Day 76 - It's closed

Today being the Sabbat we were restricted with what we could do, our original plan was to drive to Tel Aviv and drop off the hire car but they aren't open on Saturdays. Instead we had booked accommodation in Haifa, another coastal city not far from Acre.

We went for a walk around Acre Old City which included the walls, citadel and the Templars Tunnels. The tunnels were only discovered in 1996 by a plumber, they would have been used as an escape route to the sea by the crusaders.

We then drove to the Bahi'a Gardens and were pleased when we were told that we were just in time to join a free tour of the gardens to learn about the Bahi'a faith and the history. A couple of moments later we were told that the tour was in Hebrew, not very useful for us. The gardens are immaculately manicured and the paths made out of broken terracotta tiles, recycling at it's best.

Our stop for the night was in Haifa and our hotel was quite close to the boardwalk so we walked along the edge of the Mediterranean looking for a cafe for lunch. However as it was Saturday we were out of luck, instead we drove to a supermarket that was luckily open to stock up on food for dinner.

Day 75 - Miraculous

Today was about Capenaum and miracles so the first stop was at Tabgha the site of the loaves and fishes miracles. Unfortunately the carpark and surrounding road was packed with bus loads of tourists who had the same idea as us. There was a newish church built on the site but the sheer number of people made it feel like we were at Disneyland. We then drove to the town area of Capernaum and managed to arrive in front of most of the bus loads and wandered the ruins and the sitting area on the bank of Galilee.

With the Jesus trail finished we drove on to the North West tip of Israel where it borders Lebanon as this was the closest we were going to get to Lebanon on this trip. We then followed the coastal road to Acre hoping to find somewhere close to the beach for lunch but all we found was lots of speed humps. We finally found a cafe that was open for lunch as nearly all the places had closed their kitchens at lunchtime on Friday.

Our stay at Acre was at an Airbnb in the old city right on the river edge. Parking was quite tricky in the narrow cobbled streets, especially as the host had a toy stall on the edge of the road so we were doing our best not to reverse over the plastic toys. We were staying on the bottom floor with old large exposed bricks and the family living upstairs.

It was a lovely spot with the restaurants right on the edge of the Mediterranean with a bright orange sun setting on the horizon - at least until the jet boat flew past at top speed to the screams of their passengers.

Day 74 - To the Sea of Galilee

We skirted around "Area A", the Palestinian area, since if we wanted to visit we would have to park the car and take a bus into Jericho. We were stopped at a checkpoint on the road to Beit She'an and our passports checked again. They are always very cheerful and seem happy to see that we are Australians, the kangaroo has a lot to answer for. The landscape started to change and we drove through some green valleys which was nice to see because most of what we had seen so far made us wonder why anyone would think that this desolate landscape was a desirable place to live. There were also huge areas of solar panels.

Beit She'an is a national park but not in the nature sense, it is the remains of a Roman city and one of the better ones we have seen as some areas like the amphitheater have been restored well and in other areas you can see the collapsed columns from an earthquake. Once again it was very hot with little shade.

We drove onto Nazareth to visit the Church of the Annunciation which is feted as being built on top of the grotto where Mary was visited by Gabriel who told her she would conceive the Son of God. We arrived at the gate for K to be told that her shorts were too short so she was not allowed to enter. At least at mosques they give you something to wear, here we had to go to a stall to buy a shawl. The grounds and church were decorated with mosaics gifted by many countries including Australia.

Nazareth was very busy with lots of traffic and we were pleased to drive on to our final stop for the night at Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee. We had read that Tiberias wasn't much of a city so we didn't have any expectations so we were pleasantly surprised to find it had a nice boardwalk with restaurants on the waters edge.

Day 73 - Rock garden

We collected our hire car and we weren't long out of Jerusalem when we started to notice the arid desert environment. We did pass plantations of date palms but apart from that the area seemed to be more conducive to growing rocks than anything else.

It wasn't long before we passed the sea level sign and kept descending until we were around 450 metres below sea level. It was a sunny day so the Dead Sea was bluer than we remembered from when we had visited on the Jordan side on a previous trip.

We arrived at our first stop, Masada and were shocked to get out of the car and find it was 35 degrees. This is officially winter in Israel but the weather had yet to turn so was still unseasonably warm. We walked to the cable car entrance to take us to to Herod's fortress on the plateau above. Once we arrived we were shocked at the line of tourists waiting to get the cable car back and now understood why we saw so many people walking down in the heat. The views from the top cemented the obvious reason why Herod chose this place as a safe place to build a palace and a fortress, it's pretty impossible for anyone to sneak up the sides. Unfortunately the site was full of noisy school groups, and when we were stuck with them in the cable car on the way down it wasn't the best experience.

