Morocco, Greece, Egypt, Jerusalem & More: Jerusalem

Jerusalem!!

Flying into Tel Aviv, we found our Taxi to Legacy Hotel, a few minute walk outside the Old City of Jerusalem, and arrived to the hotel to find a World Cup party taking place. Dumping our bags in the room, we and headed down to watch the game. We were ready for a whirlwind these next 4 days, and beyond: After Jerusalem we are heading back to the states for a week of business, before heading back out again to a Kiteboarding location, then Maine and so on for all August. In Jerusalem, we had back to back 3-days of tours: ready to explore Old Jerusalem and new; learn about the religious history and significance that has shaped the heart of many religions today. Considered the “center” or “heart” or “home base” for the religions of Christianity, Judiasm, and and Islam, Jerusalem has been besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, captured & recaptured 44 times and completely destroyed twice. Literal layers of history stack upon the streets we see today, with the underground still being uncovered today with archeological digs. We were here to visit all that. To learn. To understand. And to walk the walk Jesus walked. To visit the different Quarters where these different cultures exist. To get our our story mixed with that of Jerusalem’s…

In a lot of countries, Nova helped us skip to the front of almost any line. Plus Candace being pregnant helped ;)

You'll see a lot of random people with Nova. The Nova Phenomenon continues

D1 Jerusalem - Masada, the city on cliffs, and the Dead Sea - the lowest place on earth. We started out meeting our guide early morning and headed out in the direction of the lowest land location on the planet. Driving along the shores of the Dead Sea towards Masada we saw salt formations ringing almost the entire shoreline: curvy, white, and large spiral of salt grooved along the shoreline as we cruised by. The Dead Sea contains an insane amount of salt and minerals. In fact, ocean water contains 3.5% salt and the Dead Sea, on the other hand, contains 33% salt concentration making for all sorts of uniqueness… We stopped at a cosmetic products shop that sells MUD from the Dead Sea, apparently an amazing application for the face and body, etc. Candace got some as gifts and we were soon on our way to Messada, excited to come back to the Dead Sea later in the afternoon. Messada is one of the most interesting places in the Jerusalem area. King Herod the Great built fortifications and a royal palace on top of an isolated plateau on the edge of the Judaean Desert around 37 and 31 BCE. Surrounded by mostly cliffs on all sides, we had to take a Gondola to get up atop it rather than scale a 1,300 foot cliff. It was up top, on a plateau about 5 football fields long, and a couple wide, that we gazed out at the Dead Sea, 12 miles away and learned of the different peoples, including Roman, that inhabited the plateau over the course of time. We learned how they funneled water from many mountains away into a basin. We learned that as the Romans had spread their Empire into the area and the First Jewish-Roman War came to a height, the last remaining rebels were forced to the plateau of Masada. The Romans discovered this and besieged the area, ready to show no mercy to the “rebel scum”. The Romans were generally lenient to the people they conquered, knowing they ultimately needed the “masses” of people to submit and accept authority. However, when it came to to rebellions there was no mercy, as to deter future risings, and the Romans used rebels as an example. Thus, on that final night, the entry gates aflame and invasion imminent in the morning, the 960 rebels at Masada committed suicide, choosing to go out their own way rather than become Roman Slaves for the rest of their lives.

Tour Guides for Messada Day

Mom in the Dead Sea

We learned some other stories, about the way of life people lived in Masada over the centuries, and then headed back down to the Gondola and back into the Air-conditioned tour bus.

