Shalom

So we made our way into Israel (against the advice of the Australian Foreign affairs Dept but followed my mum;s advice “ if it's good enough for your family to live there you should also be safe enough there!!”thanks mum).

Seriously we had an absolute ball in Israel spent heaps of time travelling the country to visit our respective families - poor Greg did have slightly raised BP when we travelled on the bus kept and eagle eye out for any stray baggage or dodgy looking people.

We managed to cover some pretty good territory.

Spent the first night in Jerusalem and it was so very very quiet apparently with the holidays all the people were away and lots of kids on programmes had been advised to stay out the main centre. The next day we took a stroll into the old city even had a passport check at the Jaffa Gate - it was also Good Friday. So after a few wrong turns we found our way to the Holy Sepuctre after following a procession of Franscain Monks (gotta love the habits !!). They also had a special opening of the church ceremony where they knock on the door and then present their knobbly old key to open the site. Was amazing to see all the different pilgrims from around the world there.

After this we went up to Nes Ziona to stay with Greg’s aunt who started the trend of over feeding us !! Any weight we may have lost in Jordon was going to be reinstated with the family (definitely a Jewish thing to keep the food coming).

Next we went up to Afula which is the Galil region and braved hiring a car. This was and ordeal for the driver and passenger. As some of you may recall the last time we drove overseas we managed to have a mishap in the first 5 mins on the road. So we took to the roads (I don’t know what was worse for Greg the riding bus and being blown up fear or driving with me! - he says driving with me was worse). Still we went to Ramat Hagolan (which has hot springs and a mini zoo). Then headed up to Tiberius - which was a little quiet but the Kinneret was absolutely divine (this is where Jesus walked on water) - they have had record rain fall this year so its very full and saw many people down by the lakes - unusual to see black coats (religious people) fishing on a sunny day - I guess we all need a day off somethimes. The area was covered in gorgeous flowers and green grass so it made for a lovely drive.

The next day we went in search of some ancient towns Sefat (famed old town, relgious centre and artist colony). There has been a new road built to get there but we still ended up on the old windy road (very stressful).The other thing about driving in the hills is that Israelis read the ‘slow down around dangerous curves signs and drop from 100 - to 80kms when I drove I could only take these corners in 40 which was making for some interesting traffic situations. Lets just say by the time we got to Sefat I had had enough and found the first parking spot and said ‘lets walk’ I could not handle this anymore. Still it was lovely to walk around the town and some fantastic views. We did try and seek out another town and could even see it nearby but like mythical Atlantis we just could work out how to get there.

After this (having sampled the famous Afula Felaful) we headed off to the Golan Heights and stayed on a moshav with Greg’s cousin they have the best view ever. Situated in the high lands they have this incredible view of the Kinneret, Jordan River and the mountains behind them. We chilled out and got fattened up it was just nice to chill after the driving of the past couple of days. Saw some agricultural and old ruins (synagogues) that had been unearthed in the area.

Next we returned to the suburbs of Modiin which was to serve as a base for the next week. We went to Jerusalem for a couple of days and the spent a day in Tel Mond and visited some more incredible historical sites. The moshav is quite near the west bank and you can see it very clearly. Still inspite of all of this we felt really safe - yes there weren’t many tourists but it was the best time of year to see the place.

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