Blogs from Israel, Middle East

I must first mention this evening that I am sitting in my top floor hotel room in Old Town Jerusalem, beverage in hand. The Sabbath is in full effect here, as it is every Friday night at sundown, which means that the town almost falls silent. Earlier a large group of us congregated up on the roof as fireworks echoed around us, but the lack of crowd noise and the background noise of cars once per week is such a contrast to the norm. But something must be open a few floors beneath me on the street, as I can still hear the din of a crowd socializing. Saxophone, of all things, wafts up through my open window. Jerusalem never seems to disappoint or fail to surprise. The final day of our trip down south was ... read more

It was about time to ramp up a travel blog for this excursion! Over a week and a half after starting out in NYC, I at first had made peace with the notion that I would not blog this trip. But, we are simply learning and experiencing too much to not share the wealth with whomever might be interested. So I'll start with the current day and perhaps fill in the gaps later...? Yesterday (the 21st) a group of us took off from JUC for Bethlehem. We used the (newer) bus station across the street from Damascus Gate, which kind of kicked me into nostalgia mode since it was where a friend of mine and I found a hotel when I was here last. The public bus took us to the checkpoint for the West Bank ... read more

where can I start except to say spectacular! such a different place and so memorable. Our guide picked us up at 9am, we headed to Nazareth, then on to the Sea of Galilee. We went to lots and lots of places where events such as the sermon on the mount were held. The landscape was amazing. From there we decided that we'd like to head to the dead sea to swim, a 2 hour drive but it was really worth it, a huge highlight for the kids. On the way we crossed into Jordan, Palestine and no-mans land - still full of landmines. We drove through the desert and the temperatures skyrocketed. We saw the recently opened Baptismal site in no mans land. The landscape looking into Jordan was just amazing, none of my photos do ... read more

This was the day we had been waiting for - our first day in Israel. We left the dock in Haifa and traveled about an hour east through the Carmel Mountains across the Jezreel Valeey into the Galilee area. Our wonderful tour guide, Tali, and her husband both grew up in the Galilee and they still own large groves of olive trees there. She was very knowledgeable and quite passionate when she described the land, the people, the history and the culture. We were both impressed with the beauty of the rolling hills and lush fields, orchards and groves nestled in the valleys. The invention of drip irrigation revolutionized agricultural opportunities and practices in Israel and land which was once dry and barren now produces fruits and vegetables exported around the world. Our first stop was ... read more

May 10, 2012 Haifa/Jerusalem Haifa is a beautiful little city built on a small peninsula in northern Israel. It has a busy port and is known for the large number of high tech/computer companies doing business here. One of the first things I noticed was a small passenger ship tied up next to the military side of the port. I recognized it as a Turkish vessel that was in the news recently when it was attacked by the Israeli navy when it attempted to break the blockade of Gaza to the south though no one has pointed this out. I was soon to find out that there are many things in Israel that are not talked or scrupulously ignored even when in plain sight. Today we took a long bus ride to visit Jerusalem. We stopped ... read more

After shuffling home from the Jerusalem Marathon I stood in the shower for longer than Israel’s water shortage could ever justify and let the hot water massage away the heavy stiffness in all my muscles. After previous marathons, my body and brain instantly forgot how hard the run was the moment I crossed the Kav HaSee’um (the Finish Line). This was different. It took one very long shower and at least four hours before my internal auto-delete program began wiping away the painful memories, leaving only the highs of running the byways of my new hometown together with 1500 other meshuga’im(crazy people). By evening – thankfully Shabbat - my mind started reviewing the detailed schedule of gentle workouts provided by my running guru, Jerry Ziak of Vancouver Forerunners, in preparation for the fourth annual Tel Aviv ... read more