We then drove not far down the road to Ein Gedi, an oasis in the desert. As we arrived we read that it closes at 4pm and the last entrance is 3pm, we just made it in at 2.59pm. The early closing is to allow the animals quiet time and access to the water without humans there. We had to pass more large school groups who have not heard of turning the volume down, no wonder they give the animals a break! The surrounding landscape for miles and miles is just rocks and desolation so to see a patch gushing water, water falls, greenery, hirax and ibex is quite strange.

We drove onto our reservation for the evening which was just outside Jericho at a place called Vered Yericho, we couldn't stop in Jericho itself as it is in the Palestinian area and we weren't allowed to take our Israeli hire car there. The small town we stayed in was a gated community, we were stopped at a checkpoint and our passports examined, it makes you wonder how anybody could get around the country without official documentation.

Day 72 - Lucky we were carrying our passports

The plan today was to go to Bethlehem but before that we needed to get a public transport card as well as a local sim card. We walked from home to a coffee shop that according to google sold transport cards but they didn't, they directed us to a nearby shopping centre. In there they weren't sure whether the transport cards were required for buses to Bethlehem as it's in Palestinian territory, where Israeli taxis, hire cars and buses aren't permitted (which is why most recommendations online are to visit as part of a tour). They made a phone call and it turns out they weren't. We did get a card anyway as it could be useful for Tel Aviv.  We then went looking to purchase a sim card, it took a while but we finally got one, then it was off to Bethlehem.

Google Maps had good public transport directions, so we had no trouble walking to the bus stop and we just paid cash when we boarded. Getting off at the last stop we ran the gauntlet of taxi drivers wanting to take us to Manger Square and walked there albeit through very quiet back streets. It's always a relief in these situations when you see other tourists, even if they are as lost as us.

We found Manger Square and the Milk Grotto before entering the aptly named Church of the Nativity. Once inside we realised why the streets were so quiet, every tourist in town was lined up for the Nativity Grotto, the birthplace of Jesus. How long it would take for your turn was mind boggling looking at the entire hall filled with a snaking line waiting to get a glimpse.

We decided to walk to the Israeli and Palestinian Separation Wall.  A hideous high concrete wall that in every way resembles a prison wall with towers, which is pretty much what it is. The wall was covered in graffiti and local stories and has become a site popular with the artist Banksy. Banksy has also opened a hotel called the "Walled Out Hotel" where every room overlooks the concrete wall. The hotel had lots of quirky Banksy art as well art from other as other artists.

On the trip back to Jerusalem the bus stopped, a group of local girls got off and then the military boarded to check our passports. Once that was done the girls got back on, showing their IDs as they entered. Unfortunately the bus driver didn't stop where we wanted him to, taking us almost all the way to the old city before he let us get off, luckily it wasn't too far from the restaurant area we wanted to visit, so we only had to back track a little bit.

Day 71 - Jerusalem and the Status Quo

K has a list of things she wants to see in Israel, growing up she would have never imagined that she would get to visit all the familiar names and places, Israel had never seemed like another country but more another planet.

First on the list was the free walking tour that we had booked to meet at Jaffa Gate, one of the entrances to the old city of Jerusalem. Each entrance is named according to where you want to go and Jaffa is the old name for Tel Aviv. We walked there from where we were staying and not far from home we spied a familiar Camino marker on the footpath. This makes sense as we are now in serious Christian pilgrimage territory. We were quite surprised at the size of the walking group but fortunately our guide had a huge voice and expertly filled us in on history, religion and politics over the next two hours. 

We learnt about the different quarters of the city, the Armenian quarter along with the Jewish, Christian and Muslim quarters. Unfortunately when we were outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre/Church of the Resurrection it was so packed with people we ended up losing our tour group. 

After looking for them for a while we gave up and entered the Church that had been built over the site where Jesus had been crucified, buried and raised again. We had learnt that six different Christian religions occupy the church in harmony - the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Armenian Apostolic, Coptic Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox and Ethiopian Orthodox. They operate together under a Status Quo decided upon in 1757. A symbol of the status quo is a wooden ladder that was placed outside the church before 1757 which is still in place.

Unfortunately without our guide or internet access we weren't quite sure what we were looking at but were aware of the places of huge significance. Just inside the door was a stone slab that many people were placing their hands heads and items on, this was the slab where Jesus's body was prepared for burial. 

From here we walked to the Western Wall and walked down to the wall watching people praying and inserting their notes into the cracks in the walls (nowadays you can send your message in an email and someone will insert it for you).

From there we left the old city and stopped off at the old city of David, which is the ancient city. Then we walked past the Kidron Valley between the Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives. 

We found ourselves at the Tomb of the Virgin and right next door is the Grotto of Gethsemane. We finished our day visiting the Garden of Gethsemane before walking home in the dark. We both commented on how safe it felt to be walking in the dark in Israel, even with all the very young soldiers (to us they look 16 years old) with machine guns slung over their shoulders.

