12/3/2011 Saturday. We drove to Ellie's place; she and Kuau took us to the airport. It was a packed flight but otherwise uneventful. We got some (late) lunch at the airport food court: the BBQ dish was huge. Our rental car (Alamo via Hotwire) is a Nissan Cube. We will see bow it works out. The airport area was very quiet but the traffic got quite heavy when we got close to town. Check in at Westin was a bit slow: disappointing for a chain of that reputation. Anne read from a guide book that the Waugh Street Bridge is the home to a large (300,000) bat colony and these animals come out at sunset to feed. We drove there but didn't see anything. We then tried to look for Chinatown but couldn't find it either. We did see a lot of restaurants along Westheimer Road and had dumplings and vegetables at a small restaurant called Dumpling King. We bought some supplies (coffee and snacks) and called it a night.
One good thing about the Westin is its green policy. Most hotels nowadays encourage their guests to use their towels and linen for more than a day to ostensibly save the environment. I have always been suspicious of how much do the cost savings figure into that request. Westin is the first hotel I know of that offers some credit (about $5) to its guests who do so. Good for them!
Hotel (for two nights): Westin Galleria, Houston.
12/4/2011 Sunday. Drove to Galveston which was about 1:30 hours away. Today was cloudy, drizzly, with the occasional rain. Galveston probably is a reasonably busy town during the summer tourist season, but today wasn't tourist season, and given the weather it was quiet. Except for the cruise terminal area. There were 2 ships docked: the Carnival Magic which is Carnival's newest ship with a capacity of 3800 passengers, and a much smaller Royal Caribbean ship. It must be start of boarding time since there was this long line of cars turning into the parking lot. A few blocks away was another event: the festival of lights. The town is obviously trying to revitalize itself; let's hope it succeeds. After lunch at Fish Tales, we drove by Moody Gardens but missed the 1 pm sightseeing trip on the Colonel. Instead we drove west and took the free ferry across to the Bolivar Peninsula. This place reminds me of the drive to Mobile from Pensacola: lot's of colorful houses built on stilts but sparsely occupied. It was about 6 pm when we got back to town. After buying tickets for tonight's Nutcracker performance, we grabbed a sandwich at a nearby cinema cafe, before seeing the performance. On the way back we stopped by Whataburger and got take-out as a late night snack.
Fish Tales Restaurant.
It was a stormy day in Galveston, TX.
This Carnival cruise ship dominates the Galveston skyline.
On the ferry Dewitt Carter from Galveston to the Bolivar Peninsula.
Nutcracker at the Houston Ballet.
12/5/2011 Monday. Checked out of hotel at 10:30 am. Went back to Waugh Street Bridge to check out if there is a place to park: answer is yes. After lunch at Bamboo, we drove south to another Wildlife Refuge (Brazolia), about 1:15 hours. There was no one at the office but there was a CD we could borrow to guide us along the auto trail. Evidently there has been a severe drought in the area so most of the lakes and ponds have turned into dry land. We did see a few birds, many of which are raptors that we don't recognize. The main attraction, snow geese, was no where to be found.
Several Roseate Spoonbills at the Brazolia Wildlife Refuge.
When we got into the Extended Stay America room, we found out it was a smoking room. Somewhere along the line someone messed out since I have never requested a smoking room before. After a few phone calls we at least got moved to a non-smoking room for tonight.
Anne has a conference call at 8 pm. So it is again fast food (Whataburger) for dinner.
Hotel (for three nights): Extended Stay America Galleria Houston.
Tuesday 12/6/2011. Anne had to get up early for her 2-hour online class. After she was done we debated a bit what to do, and decided to visit museums since today would turn out to be quite cold, and breezy to boot. We ended up going to the Museum of Fine Arts. MFAH has a huge collection of artifacts (a lot of them gold) from pre-Columbian cultures in Mid- and South Africa. The displays are a bit confusing for the uninitiated, like me. We ran into an archeologist and I ended up having a long discussion with him, including if the Biblical story of Cain and Abel was an allegory for farmers and hunter-gatherers. There is also a substantial collection of paintings. Although Anne and I enjoy looking at them, we are by no means knowledgeable about the various schools and their representatives. In that sense MFAH collections would be what I call B-list painters. They do have token ones from each of the grand masters: Picasso, Monet, Manet, Turner, etc. It is nonetheless nice to spend some time with these great works of art. We ended up spending over 4 hours there, including a very reasonably-priced lunch. And the price of admission is very reasonable, with our AAA and USC-student discount, it cost a total of $8.50 for the two of us.