Rent-a-guide tours drove us to the Dead Sea where we were able to get up close and personal with those minerals we mentioned earlier. Entering into a 100+degree water, Nova and I watched as Candace literally floated about (not swam about) in the Sea. The water is so dense because of the 10x the salt content of Ocean Water, that swimming is not required and not even normal, despite the fact that one is in liquid. Once in, I excitedly explored this phenomenon: I was able to keep my legs, head, and arms out of the water and just sit still floating there. Nobody was swimming out anywhere, but I wanted to see if I could dive down. I swam out, away from all of the people into deeper waters. Nothing lives in these waters except some highly-adapted bacteria, so even though clarity was nill, I didn’t have to be worried about that. Once out, I tried standing vertically in the water and my shoulders ended up popping up out of the water, lol. I pushed myself down by bobbing and noticed I could get my head underwater if I wanted to, and that the water deeper was actually dramatically cooler. It also immediately popped my legs up and out from under me towards the surface because of the density. I wondered, once I dove forward and under, if I could even get my legs underwater to kick and move downward… I also wondered about what the water would do to my eyes. Its said that ingesting a mouthful of the water can cause your body to shut down, though I doubted that. I also heard that someone else who put their head underwater was blinded for a bit. Knowing that the density of salt would likely burn my eyes, I didn’t want to leave shouting distance. I turned and faced land, shouted my intentions to a couple of guys furthest out from shore who stopped what they were doing and turned to watch with great interest. I took a deep breath of air, tucked and and dove down into the murky water. Immediately it was apparent that my technique wasn’t going to suffice. My kick was half out of the water, and though I was stroking with both arms to go deeper, my legs weren’t in the game to support. I continued to try to pull myself down, no longer holding back for fear of crashing into the bottom, just trying to get down a little bit. “I need weights” I thought just before my head popped up above the surface. I opened ONE eye, and the burning began. I couldn’t really see with the eye at first, and I couldn’t touch my face with my hands, since they were covered in the water and would obviously drive it deeper into my eye. I relaxed and hovered in the water for a moment, blinking that eye over and over until I could begin to see again. I then swam towards shore, showered off with the water that was actually hotter than the water in the Sea, and was done with my adventure for the day.

The next morning we made our way over to the Grand Cort Hotel, a few minute walk from Legacy, and the meeting place of our tour for the day. People trickled in as Nova played with kids in the lobby of the hotel. Soon aboard a transport, tour guide at hand, we began to learn about the surrounding, hilly Jerusalem. We passed a graveyard, called the Mount of Olives, where the Resurrection of the Dead would begin once Messiah appears on the Mount. It’s believed that everyone else in the world will have to crawl, as skeletons, even underwater through Oceans, to Jerusalem before being resurrected. According to our guide, to be buried here can cost around $400,000… We stopped at the top of Mount Zion, getting a broad view of the city before heading to David’s Tomb, The Last Supper Room, and the Jewish cemetery at Kidron Valley. We entered into the old city and Jewish Quarter though Zion’s Gate aka David’s Gate and visited the Western Wall, where people had come from all over the world to offer their prayers. After lunch, we walked part of the Via Dolorosa, believed to be the path that Jesus walked on the way to his crucifixion. We saw the Muslim Quarter and finally came to the famous Church of Holy Sepulchre, a major Christian pilgrimage destination and believed to be the place where Jesus of Nazareth was crucified as well as host to Jesus’ empty tomb. This was one of the most beautiful churches / cathedral’s we have seen; the mosaics on the ceiling incredible, and the amount of diversity among the building itself, architecture, people visiting, and things happening was off the charts.

We soon found ourselves on the way to Bethlehem with another tour guide, showing us a bit of the city and where Jesus was born - the Church of Nativity. On the way back from the tour, we had a pit stop due to the streets being blockaded…. Graduation for the schools just happened so people were going NUTS driving up and down the street (when not completely blocked) shooting off fireworks, skidding out motorcycles in circles, whipped cream, funny string, water paint, people screaming/shouting, honking horns, and other crazy things happening. Literally people holding onto fireworks that, should you be in the USA, you’d light it and then step back 10 feet away from it. Here, they would hold onto it with their hands, hanging outside of the car window, as it fired off 10 rocket rounds, one after another.

Back at the Legacy, we watched another World Cup game and called it a night, ready for our 2nd Ben Harim tour the next day.

