to stop for a Turkish coffee inside the Suq Al-Qattanin (suq in arabic means market).  The suq was like a football field in length and has an arched ceiling with skylights all the way down.  Many of the skylights appeared to have not had a good cleaning since the decline of the Ottoman Empire and didn't allow a lot of light in.


We all knew right away this coffee wasn't gonna be like having a blended frappuccino, with extra whip, at a familiar and inviting Starbucks.
It was more of a cardamom lowrise, with extra sludge, in a dark alley.  But it was good!


No matter how dark and mysterious this alleyway seemed to be, you couldn't help but notice the extensive gummy bear variety available from the local candy vendor.




We all enjoyed some falafel together as we walked.  The cook looked somewhat like someone who had been a worldwide fugitive, hiding in caves in Afghanistan ...just sayin.

Another stop we made in the streets, was to a very modest bakery that someone said was 900 years old! There we were treated to the Jerusalem bagel, that comes in the shape of a giant oval.  It also came with a little pouch made from newspaper, filled with spices called zaatar, for dipping the bagel into.  It was really pretty awesome.  We all liked it and shared a few of them.

We walked in Jesus footsteps, down the narrow and crowded at time, Via Dolorosa.  Randi told one of the vendors along the way that she was from Minnesota.  This guy was very excited about this and chased her down the alleyway, to show her a binder of laminated pages, with like newspaper clippings and photos, all of it showing that he was somehow involved with the Carlson family from Minnesota. He was very determined to deliver this message. None of us understood what it really was he was trying to say.   We wondered if he had a book like that for every state but I don't think so.  If anything he may have been stalking the Carlson family for much of his life and he wanted to come clean about it...but we wouldn't allow it.

The Via Dolorosa is marked by nine Stations of the Cross, with the remaining five stations being inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The Holy Sceplucure is venerated as Calvary (Golgotha), where Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, and also the place where Jesus is said to have been buried. The church has been an important Christian pilgrimage destination since at least the fourth century, as the purported site of the resurrection of Jesus.  It definitely had more of a feel of an ancient castle, than a church, with small hallways piecing together areas that appeared to be built at different times.

There was a very long line in the chapel called the Aedicule, which contains the Holy Sepulchre itself. The Aedicule has two rooms, the first holding the Angel's Stone, which is believed to be a fragment of the large stone that sealed the tomb; the second is the tomb itself.  Our guide steered us away from spending our time in line to touch the stone and we all agreed.


Also, just inside the entrance to the church is the Stone of Anointing, which tradition believes to be the spot where Jesus' body was prepared for burial by Joseph of Arimathea. However, this tradition is only attested since the crusader era and the present stone was only added in the 1800s.  People were blessing many different items by placing them on the stone. My iPhone 5 was blessed that day...and the battery power seems to have improved since then!

We had a rooftop lunch at the Golden City Restaurant, found in the Suq Aftemos Square, known as the fountain bazaar, in the Christian Quarter.  It provided a nice view of the old city.


After lunch I walked into Yasser T. Barakat's Gallery right across from the fountain because their store front didn't look like another trinket shop. And it wasn't.  It turned out to be the most interesting

shopping experience I had there and really the kind of place I had hoped to find. They had a very interesting collection of old maps & prints (I could stop right there) but also some mysterious looking metalworks of older items from the area?  I had no idea what purpose was for some of them but I had suspicions that buried in the collection was possible a oil lamp previously owned by Aladdin!! As I was asking the owner and his son a few questions about their collections, Ziv and Mickey walked in.  They ended up having a good conversation about politics and the election that was to be held just 2 days after we would return home.  At one point Yassar looked at me, waved his hand and said "Americans don't know anything about what's going on here".  This was a difficult point to argue for me. I mean, what did he expect, John Kerry to come walking in there?  I wish I had like an hour to dig through everything and buy something. But I figured I really don't need another map and anything other than a magic lamp wouldn't make much sense to try to pack for the return trip.  So I got their card and figure maybe I can get something online from them. If I do, I'll be sure to mention that I'm the American who predicted Netanyahu's Likud party would win the election.


We exited from Zion Gate.

That night, after an amazing tour, it took all the effort the 4 of us had left, to have dinner at Joya (Italian) in Herzliya.

Sea of Galilee and Nazareth

Our Sea of Galilee tour was a private tour, with just the 4 of us, with tour guide Naftali Shoshani.

We started our day with a drive to Megiddo, known under it's Greek name as Armageddon. We drove there via Route 65, through a gloomy light rain ...seemed appropriate for the venue.  We listened to Naftali mostly tell ancient and ominous stories of war in the area.  He quoted the Book of Revelations, Chapter 16, verse 16 to us "And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon."

Not only would Naftali be giving us a history lesson today but we'd also be breaking down many words, for their core meanings.

Along the way he explained that their land is blessed with 7 foods ...olives, grapes, figs, dates, pomegranate, wheat, barley.  And in bible times desert milk was goat cheese and honey was made of dates.

Naftali recommended reading James Michener 'The Source' and I hope to read it soon.