We then ventured to Chinatown, walked around a bit, and then had an early dinner at Tin Tin Restuarant.
After dropping Anne off at the hotel - she had another conference call tonight - I drove to Jones Hall to attend a Houston Symphony concert. The concert was great, except I found out the hard way (a $70 parking ticket) that what I thought was free parking was a tow-away restricted zone. I guess I should count as a blessing that the car wasn't towed.
I got a parking ticket parked next to this sign. To my surprise my appeal based on confusing signage was successful. And it was done over the web!
We did have to change our room in the morning. We opened the window for the day and it didn't smell that bad when we got back.
Wednesday 12/7/2011. First drove to Armand Bayou Nature Center, hoping there were birds to see. Turns out it was a park with many walking trails, so we decided to skip it. We then drove along the coast (Route 146) and had a buffet lunch at a restaurant along the Kemah Boardwalk. Pretty inexpensive, reasonably good food. Nowadays with buffet meals I feel guilty for eating too much, and guilty for not eating my money's worth. Johnson Space Center was next on our list. We first took a 1 1/2 hour tram ride which brought us to Mission Control for all the Apollo explorations, a building where astronauts train with mock ups of various spacecraft, and Rocket Park where the main attraction is a Saturn V rocket. It was after 3:30 pm when we were done with the ride, and we had only time to see a couple of short movies clips before the facility closed at 5 pm. It was a good visit. Sadly, I couldn't help but think the bold and exciting space exploration days no longer belong to this country, and won't return for a long time. Somehow the sense of melancholy seemed to permeate what we saw around us.
Mission Control at Johnson Space Center.
A Saturn V.
We then stopped by the Waught Street Bridge again, getting there at a little before 6 pm. The noise we heard before was much softer; in any case, bat sighting wasn't to be on this trip.
It was too cold for the bats to venture out at night, so we had to be content with reading the different signs posted near the Waught Street bridge.
This is a picture of a sign. We didn't see any bats in the crevices, but heard them chirping away, though.
Dinner at Shanghai Restaurant in Chinatown. The mixed up our order so we had to cancel a casserole dish - I didn't want to wait for the dish to be recooked. Instead bought some noodles for a midnight snack.
Since Anne won't be done with her class until 10 am, we moved our flight from 12 noon to 2:30 pm. We couldn't get any aisle seats, so it would be a bit uncomfortable.
Thursday 12/8/2011. Anne got done early with her conference call, so we scrabbled to get to the airport. At 11:45 am or so we were called to the podium to get our tickets for our 12 noon flight. And they were aisle seats! The flight back was quite a bit shorter at about 3 hours. Ellie picked us up. After dropping our luggage off, we had dinner at Olive Garden in Piscataway, with Kuau joining us.
We came up to babysit Ruby (the dog) while Joe & Jess go on a weekend trip to Madrid. Jess's parents, who live in the area, are off on a cruise, and Ruby can't simply be left at a kennel as she is recovering from her heart worm treatment and thus shouldn't exercise too much.
The weather was foggy and drizzly on Thursday, and the flight to Philadelphia was going to be delayed so much that they would miss their connection. They managed to book a different itinerary BOS-LHR-MAD on Delta and British Airways instead, but wouldn't get in until 3:30 pm.
For the few days we were in the area, we visited the North Shore (Crane Beach), the South Shore (Quincy and Hull), attended a service in a Chinatown Church, and went to visit the Pompeii Exhibit at the Museum of Science, and attended a concert by the Boston Symphony in Symphony Hall. All the while taking Ruby out (and picking up after her) three to four times a day.
It was a windy day at Crane's Beach, on the North Shore.
John S. from church found this “great deal,” a 12- night
cruise on the Celebrity Constellation that cost around $1200 per person,
oceanview room. That was around
January. Egypt was on the original itinerary,
and being able to see the pyramids was one of the main draws for us. The political upheaval in that country caused
the cruise line to cancel that destination, which probably is the prudent thing
to do. We then have the protests in
Athens, the (slowly) escalation of tension in Israel, which added more
uncertainty to the trip. From the
original number of 50 or so participants, about 30 or so ended up going, which
was still a sizable crowd.