Surprised at the immediate difference between tours, we were excited for the day as we started off BACK at Mount Zion, yet with a very different explanation: 10x better than the previous day’s. Our guide this day was a university professor, ex military man, who spoke excellent English. Yesterday was someone who spoke half the tour in Spanish and the other half in English. Basically you get an abbreviated version that kinda makes sense, and a rushed tour. A tour like that is simply getting you safe transportation between each site and then what the name of things are, with little history or prose to bring the story alive. Here, today, was the opposite. Although both guides were from Ben Harim’s Tours, we definitely recommend looking for Ami as a guide for your tour, should you be in Jerusalem. If he is unavailable, I recommend avoiding any tour that is bi-lingual. Because #1 they have to explain everything twice, so half your day is spent waiting around while they speak gibberish, and #2 you might get someone who’s English is their 3rd or 4th language, which means that you might not be able to understand them well.

In any case, well equipped with an excellent tour guide, we soon found ourselves in an Underground Jerusalem Tour, heading to an archeological dig that was begun only a few years ago at a new site. What’s interesting about Jerusalem is that it has been destroyed and conquered so many times; and because the new cities are built on TOP of old cities, with knowledge becoming lost, that whenever anyone buys a property with intentions to build something on it, a full-fledged survey team comes out and digs, to determine if the site will, in fact, be developed. If something of importance is discovered, well there is no development: the site is converted into a museum or archeological dig of some such importance.

It was one of these sites, currently an archeological dig, that we found ourselves at, taking some stairs down at the City of David to the underground, learning about King David and his uniting of the tribes around who had been warring for centuries. His smart decision to start the city in the neutral zone of all the tribal wars, smack dab in the center, and, more importantly, near water. We learned about his obsession with keeping access to that water regardless of the situation they were in. He started with building castle walls around the area the river ran through right outside his city. Not good enough, because of attack, he fortified it further. Not yet satisfied, he decided that even if they were under attack and the castle breached where the water was, he wanted further access to water. As we descended deeper and deeper we came to learn about the impossible underground water tunnel he had built. The impossible part being that it was to be carved from two different locations, 1700 feet long, with a goal of somehow meeting UNDERGROUND in the middle. Although not sure how exactly they did it, there are theories. Regardless, the water was controlled and diverted through this underground cavern and tunnel system, which gave them infinite access to the water and, therefore, became indispensable to the people of the city in times of war.

Nova going in for the kill!

The real one was 2 - 3x as big

We then visited the Four Sephardic Synagogues, learning how it can take a Jewish scribe over a Year to entirely and perfectly copy a single bible in its original language and format. Each of the Four Synagogues had their own flavor and history, expertly told by our Professor-guide.

A couple of other places of note that we loved visiting:

1. Lunch/early dinner at St George’s Garden Bistro. A very unique, and a cool experience even just walking around St George and finding the Bistro on the grounds itself. We really enjoyed the beautiful architecture, gardens, and excellence service. Very unique beer, shepherds beer, and good food too.

2. We had an amazing dinner up top of Holy Land Hotel, that we learned about from the gentlemen at the Garden Bistro, who had worked in 5* restaurants and resorts for 20 years. The only non-locals there, we enjoyed the closest rooftop restaurant to Old Jerusalem, gazing at the massive city walls and watching the sunset while being served unique, healthy, and delicious food.

3. Our hotel, Legacy, had World Cup every night as we filtered through the top 16 teams and started into the semifinals. Cool hotel, nice buffet breakfast, and a lot of English-speaking workers that stay there, from around the world for some reason.

4. Mike’s place was a super cool Jewish restaurant with great people-watching, service, and kosher food. Right down the street, about 15 minute walk is the super cool Mahane Yehuda Market, where we got some great snacks as well as some cool clothes.

5. We ended up visiting the Holocaust Museum, which definitely exceeded my expectations.

41 days complete!!

What a whirlwind.

4 Countries knocked off the Bucket List

Tons of learning and new cultures, food, languages, people, shopping, diving, history

Nova Phenomenon discovered, and Nova blockades

Tour guides, camel rides into the desert, random runs through unknown cities

Challenges, tough circumstances and obstacles.

Growth, patience, understanding, bonding, love.

Overall an awesome awesome trip.

Now time for a week back in Phoenix before heading back out for the rest of the trip!

Jason Candace(&unborn Breck) and Nova