This was our first day in Jerusalem, and we were on our own. After breakfast, we walked about 20 minutes or so to the Jaffa Gate entrance to the Old City. Jerusalem is, basically, in two parts: the Old City and the New City. Today, we visited only the Old City which is totally surrounded by a magnificent, very high stone wall dating back hundreds of years. Upon entrance, we immediately entered an Arab market and walked down to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This is the thought-to-be location of both the crucifixion and burial of Christ. Immediately inside the building, we encountered an Orthodox priest cleaning a stone that some think Christ’s body was laid upon when taken down from the cross. After spending some time in the building, we walked along the Via ... read more

The first stop of Thursday was a nature reserve called Tel Dan. Tel Dan is actually a stream that comes from a massive spring, and is a tributary of the Jordan River. We hiked through the forest, seeing many interesting sites, including an old temple and the Syrian border. The vegetation was very thick, and we saw several lizards, and a venomous snake. We then drove up to the Lebanese border, seeing the perimeter fence and an old tank, now broken down. When we were there, we saw a number of UN vehicles patrolling the Lebanese side of the border. We went to tour an army base, though that was kind of a flop, as our guide got called away early in the tour, and we had to leave very soon. However, we did get to ... read more

The day began with breakfast. We passed on the pickled fish and salad, but had excellent eggs, potatoes, fruit, pastry, and coffee. We met our guide, Anat, who met us exactly on time. Following a brief driving tour of Tel Aviv ("new hill") we toured our first historic site. The Ayalon underground munitions factory was a secret ammunition factory which operated during the British Mandate. During a three year period, about 2.25 million shells were manufactured here and which were used during the early days of Israel. The factory existed under a laundry and bakery which were both used by the British. It was totally illegal, and one of the best kept secrets of this period. It was even secret from the Jews who were not specifically involved. All of those not privy to this knowledge ... read more