Day 70 - Planes, trains and automobiles

We drove an hour and a half from Paphos to Larnaca Airport to catch the 45 minute flight to Israel.  Ben Gurion airport is about halfway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and our destination to start the "Jesus trail" was Jerusalem. We didn't have any internet when we arrived as our European sim wouldn't work in Israel, but it wasn't a problem as we had already worked out how to get to our apartment in Jerusalem.

Our plane landed at 2.30 and the customs queue was very lengthy but we finally collected our luggage and then went to take the lifts at the airport but were caught unaware by Israeli lift etiquette, which is essentially non-existent. It was every man for himself and whoever can push and shove their way on wins. M made it onto the first lift, K missed out but managed to be the last to squeeze in on at her second attempt.

We then bought our tickets for the fast train to Jerusalem and were told it was leaving from Platform 2, as all the signs were in Hebrew they weren't much use to us. Once again we had to battle the shoving and the elbows to make it on to the train but we were getting the hang of it now and settled down for the 20 minute trip to Jerusalem. About 15 minutes in M realised we were going in the wrong direction, so at the next stop we got off and travelled back to the airport, then waited for the right train. 

By the time we made it to the central railway station in Jerusalem it was peak hour and dusk and the road was super busy. However, we spotted a taxi rank and headed over thinking it would be a simple matter to get a ride to our hotel about 20 minutes away. Surprisingly to us none of the taxi drivers wanted to know us, they said: too much traffic and turned away. 

Our next option was the bus, so M went to purchase a travel card, but he returned with news that the queue was incredibly long so it would take ages. K had been watching people get on the buses, and noticed that most of them didn't use their travel card, we we decided to risk a possible fine and jump on the bus. We found the bus we needed, jumped in the back door with our luggage and hoped for the best. The traffic was terrible, it took as 10 minutes just to get away from the railway station but we eventually made it and were checked in by about 7pm.

We went for a walk down the street to the local supermarket, as we didn't have any internet for google translate K was trying to work out which milk to buy for coffee in the morning. She asked a nearby girl for help who asked "Are you Aussie, where are you from?", it turned out the girl was also from Melbourne (Caulfield as it turns out).

Day 69 - Bombs away

A quiet day today, starting off with a walk to the main promenade area that we had visited each day. There was a police "open day" on and there were lots of locals and tourists there, we witnessed demos of a helicopter rescue from the water, and defusing a bomb (made of a cardboard box and a briefcase). 

We then spent the afternoon booking our accommodation in Israel, which for some reason is very expensive, apparently the only people who don't find it expensive are those visiting from Iceland, which has made M very nervous about what's to come.

Day 68 - Birthplace of a goddess

Today we decided to see more of the island so drove to Petra tou Romiou, which according to Greek mythology is the birth place of Aphrodite. It's a large rock just offshore from a very pebbly beach, many of the pebbles being quite large and very smooth, and sporting on trend colours like pink and grey.

It's actually kind of interesting how many countries have attractions that are really just giant rocks just off the coast, someone should compile them all in to a book and then maybe make a TV series as well, they could get someone like Joanna Lumley, Michael Palin or Simon Reeves to visit this week's "large rock/arch just off the coast". It could include those rocks we saw in Spain, the 12 Apostles, etc, it would be absolutely fascinating and incredibly educational. 

After visiting Cyprus' version of "giant rock just off the coast", our next stop was Coral Beach just north of Paphos, supposedly one of the top beaches in Cyprus, but not really much of a beach by our standards, so from there we returned to the promenade we'd visited the previous day.

Then it was back to our townhouse to watch the sunset from our roof top before heading out for some English style cod and chips (which of course were nowhere near as good as our own flake and chips).

Day 67 - Ruins

K had gone online and booked herself a physio appoinment so we jumped in the car and let google take us through back streets and suburbs with little idea of where we were going.

After the appointment we headed towards the coast to see what it was like, as we had arrived in the dark the previous evening. We headed to Paphos Harbour, and although we could see that it obviously catered to British tourists, the boardwalk and outlook was nice and relaxed.

We walked to the Paphos Archaeological Park a short distance away, and without any great expectations we went in for a look. Like most of these sites it was much larger than expected but where this differed from others was the well preserved floor mosaics depicting scenes from Greek mythology. The colours were strong as was the detail and to think that there were probably more of them buried underneath where we were walking but the expense of uncovering them is so prohibitive.

We then drove to the Tomb of the Kings, another archaeological site only a kilometer or so from for where we are staying. Once again this was much larger area than expected with many empty tombs excavated. We also learnt that there weren't any kings buried here just wealthy locals. A lot of the carving reminded of us Petra which of course isn't that far away as the crow flies.