The cruise ship would end up visiting ports of Kusadasi
(Ephesus), Rhodes, Haifa, and Athens, plus the origination and disembarkation
port Istanbul. Don T., a member of the
group, organized quite a few (around 8) private tours through the contacts he
knows. I went on six of them. They were considerable less expensive than
what the cruise ship offered, and – if my experience was any guide –
considerable more informative.
Monday 10/24/2011 EWR-MUC-IST. David H. picked us up at 5:30 pm for our
Lufthansa flight to Munich. We cashed in
some frequent flyer miles and booked business class. Still didn’t manage to get much sleep, and
the meals – while served on china – weren’t that good. That’s the Lufthansa I got to know when I
traveled to Europe quite regularly. Took
connecting flight to Istanbul. Munich is
a much larger airport than I expected.
Needed to pay US$20 each for a visa on arrival at Istanbul, immigration
and customs process much smoother than I expected. Bought a phone card for TL105 at Vodafone
upon exit, it took a while for the card to be recognized, and we didn’t get the
data service we expected to get, and I now have serious doubts about the
minutes we would get.
Landing at the Istanbul Airport provides the first glimpse of the city.
Taxi driver was a little lost when we showed him the address
of the cruise terminal, but we made it to the ship at about 5 pm. For some
reason they needed to hold the passengers’ passports, which I wasn’t too happy
about; on the other hand, there wasn’t much choice. At dinner we met up with others, about 30 in
all.
Meanwhile, because we weren’t sure the cell phone would
work, we signed up for an internet package from the ship.
Wednesday 10/26 Istanbul.
Anne had to get up at about 3 am in the morning to join her class at
3:30 am. She had to go the Café Seaside
to get wifi service. I tried to go back
to sleep but couldn’t, so I went to the Café at around 4 am. Turns out Skype was blocked, and (meanwhile)
the phone was working, so she was calling on Vodafone service. I suggested she use the gmail call feature,
which worked like a charm: she could get on the video platform, talk on gmail
call, and work on the mail at the same time.
Evidently not too many people were vying for the limited satellite
bandwidth at that time of day.
We tried to get back to bed after she was done but had
trouble falling asleep. At 6:30 am we
decided to go have breakfast. We left
the boat at 8 am and met up with our guide.
It was going to be just Anne and me on a private tour (arranged through
Don T’s contact) but Hantee and two others decided to join us. Sights were visited were the Ancient
Hippodrome, the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, and the St. Sophia Museum. The
Ancient Hippodrome, an amphitheatre during the Roman times, was filled in when the
nearby mosques were built. On its
grounds are a couple of obelisks (one from Egypt), a bronze serpent whose heads
are missing, and a pavilion from the Germans in the early 1900s. The Blue Mosque was built by Sultan
Ahmet. The largest mosque at that time,
it has six minarets (most have four, max), and we got a description of a
mosque’s basics inside a mosque. The Topkapi
Palace has three gates, jewels, religious relics, and costumes. Somehow it reminds me of the Tower of London,
but the guide didn’t see my humor when I asked him where the beheadings took
place. The religious relics included
Joseph’s turban, David’s sword, Muhammed’s beard, and Moses’s staff. I wonder how sure the scientists are of the
authenticity of these objects. We have
always wondered about the St. Sophia Museum after seeing a National Geographic
documentary on it. It was grand, but not
nearly as impressive as I thought. While
it was started by Constantine the Great, he actually died before it was
completed (the temple was finished by his son.)
Initially built from wood, it burned down twice. The current structure dates from the 6th
century. This so-called museum is mostly
empty space, we expected more items on display.
Egyptian Obelisk at the Hippodrome, Istanbul.
The Blue Mosque.
Hagi Irene on the Grounds of Topkapi Palace.
Courtyard, Topkapi Palace.
Inside Hagia Sophia. Shrine at far end points to Mecca.
Top Deck of Cruise Ship Celebrity Constellation.
We got back to the ship at around 1 pm, had lunch and then
saw the boat leave the dock. In between
my naps, there was an evacuation drill.
After dinner we went to see a variety show “Celebrate the World.” I am not very into these cruise ship shows,
but this was made quite bearable because the songs were mostly familiar tunes
to me, including “Nessum Dorma” and “Don’t Cry for me Argentina.”
A few observations about Turkey. This is an area full of history, of which I
knew very little about. People
ethnically are descendents of western Asians.
Tourism is the second largest industry.
