February 2015

The trip to Israel went from 10-22January. In the aftermath, Betsy and I spent the next 10 days recovering from jet lag, while simultaneously fighting off the crud that grandchildren seem to have given us (or perhaps we gave to them?). This was a trip planned with people from church, and so there were only three people that we did not know on the trip, though they were enjoyable to get to know. This trip was planned to include sites that Betsy and I did not see on our trip with John Delancey. I am not going to do a blow-by-blow account of the travels, since they would be uninteresting, but will mention sites that we did not see previously. There were a considerable number of new places that we went to this time compared to our last trip with John, and the older places had a fresh perspective. Being the down-season, there were far less crowds, especially at the “holy” sites. It added to the ambience to be with people you knew, although the most significant interactions happened when sitting around on the sea of Galilee enjoying cigars and good conversation. John again was a total delight to be with, and a wealth of information. Unfortunately, the stuff I wished most to remember from him I don’t, being somewhat brain-dead from jet lag the first few days. As usual, I took way too few photographs. On this trip, I used my Canon M1 camera. The beauty of the M1 is its lightness. The problems with the M1 are the inability to see the image in bright light and its extreme slowness. So, here are a few photos from this trip.
We saw lots of archeological sites. Unfortunately, they all looked the same!
Flowers in bloom. It was a beautiful time of year to visit.
Valley of David and Goliath, near Gath in the Sephelah
Cave at Moresheth, where Micah used to hang out.
Wadi below ancient Be’er Sheba, where Abraham planted his digs.
Kamelfahrt
Kamel kopf durch Kamelfahrt
The Judean desert. The green area deep in the valley would be the road from Jericho to Jerusalem
More road to Jerusalem
Shiloh, where Samuel used to play as a kid.
Beth Shean, on the other side of the Jezebel Valley
Ancient village in the Golan, destroyed by the Romans
Dan at Dan
Rob, sitting at the gate in ancient Dan
The dynamic duo, John and Schlomo, at the altar at Dan
Rob, fetching baptismal water from the Jordan. Actually, this is the Dan, one of the three sources for the Jordan river, so, Rob might be accused of being Unitarian.
Climbing the last scramble to the top of Arbel
The Horns of Hattin from Arbel
The cliffs of Arbel
View of Arbel and the Horns of Hattin and the Sea of Galilee from the Mount of the Beatitudes
Heulenmauer. Wir Heulten! Wailing at the wall.
Last view of Jerusalem. Looking at the south end of the Mount of Olives, with the Kidron Valley heading down to the Dead Sea. The mountains in the distance are in Jordan.