Woke up at 6:30 AM, packed up and put our luggage outside our room at 7:00 AM. Went downstairs for breakfast buffet. Hannah was exhausted and went back up to the room to rest. Both Hannah and Zack did not eat much for breakfast. After breakfast we went back up to the room to get our small bags and headed down to the bus around 8:00 AM. Everybody was pretty much on time and we headed out to a Cemetery just south of Tiberius. The Rabbi knew someone from Cherry Hill, NJ that was buried there whose name was Shellie Greenspan. We stood around her grave site and he told us the story of how she “bought” her way into the cemetery since most of the other people there were somewhat important. We didn’t spend that much time there and then drove by the first Kibbutz of Israel built in 1908. Our next stop was the official Baptismal site on the Jordan River.
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| The Baptismal site on the Jordan River |
This is an extremely important place for religions that perform Baptisms. I did my part and stuck my picky finger into the water. We moved through there pretty quickly and then drove on to Belvoir where there is an old Crusader fort with a large dry moat and a great view of Jordan. It is one of the most intack forts in Israel.
It was another hot day out and we walked around the grounds for about an hour before heading back on to the comfort of AC on the bus. We continued to drive south and visited an old synagogue in Bet Alfa. The significance of this synagogue is the 1400 year old mosaic floor.
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| Mosiac Floor of Bet Alfa synagogue |
You enter the room with the mosaic floor and watched a movie about the history of its creation. They had a pretty good souvenir shop so everybody shopped for a while. Zach bought a mosaic camel. It was lunch time so we went back to the bus and drove 15 minutes to Bet She’an. This is a national park with Roman ruins.
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| Scott at the ruins in Bet She'an |
Before we walked around the ruins we stopped at their equivalent to a café and Zach got a chicken schnitzel in a pita and Hannah, Al and I had falafels. It was close to 100 degrees out so we sat at a table under a tree since they did not have indoor seating. After lunch we walked around the ruins and took pictures. Some people couldn’t deal with the heat so they stayed by the air conditioned gift shop while the rest of us sweat it out. We stayed for 45 minutes and then got back on the bus to start our 1.5 hour journey to Jerusalem. Everybody was very excited to go there. As we headed south, we went thru a border crossing into the West Bank. This area of Israel has been the site of a lot of violence since it is an area of contention with the Palestinians. As we drove south on highway 90 the Jordanian border was right next to us for a good portion of the drive. It was interesting to see the special fencing that surrounds the Israeli border.
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| Border between Israel and Jordan |
There is an inner barbed wire fence than a stretch of open land with land mines and then another electronic barbed wire fence that has motion sensors on it so it can pinpoint exactly where the fence has been penetrated. Along the drive we would see Bedouin villages in the hills, shepherds tending to their flock, camels and even goats walking on the hilly slope. As we entered the city of Jerusalem our first stop was the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus where we had a good vantage point of the city.
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| The Saffrans on Mt. Scopus |
We drink a cup of wine and did a special pray before getting back on the bus to the Leonardo Plaza Hotel where we arrived at 5:00 PM. The kids were in room 2012 and we were in 2014 so we both had a great view from our rooms. We settled in and then headed over to Ben Yehuda street where there are many shops and restaurants. We met a couple of other families and had dinner at Luigi’s (Italian restaurant). Zach had a pizza and Hannah, Al and I shared an eggplant parm, salad and sweet potato ravioli. I also had a Goldstar beer with dinner and when we hit our glasses together to do cheers, Scott R broke my glass. Hannah then found a hair in the salad so we needed a new one. Despite the mishaps we all enjoyed the food and company. After dinner we walked into a couple of stores but did not do much shopping because we were tired. Heading back to the room we came across a bunch of people doing a unique martial arts dance while other people played instruments and sang. We arrived back to the hotel around 9:30 PM and then met everybody at the bus at 10 PM to head over to the Western Wall. There
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