This morning we saw 4 cruise ships at the terminal, there can be as many
as eight during the high season. We
managed to skip many lines since the guide had bought tickets in advance, and
some of the lines were very long. The
people here seem hard-working enough, and – if our guide Umit is any indication
– have some level of animosity against the Greek financial situation. The biggest industry is textiles, helped by
Turkey’s high quality cotton production.
Thursday 10/27 Kusadasi, Turkey. Ship docked a bit before 10 am, and we were
on the dock soon after that to start of tour of Ephesus, this time with about
20 other people from our group. The tour
guide for the day was the same one the group had the last couple of days, so
quite familiar with the group.
Don arranged several private tours for us.
The port Kusadasi is a 20-minute drive from Ephesus, on
rather hilly terrain. Ephesus was first
occupied by Amazon women from Southern Black Sea/Northern Turkey, and a lot of
their traditions and beliefs supposedly reflect that heritage. At its peak it was a metropolis (acropolis)
of 350,000 people.
In any case, our first stop was Virgin Mary’s House, a place
(evidently) recognized by the Catholic Church as such since several popes,
including the current Pope Benedict, have visited. The legend is that Jesus entrusted his mother
Mary to John when he died, and thus John would bring Mary with him on his
journeys in the area. Mary had to hide
from those that were persecuting her and thus kept a low profile, which the
modest place attests. She died and was
buried in the area, but her gravesite was kept a secret. There are holy water fountains and a place
where people can leave their prayer requests.
Many scholars don’t subscribe this story, pointing out there was no
reference by the Apostles of Mary’s whereabouts after Jesus’s death. I, on the other hand, am easily swayed, at
least in the possibility of such a sequence of events; and it is a good
story. As far as faith is concerned,
Mary had to live a bit longer, and eventually died; where it all happened
should not be material.
House of Virgin Mary in Ephesus. Very modest building with a shrine inside.
Prayers are left on this wall in the House of Virgin Mary compound.
Our next visit was the ancient town (ruins) of Ephesus. This is a site that archaeologists have been
excavating since the 1960s. From what I
could see, there is still a lot more to be done, because the area is
immense. The town was built over several
centuries (4th BC to 6th AD, if memory serves). And it was also rebuilt several times due to
earthquakes, and was eventually abandoned and covered up by landslides. One can find columns that are Doric, Ionic,
and Corinthian, indicating the periods that spanned the construction. There are a couple of agoras, one where the
ruling class met, and one where the VIPs did their shopping. Many Roman emperors built temples to
themselves. One was modest enough that
he only had a fountain built to honor him.
There is a huge amphitheatre that could seat 24,000 people, up to 40,000
people including standing room; supposedly both Paul and John preached
there. The guide also described how the
architecture helped with air conditioning and sound amplification. There was a library (reconstructed) and a
house of pleasure right next to the library – evidently even then husbands were
lying about going to the library (my joke).
And we saw public toilets where “doing business” actually meant doing
business as men sat next to each other. There was an enclosed area with seven terrace
houses. These were large houses for the
most privileged people. It was nice to
be rich and powerful, perhaps even more so in those days. In any case, it is quite impressive what these
people managed 2500 or so years ago.
Group Photo in front of the Ephesus Ruins.
Nike, the Winged Goddess of Victory.
Temple of Hadrian, the Emperor of the Hadrian Wall fame.
Emperor Trajan didn't want a temple built in his name, so the people built a fountain instead.
Terrace Houses in Ephesus. The rich are different from the rest.
The Celsus Library, Ephesus. This facade is reconstructed using original pieces.
In front of the Library.
Ephesus Amphitheater with a capacity of 40,000+. Paul and John possibly preached here.
By the time we were done with Ephesus, it was about 2:45
pm. The guide took us to a buffet which
served mashed up food for $15 a head. We
were hungry enough that we didn’t care, and ate quite a bit. We then made a quick 30-minute visit to the
Ephesus Museum (the town was renamed Selchuk after the Ottomans took over),
where we saw the statue of Artemis with her 40 breasts, the head and arm of
Dolmitian (we saw the temple at the ruins), and a model of the Temple of
Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the world.
