Israel
From April 18th to 23rd, 2023
Day 1
We entered into Israel by driving across Yitzhak Rabin Border Crossing from Jordan. The drive from Amman was less than 2 hours and the crossing itself took about 45 minutes for ‘processing’.
Once we got picked up by our guide, we hopped into our tour car and began our tour of Israel on the Jordan River at Yardenit. On the south side of Sea of Galilee, we watched people getting baptized in the river. We decided to do a spontaneous baptism ourselves while in the incredible and sacred place of where Jesus was said to have been baptized by John.
After our bath in the Jordan River we stopped for lunch in Tiberius at an incredible local place Israeli place on Hayarden Street 29 called שיפודי רחמים שמחה ובניו (there was no English name). Our guide picked it for us as we told her we wanted delicious food and local.
After our incredible meal we made our way to Capernum, hailed as ‘the town of Jesus’. Capernum was swarming with tourists all wanting to see the Galilean place where Jesus spent his ministry and performed many of his miracles. Before leaving the attraction we spent time on the grotto area to enjoy the breathtaking views of the Sea of Galilee.
Just a 10-minute car ride away from Capernum, we found our way at the Mount of Beatitudes where we toured the Church of the Beatitudes and had moments of reflection while reading The Beatitudes.
We drove about 40 minutes south of Galilee to make a quick stop in Nazareth and visit the Basilica of the Annunciation. The basilica exists because it’s the alleged place where Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel and learned the news that she would bear God's Son. This church was designed by architect Antonio Barluzzi, hailed as the ‘architect of the holy land’. We visited a few more of his masterpieces in our future Israeli excursions.
Just spending about 20 minutes in Nazareth, we headed to conclude our day in Jerusalem. We drove along the Palestine border along the 1949 Armistice Agreement Line. We checked into our King David Hotel around 6pm that night, enjoyed the view of the city walls from our balconies, ordered room service and called it a night.
Day 2
Our full day tour of the Old City Jerusalem started at a lookout point near Wadi Al Joz. We got out of the car for an aerial view explanation of the locations of certain places in the Jerusalem city walls. We were facing the eastern wall and little by little walked down the hill and into the gates of the city alongside Jewish cemeteries. One of the cemeteries we walked through was next to the Dominus Flevit Church, which also boasted beautiful views of Jerusalem.
We stopped at the Garden of Gethsemane, which is 100% factually known to be the place where Jesus and his disciples waited the night of the last supper before Jesus’s capture. Antonio Barluzzi, that incredible Italian architect, also helped bring the church here to life. This was perhaps everybody’s favorite church in all of Jerusalem.
After leaving Gethsemane, we entered Jerusalem through the east wall which is right next to the Muslim quarters. We tried to enter through their ‘neighborhood’ but we were denied entry. We didn’t ask questions why.
We then found ourselves on the same pilgrimage walk that most Christians who come to Israel choose to walk and explore. The first station on Lions Gate Road Street. After we left the first ‘station’ on the walk, a man across the street offered to let us use his property to go look at the dome on top of the rock or Temple Mount, in the Muslim quarters. We went up a few stairs into a vacant schoolyard and where we had a clear view of the monument.
We next continued on Via Dolorosa along the ‘stations’ to trace the steps of Jesus. This link does a good job of summarizing the spots we went inside Jerusalem: https://www.terrasanctamuseum.org/en/discover-more/the-fourteen-stations-of-the-sorrowful-way/
We had lunch at a local Israeli place on Via Dolorosa right in between stations 8 and 9. It was a vegetarian restaurant; we had hummus, falafel, pita & salads of all kinds.
On our way to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, we found our way on the top of the church and discovered an Ethiopian monastery on top of the church called Deir es-Sultan. After passing through the monastery and 2 Ethiopian churches we finally made our way down into the church that is ‘recognized’ as the biblical place of the crucifixion and the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth. Visiting the church is part of a pilgrimage that Christian’s worldwide seek to do in their lifetime. Once inside, we saw the places ‘marked’ as the crucifixion spot as well as Jesus’s tomb.