Megiddo lies somewhere in between Egypt and Mesopotamia on the Eerron Pass. Because of this strategic location, Megiddo was the site of several historical battles. Megiddo is mentioned in Ancient Egyptian writings, when Egypt waged war upon the city in the 15th century BC. The battle is described in detail, with the word Megiddo probably being broken down for it's meaning, in the hieroglyphics found on the walls of an Egyptian temple.

There we watched a film, walked the ruins and then walked through long tunnel with a steep staircase, dug in 9th century BCE!, to bring water into their fortress there. The tunnel was a bit of a white knuckle event for Ran.  As we exited the tunnel Naftali met us there with the car and forced us to eat the white mustard plant.   He also pointed out the Mediterranean Red bud or Judas trees.


From there we drove to Nazareth and had a coffee at a small but beautiful little spot there called the Rosemary Cafe. It seemed like a type of trendy, yuppie hangout you might find in California.

We saw a young guy there who has created a backpacker adventure company called "The Jesus Trail", where I believe they have identified, groomed and guided hikers from Nazareth to Capernaum. I believe I saw this featured in cnn.com previously.
How incredible would that be to make that trek.

"He left Nazareth and went to live in Capharnaum by the sea" (Gospel of Matthew 4:13)




We visited the Greek Orthodox St Gabriel ...church of the spring.



Then we walked through the colorful city of Nazareth.





The wall graffiti was from an artist, Naji al-Ali, who was famous for the 'Handala' cartoon. Handala was known to carry the voice of Palestine at the time and is still a symbol of Palestine today.  Sadly, the artist was assassinated in the 1980s in London, at the newspaper office he worked at. 

We went into the Church of Annunciation (cave of Mary).

Naftali said we were "connecting the stories" but I couldn't help but notice that nobody mentioned Joseph. Nobody!

We continued to walk through the streets. We had olives from a street vendor. Walked through the market alleys. Visited an old coffee shop and an old grocery.








Finally Nalfali asked us about where we'd like to eat.  He said "would we rather have a kind of fast food gyro-type shawarma sandwich here in the city or drive just outside of Nazareth to a really nice restaurant I know of ?"  I asked him if it was a trick question.  I mean I know he was wondering if we wanted authentic street food but the right answer seemed so obvious.  And to go to Naftali's restaurant recommendation definitely turned out to be the right answer.  Besides..."can anything good come from Nazareth" (John 1:46)

So we drove out of Nazareth for great lunch at 'the oven' (Altanur).  It was another '14 dish'-type experience. Just some phenomenal flavors...and it was attached to a gas station!


The weather improved throughout the day and by the time we drove up to the Sea of Galilee, it was beautiful out.  We drove by the fortress looking cliffs of Mount Arbel.  I didn't know the name until we returned home.






Our first stop was Mount of Beatitudes.  This is believed to be the hill where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount.






Naftali brought a Bible with and Kevin volunteered to read there...

   Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
   Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
   Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
   Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
   Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
   Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
   Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
                                                                                           (Matthew 5:3-9)

It was a nice moment, with a real feeling for the message Jesus delivered there.
The truly fortunate people are not those who have money, power, popularity or fame but those who are blessed with what is important in God's kingdom.

From there we drove to the north end of the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum ...also known as Tell Hum, Khirbet Karazeh, Bethsaida, Capharnaum, Chorazin, Kefar Nahum, Kafarnaum, Kefar Tanhum, Talhum, Tanhum and then the lesser known, of Petersville.

Jesus made Capernaum his home during the years of his ministry.   Peter, Andrew, James and John were fishermen living in the village.  Matthew, the tax collector there.

We saw the remains of a 4th-century synagogue, with some beautiful stone carvings.

There was excavation area showing the layout of a 1st-century city there. And a modern octagonal Catholic church is there.  It looks somewhat like a spaceship.  It was built over the remains of a 5th-century octagonal Byzantine church. The Byzantines constructed their church directly
on top of the walls of, I'm guessing, an octagonal house, with the aim of preserving what they believed was, the ruins of the House of Peter.






We left there driving south next to the Sea of Galilee, on route 90.  Naftali said it was the longest road in Israel, going north into Lebanon and south down along the Dead Sea and into Egypt.

 He spoke about the origin of the word "orientation".  It is to look for the sun as a reference in the east, towards the "orient".


We were beginning to feel like word smiths at this point.  It reminded me of the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding..."da root of da word".


We had time to listen to Naftali tell us many more yarns about Jewish history.  Stories of antiquity, as well as current events.  He tried to explain the ongoing Syrian civil war but it's really difficult to understand it without knowing their cultures, where the people came from, who conquered who in the past and just  thousands of years worth of disagreements.  And it sounds like there are many different armies or groups involved.  When he provided some details, it's hard to believe the people involved in this war wouldn't have difficulty understanding who and why they are fighting.


During our drive back to the Daniel Hotel in Herzliya we saw some incredible cloud formations.  I started to feel like they might have more meaning in the holy land ?  It sure felt like they did at the time.

It looked as though a giant magic lantern was forming in the sky.  Possibly representing the Ark of the Covenant?

Then it really appeared as though the power grid had caught fire on the side of the road.  Ya hadda wonder..."we're not driving back to Armageddon are we ?"   But everything was fine...just our imagination.