Next stop was at St. John’s Basilica built on top of the Apostle’s
grave. The floor plan is indeed the
basic crucifix form used in many churches, and there is an altar signifying
where John’s grave was. His body has
been divided up and are now kept at various churches, so the guide told
us. We were shown also how the sign of
the crucifix changed over the years from a six-pronged “cross” to the more familiar
orthodox symbol of today. The Basilica was supposed to be built partially with
recycled material from the Temple of Artemis, and we could see in a distance a
restored column of the temple. If that
column is an indication of scale, the Temple was huge. On a nearby mountain top there is a castle
that was build around the sixth century AD to guard the area. A big banner with the image of Ataturk,
modern Turkey’s founding father, was hanging.
Shortly the country would be celebrating its 88th year.
One of several statues of Artemis in the Ephesus/Selcuk museum. The 40 breasts signify fertility.
Statue of Domitian from his temple in the Ephesus Ruins.
St. John's Basilica, Ephesus.
Our final stop was a commercial one. The guide took us to a leather goods shop
where several models demonstrated the merchandise (mostly leather jackets) for
us. Even with the Euro to USD and
additional 40% discount, we are talking about jackets that cost several hundred
dollars each. The material really felt
nice, not that I know what it means, and some are quite stylish (no doubt
inspired by more famous brands.) I was
surprised that the group as a whole bought several.
It was close to 6:30 pm when we got back to the ship. I still managed to eat a full dinner – Anne
skipped the entrée.
Friday 10/28 Rhodes, Greece.
It is now about 5:10 am. I have
been sitting in the Café for about an hour, typing in yesterday’s events, as
Anne is on her conference call. Should
be done in about 20 minutes. Since we
have a land tour at 8:15 am, we won’t able to go back to sleep after she is
done.
The boat was a bit late in docking, so we didn’t leave the
ship until about 8:35 am to join the Scenic Rhodes tour. We drove through a “regular” area and
eventually came to a ruins. The ruins
supposedly represent a small section of the entire area but there are few
archaeologists working on restoring them.
What we saw was reasonably impressive, but much smaller than Ephesus. Our trip back to Rhodes was delayed a bit by
the parade in town. The Old Town was
built around 1500 AD by the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. This was an order of priests dedicated to
relief work during the time of the crusades.
There was still need to build a castle which eventually failed to
protect the town. We walked around the
harbors a bit and saw the two deer at the entrance of a harbor. Perhaps significant as deer are the symbols
of Rhodes, the statues themselves are quite small. And this is where the Colossus of Rhodes
supposedly sat. The guide did tell a few
interesting stories from Greek Mythology.
We walked back to the cruise ship.
Rhodes waterfront. The three windwills date from medieval times.
Rhodes Ruins.
Deer guard the entrance to the Rhodes Harbor. Many believe this was where the Colossus of Rhodes was located.
Celebrity Constellation docked at Rhodes Harbor.
Today’s dinner was formal with the requisite picture-taking
by everyone. We saw the show “Land of
Make Believe.” I then went and jogged
six miles.
Saturday 10/29 At Sea.
Today is an at-sea day, so everyone took things in a leisurely
manner. We did attend two talks: one on
the geology of the Jordan River Valley where we learned (i) most of valley
relatively young at 18,000 or so years, (ii) Southern part of Dead Sea is very
shallow and is very old, (iii) the rift is a transduction zone, and (iv) the
level of the Dead Sea has varied a lot over the years, but has dropped
significantly recently due to human uses of the river. The other talk was on the star of Bethlehem
and what could be its cause. The usual
suspects are a supernova, a comet, or the confluence of several planets. The part that is most difficult to explain is
why the star came to a stop.
After dinner I also jogged a bit, this time for 4
miles. The Captain came on the PA system
and announced because of recent incidents the Ashdod port was closed to cruise
ship traffic so we had to divert to Haifa, which was to be the next port of
call. To accommodate passengers’ need to
make changes in their plans, he opened up the telephone lines and
internet. Don, ever the efficient
organizer, called the travel agent and had things squared away. Many others, including I, took advantage of
the free internet offer and got a lot of web access for free (the package we
signed up cost $0.48 per minute.)
All said and done, it was after 1 am that I went to bed.
Sunday 10/30 Haifa. For
the next four days we will have daily tours of Israel. These were all arranged through Don at a
considerable discount compared to what the cruise ship charges, and we would
have the services of a private guide.