After seeing the holy church, we walked to Mount Zion to see The Upper Room and King David’s Tomb.
As the day wrapped up, we walked through the Jewish quarter and saw Israeli F15 fighter jets flying above, performing a flyover training for the Remembrance Day and Independence Day upcoming holidays.
Next we stopped by to pay our respects to the Western Wailing Wall. “The Western Wall is one of the four supporting walls of the Temple Mount that remained intact after the destruction of the Second Beit HaMikdash-The Second Temple. It is the wall that faces westward, and it is the closest in proximity to the site of the Holy of Holies, the most sacred location in the Temple for the Jewish people.” - thekotel.org
We finished the day with a tour at the Garden Tomb, a modern day interpretation of where Jesus’s final resting place might actually be. See more here: https://gardentomb.com/
Day 3
Another busy day in Israel started with a 2-hour tour of the Holocaust Museum. We had only a short window to visit, but one can spend many hours inside exploring and learning.
The next stop of the day was at the Museum of Israel, “The Dead Sea Scrolls are ancient manuscripts that were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves near Khirbet Qumran, on the northwestern shores of the Dead Sea.” - https://www.imj.org.il/
We had a quick lunch at the cafe on property before heading off to Palestine for exploring Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity, where Jesus was born.
The first stop was a cave ‘park’ called Gloria in Excelsias Deo, which was a group of caves to show what it might have looked like what Jesus was born in. This was helpful because many of these religious sites these days are built upon with churches and religious decoration all around.
We drove by several street art pieces by Banksy and even took some photos outside the Walled Off Hotel. The street art/graffiti here seemed to be very politically relevant and there were many messages behind all the seemingly spray paint scribbles on the wall that separates Palestine from the rest of Israel.
The second and final stop of our tour in Palestine was the Church of the Nativity, where Jesus was born. There was a Greek Orthodox Church service ongoing which was exciting to watch. We were able to head into the area it’s suggested that Mary gave birth to Jesus and where she laid him to rest after birth.
Our time in Palestine was tense at times, but overall exciting to be ‘behind the wall’. We didn’t spend more than 3 hours touring around, but we were looking forward to getting back to the hotel after a long and tiring day of tour.
Day 4
We started the day with a 40 minute hike up to David’s Waterfall at the En Gedi Nature Reserve. The hike was beautiful and a great way to start our day in the Dead Sea area. More information on the significance of David’s Waterfall: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/david-waterfall.
We then went to Masada and learned about the last stand of the group of Jewish people that lived there. “Masada is a rugged natural fortress, of majestic beauty, in the Judaean Desert overlooking the Dead Sea. It is a symbol of the ancient kingdom of Israel, its violent destruction and the last stand of Jewish patriots in the face of the Roman army, in 73 A.D” from https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1040/
The final part of our day ended with a relaxing time of mud-bath and sea salt soak at Dead Sea Harods near Ein Bokek. We spent about 3 hours applying Dead Sea mud to our bodies, letting it dry, heading to float in the sea to get the mud off our bodies, headed back into the facility for lunch, then showered and got ready for a 2-hour drive to Tel Aviv.
Drinks and dinner at Imperial Cocktail Bar.
Day 5
We started the day with a ~6 mile walk/run around the city, running north from the David Kempinski hotel from Trumpeldor Beach, up to the Tel Aviv Port, through the Yarn Canal, and back. We had lunch at Pizzeria Bar on Dizengoff St, and went back to the hotel to spend the rest of the day on loungers at the pool overlooking the beach goers dedicated to their beach activity.
About a 20 minute walk from the hotel we went for an Italian dinner at Rustico, in a fun and nice neighborhood.
Day 6
Flew on Turkish Airlines to Istanbul on our way to Cappadocia.