Israel was the main point of this cruise for us. I realize that 2 days in the Holy Land isn't very long, so to make sure we got a lot out of it, we joined with a LDS tour group on our ship called Bountiful Travel. For any of you considering doing either a Holy Land or Book of Mormon cruise, I highly recommend doing it with Dave Hadlock. He is very knowledgeable but even better than that he is personable and engaging so you don't feel like he's just spewing info at you. Plus if you stand near him you can listen in on all his side conversation with everyone and learn even more.
Getting back to Israel, it was a long 2 days. We got off the ship in Hafia and were supposed to get back on in Ashdod, but the night before they canceled the Ashdod port because of unrest. It didn't change our plans too much.
Mount Carmel
This is where Elijah's confrontation with the priest of Baal took place. The statue is of Abraham sacrificing Jacob.
Synagogue in Nazareth
Next we walked through some street markets to a tiny synagogue that was similar to what Christ spoke in as a youth.
Some of what we saw on the windy passage ways on the way up to the synagogue.
Afterwards, we drove through the city of Cana on our way to the Sea of Galilee
Sea of Galilee
We were able to start our visit here by actually going out on the sea. It was very nice and peaceful. From the middle of the lake you could see Tiberias on a mountain hill. Also, inside the gift shop, there was piece of a boat from that time period.
Capernaum
Capernaum, the city that is supposedly where Peter was from. It is right next to the Sea of Galilee. As we walked around the ruins, we could see the city walls defining how small the town was. The dark stone at the foundation of the walls would have been from his time period.
One of the most interesting things I saw was the below rock. When the
scriptures say it is better to have a millstone hung around you neck. This is
what is referring too. The second picture below is where Peter lived (in the middle one). The Catholic church has build a huge chapel directly on top of this location.
Jordan River
This was an interesting stop. Due to past unrest with neighboring countries, the place where many think Jesus was Baptized is not currently accessible. However, they have erected a memorial at the mouth of the Jordan River for visitors to view. It is interesting because there are groups of people singing and being baptized by almost immersion (they didn't seem to care if they were completely submerged or not). I have never seen anything like it. If you move away from the tourist area, it was very calm and peaceful.
Olive Wood Shop
After getting checked into the hotel and have an delicious (and expensive but included with the excursion) dinner, we headed to an olive wood shop that specializes in LDS carvings. They opened up at 10:30pm just for us. They gave us 50 percent off all their prices which honestly I think they might do for everyone. Then if you buy a lot of pieces they throw in an extra piece or two. It is amazing how an ugly olive tree can be transformed into such beautiful pieces.
*There was also a shop at the hotel that was quoting good prices before we left but tripled the prices once we got back...good thing we bought the pieces at the first one.
Hotel Dan
Our hotel was the nicest place we've stayed in all our trips throughout Europe. They had nice wide beds, TV with English channels, nice bathroom and a beautiful view from our balcony. At night when I flipped on the BBC channel, the coverage was all about missiles flying in Israel by the Gaza strip.
Western Wall
I'll be honest, I didn't know very much about the western wall before taking the tour. We arrive early and there were already many people at the all praying. It is tradition to write a note of prayer on paper then wedge it into cracks and crevices. The notes are collected twice a year and buried on the nearby Mount of Olives. The Western Wall is holiest of sites for the Jews and the remnants of the wall that surrounds Herod's temple.
Garden of Gethsemane
We ended up walking from the Baths to the Garden of Gethsemane because the bus got stuck in the road blocks. Instead of going to the main tourist part of the garden, we walked up a little higher to the Orson Hyde Memorial Park which is also part of the garden.
Garden Tomb
With the bus still stuck, we hiked (up, up, up) around Old Jerusalem and through the police checkpoints to Garden Tomb. We were able to have some background from a volunteer working there, tour a tomb similar to where Jesus would have been, then had our own devotional and sang songs.
Lunch on the Streets
We were given the okay to do lunch on our own or go with the group to a nearby restaurant. We opted for on our own and it was awesome. They had removed one of the checkpoint so that made things a little easier. This nice man (with the white beard) helped us place our order...apparently we aren't aggressive enough. Then some friends from our tour paid for it in shekels so we wouldn't have to change money (we paid her back in dollars). We got a kebab, falafel and a shwarma. I thought the falafel was the best and the bread they wrapped it in was amazing.
In addition to the news camera's shooting, there were people and food vendor all over the the place.
Jerusalem Center
Our last stop was a tour of BYU's Jerusalem Center. In addition to their amazing building, beautiful views and free Sunday concerts, they are known for their pristine restrooms which are said to be the nicest in all of Jerusalem.
Here's our tour group gathering right inside the Jerusalem Center. Our guide, Dave Hadlock, is in the back with the yellow/blue striped shirt.
Police
As mentioned previously, there were missiles flying in the Gaza strip during our visit (one landed 70 miles outside Jerusalem while we were there). The second day in the morning the news say 16,000 troop had been deployed. By the time we were back on the ship listening to the news 72,000 troop had been deployed. The only time I felt unsafe was when I was at the front of our group going through the first road block. I had left my ID/passport on the bus because we were supposed to be going right back to the bus and weren't allowed to have bags at the western wall. They didn't say anything to us though. I'm thankful we were still able to go and tour the Holy Land even it we did miss out on a few locations due to the unrest.