For this first day, the bus came a bit late and we didn’t get started
until 8:30 pm or so. Perhaps
understandable since they had to divert resources from Ashdod to Haifa. We drove for over 2 hours to get from Haifa to
Bethlehem, passing by Jerusalem. Along
the way, Guide Jerry gave us some background on the Israeli State and on what
informs the Jewish people in the country. Survival and “never again” being big
parts of the country’s collective mindset. (Jerry himself is an Italian American who
moved to Israeli after meeting his Moroccan Jewish wife.) To get to Bethlehem, you have to go through a
gate in the security fence (say 12 feet high) that encloses West Bank. While we are not here for an understanding of
the region’s politics, it is difficult not to think about whether there is a
way forward to resolve things fairly among the different parties.
Our cruise ship docked at the Haifa cargo terminal for 3 nights. It did move to another berth during its stay.
Graffiti on wall separating West Bank from Israel.
In any case, we switched to a Palestinian Guide after we
crossed into West Bank. Traffic was bad,
so it took a while for us to get to the Parking area, and we had to walk quite
a bit to get to the Church of Nativity.
Pastor Al was quite out of breath by the time we got there. We had to fight huge crowds to get to the
church. We went in the cave where
tradition has the many babies killed by Herod buried, and only saw where Jesus
was born through a small peephole, so we didn’t have to wait in line for 3
hours. The experience was frankly quite
disappointing. We then went to a
sandwich place called “Christmas Tree Restaurant” for lunch – I am a bit
worried about the sanitary conditions there.
After lunch we were dropped off at a souvenir shop where they sold items
as expensive as $1,500 or higher.
Tourism makes up 60% of Bethlehem’s industry, I must assume these shops
account for quite a chunk. Many people
bought trinkets for a few dollars each.
Church of Nativity.
Church of St. Catherine, adjoining the Church of Nativity.
Inside the Church of The Nativity.
We had lunch at this Bethlehem Restaurant. Falafel or Shawerma.
In Jerusalem we visited many sights: Church of the Holy
Sepulcher, many stations of the Via Dolorosa, Mt. Zion where the upper room
was, Church of Garden Gethsemane, Golgotha where Jesus was crucified, the
Western Wall, David’s tomb, and others.
Too bad it was already getting dark when we saw them, and thus couldn’t
take good pictures. Also, no one is sure
if these are the actual locations; even if the original locations were marked,
conquests in the different eras (Byzantine, Crusades) have made them
untraceable. I, for one, can’t imagine
why where Jesus was buried is so close to where the cross was. Those who were convinced that Mary was buried
in Ephesus would be surprised to know that she is also buried in Jerusalem.
Old City Jerusalem.
Church of Gethsemane, Jerusalem.
Rock of Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed.
East Gate, Old Jerusalem, and the Valley of Kidron.
Mary's Tomb, Jerusalem.
The Aedicule, which contains the Holy Sepulcher.
Golgotha.
Via Dolorosa. This station is where Simon picked up the Cross of Jesus.
Western Wall.
View of Temple Mount from Mt. Olives.
We were dropped off at the main pier and took a shuttle bus
back to the commercial wharf area where our ship was docked. It was about 10:30 pm when we got back, and
we went straight to dinner at Seaside Cafe.
They were still serving dinner entrees.
Free internet, alas, was turned off.
Monday 10/31 Haifa.
We took a shuttle from dockside to bus pickup. It was a bit chaotic but manageable. We again drove a long distance (about 130
miles) to Masada, stopping to snap pictures at Qumrom caves (we saw only a
look-alike cave) and ate at the cafeteria by the Qumrom National Park. Qumrom is where the Dead Sea Scrolls were
found. The tram ride to the top of
Masada was a short 3 minutes, and the group spent about 90 minutes there
looking at Herod’s two palaces, grain storage rooms, baths, swimming pools, and
the ingenious water collection system.
Masada was the place where 1000 Jews committed mass suicide rather than
surrender to Romans as slaves. They
burned down the place but left the food storage rooms intact to let the Romans
know they didn’t kill themselves because they were starving to death.
We didn't get a chance to visit the caves. But we did have lunch at the restaurant, though.
Masada. Bath house on the right. You have to use imagination to picture what it was like.
Cistern used to catch rainwater.
The Siege Ramp built by the Romans to attack Masada.
We indeed floated effortlessly on the Dead Sea “as
advertised.” I bought a pair of swimming
trunks for just this purpose. I was in
and out in less than 5 minutes but quite a few people stayed in for much
longer. Some also applied some of the
mud on themselves. I am not sure of the
mud’s rejuvenative powers, but there is no doubt about the bad smell.
View of Dead Sea from Masada.
Yes, you do float on the Dead Sea.
We also got back quite late, and the driver had trouble
finding our ship (it was docked at a container dock), so it was close to 9 when
we got back. We ate at the Seaside Café.
Tuesday 11/1 Haifa. Today’s
visit started with the Bahai Gardens.
This was after a great frustration of waiting in line for an hour for
the shuttle bus to show up. We then
drove to Galilee to visit where Jesus spent most of his ministry. Churches we visited include Church of the
Basilica of the Annunciation inside which is the grotto where the annunciation
supposed took place, and this is the largest Christian church in Israel. Other churches visited commemorate the five
loaves and two fishes (Multiplication), and the Beatitudes. We also walked around Capernaum where Jesus
began his ministry. While people such as
Peter lived in very modest houses, the temple was magnificent. Pastor Al & Miss Ruth and Agnes &
Kimberly were baptized at the River Jordan, at a location called Yardenit.
Pastor Al & Miss Ruth being baptized in the River Jordan.
Yardenit, the location on the River Jordan where baptisms take place.
Matthew 1:9-11 in Chinese (simplified).
River Jordan.
Few people in the region eat catfish, so there are a lot of them.
We ate lunch at a local restaurant. I had “St. Peter’s Fish” which was a dry and
deep-fried tilapia.
St. Peter's Fish, still a fried talapia by any other name.
The Guide calls this region the Fifth Gospel as it adds to
the understanding of the Gospels. While
I may not go so far, I have to say today turned out to be the best of the four
Israeli tours (naturally this remark is written after “tomorrow”.) It did add a lot to my appreciation of the
conditions under which many of the events in the Gospels took place.
The Church of The Basilica of The Annunciation.
The Grotto where the Annunciation took place, according to church tradition.
Church of The Beatitudes.
Inside the Church of The Beatitudes.
Monastery Tabgha, where the miracle of Five Loaves and Two Fishes took place.
Mosaic of Bread and Fishes inside church. Rock is where Jesus supposedly stood when miracle took place.
Capernaum, where Jesus started His ministry.
A synagogue dated from the fifth century. Some people think there is an older one underneath it.
Although we could have made it to the dining room for
dinner, we decided to eat on the tenth floor.
Pastor Al and Miss Ruth joined us for a while.
Wednesday 11/2 Haifa.
The shuttle bus situation got rectified and we got on the bus shortly
after our meet time of 8 am, and were at the terminal at 8:10 am. We waited a bit for the bus to show up, but
left the dock in good time. It was about
a 25 to 30 mile drive to Caesarea. We
first saw a 10-minute film about the history of the city, starting with Herod. It then changed hands from Byzantine to
Muslim to Crusades to Ottoman Empire, suffering damage and enjoying subsequent
rebuilding. It explains a bit how the
history of the area developed and why different people feel ownership of the
region.
The major sights in Caesarea are the amphitheatre which
seats several thousand people; a hippodrome where chariots races and fights
took place – it was where the first Christian martyrs were killed, together
with those in Rome; the foundation of Herod’s palace; and the remnants of a
wall built by Crusaders.
Theater in Caesarea.
In front of the hippodrome. Site of chariot races and later gladiator fights.
Reference to Pontius Pilate (replica) located in Caesarea.
It was about another hour’s drive to get to the old city of
Jaffa, passing through the new city of Tel Aviv. After a bit of history from Jerry, we were
let loose on the couple of streets that define the area. We wandered around a bit, met up with Don,
Agnes, and Kimberly, and had lunch together (Restaurant Kaffe Yafo Tel Aviv). We got back to the meeting point (Clock
Tower) at 3 pm, people were punctual this time – there not being many things to
do in that part of town. We got back to
the ship at about 5 pm. Dinner was at
San Marco.
Bell Tower in Jaffa.
Modern city of Tel Aviv viewed from Jaffa.
Jaffa.
The ship left a bit after seven, while we were having
dinner. We are on our way to Athens.
We also watched the show performed by the British magician
Martin John.
Thursday 11/3 At Sea.
A relatively relaxing day where we had a late breakfast. Went to a lecture on Jerusalem which was
quite disappointing. Choir practice,
sing the tenor part. Formal dinner.
Friday 11/4 Piraeus, Greece.
Piraeus is the port serving Athens, which is 7 or so miles away. We signed up for the Acropolis and Athens
Sightseeing tour. It involves walking up
to the Acropolis and then a 45 or so minute drive around town in the tour
bus. At $70 or so per head it is not
cheap, but overall a reasonable experience.
Some in the group will do the exploration on their own, using public
transportation. It is quite doable, as
long as you are willing to do some homework before hand.
The Acropolis as view from the base of the hill. It is about 175 steps to the top.
Temple of Athena Nike, Goddess of Victory in War and Wisdom.
Propylaea, The Entrance to the Acropolis.
Odeon of Herodes Atticus, built to commemorate his wife's death.
The Parthenon.
The Erechtheion, with statues of maidens as columns.
The Parthenon from a different angle.
A cross-section of a column.
Driving around the area you don’t get a sense of impending
(financial) doom at all. The streets are
busy, Parliament Square, which we drove by, has not had any demonstrations for
about 10 days. Today was a mostly sunny
and a bit windy, which made for excellent conditions for what we wanted to do.
We also visited the Acropolis Museum which was completed in
2009. It in some way is a real life
model of the location, enclosed in a modern structure, and adds quite a bit of
explanation to the experience. One could
argue it is better to visit the museum first to get an idea of what one will
see. There is quite a bit of complaint –
not necessarily harsh – that the British took a lot of the “stuff” to the
British Museum.
The Olympic Stadium, Athens.
Plaka, a shopping district in Athens next to The Acropolis.
Entrance to The Acropolis Museum, built on top of some ruins, naturally.
We got back to the meeting point designated by the Cruise
line and shared a taxi cab with a couple of passengers from the Celebrity
Equinox.
The Acropolis at night. Taken from our cruise ship, at more than 5 miles away.
Saturday 11/5 At Sea.
Last night was the first night we got a proper night of sleep, what with
(for us) early shore excursions and Anne’s early morning on-line classes. I for one am not feeling particularly
refreshed …
Attended lecture on Black Sea Flood and Noah’s Ark. A somewhat interesting lecture but the
speaker didn’t seem to care (or be able to) tie the various views together or
to illustrate what the different views’ limitations are. The one take-away I have is this possibility
that the Mediterranean and Black Sea were cut off from the Atlantic until about
7500 to 8000 years ago. Worship service
led by Liang Huei where Pastor Al and Pastor Chiu from Toronto preached; the
latter leads a church of about 1000 people.
Sat for a while to listen to a rabbi and a couple of priests comparing
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Found
the discussion quite dry and walked out (quietly).
After dinner we started packing, and found out we actually
brought along more clothes than we needed.
Turns out most dinners had only a smart casual dress code, so we
(especially Anne) didn’t need the many dresses we brought along. Even though I wanted to go for a snack at 11
pm, we decided we were too tired to make the effort worthwhile.
Sunday 11/6 Journey Home, IST-FRA-EWR.
But before that we had one more tour to do. Many in the group were either leaving late in
the day or stay the night in Istanbul, so Don arranged for yet another
tour. We could join only the Bosphorus
Cruise portion. It was a pleasant
cruise, though a bit on the cold and windy side, and the boat swayed quite a
bit. We got a close look at the European
and Asia sides of Istanbul.
Someone's Palace. The rich and powerful are different from you and me.
These two suspension bridges connect the Asian and European sides of Istanbul.
The Galata Bridge spanning the Golden Horn.
Our private cruise ship.
After saying goodbye, we hopped on a van for the
airport. We actually could use the
lounge and thus took advantage of the free wifi.
The flight to Frankfurt was quite crowded, but
uneventful. The transfer at Frankfurt
was frustratingly – and surprisingly – slow.
One line, which got stopped every time something needed to be looked at
more closely. The Germans are known for
their efficiency, so this inability to do multi-tasking was a surprise. We were among the last to board the plane,
and to our surprise the coach section was quite empty, Anne has the two window
seats, and I have the entire center 4 seats to myself. Thus a great flight by
my definition. Since this is a late
afternoon/early evening flight, sleep probably won’t be in the cards, but we
shall see.
The overall trip is a bit long, and the sights were
generally not as exciting as I had hoped, nonetheless it was a good trip. There are some surprises when you see people
for that length of time (good and bad), and I am sure I surprised some people
also. I am particularly glad Pastor Al
and Miss Ruth could come.
Ellie picked us up.
Ying and Shirley, who were on the same flights as we were, also squeezed
into the X3 (with their considerable luggage.)
I then drove them home.
