Israel

Somehow we made our flight after the incredibly SLOW security that El-Al airlines has flying into Israel. Holy cow, their security is tight. But, it's Israel...they have to be extra careful at who they let into their country. It was comforting to know that El-Al airplanes are loaded with high tech military stuff that can shoot missles down if needed :) Ha ha. 

We stayed our first night in Israel in Tel-Aviv. It looks like any other normal, big foreign city, but the beaches are just beautiful. That Mediterranean Sea sure is pretty.  We got to our hotel room just in time for a gorgeous sunset. 

BHN's Israel distributor picked us up from the airport and then spoiled us with an amazing Israeli dinner at a fancy restaurant. I'm not a foodie in any way and always find myself eating to live, not living to eat, but I LOVE Israeli food. So good. 

The next day after some business meetings and field observations that Justin had, we headed down to Jerusalem. 

We checked in to the cute hotel we stayed in just outside of the Old City's wall and headed out right away to see as much as we could.

The markets are so fun. Busy and bustling with people.

 I think this picture below was taken in the Armenian quarter of the city. 

Guys, I LOVED visiting Jerusalem. It is unlike any other city I've ever visited. In the small walled part of the city, they have 4 quarters which are assigned to The Jews, The Armenians, The Muslims, and The Christians. I'm sure they have their issues living in such close proximity of each other, but as a visitor, it was fascinating to be a part of!

In the Christian quarter, we visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. 

According to tradition, (everything is "according to tradition" in Jerusalem. :),  this is where it is believed that Jesus was crucified and the tomb where he was buried and resurrected. 

The stone below is supposedly where they laid Jesus' body after they brought it down from the cross. 

The slab where supposedly his body was laid. 

We walked to the outside of the city to the Mount of Olives where we saw The Garden of Gethsemane and The Garden Tomb. These two places were my most favorite places we visited. Hands down. 

We got lucky and both of these places were almost empty. Hardly any tourists. It was peaceful, calm and exactly how I would envision these special places to be.  Again, I think we just got super lucky because I think usually these places are filled with buses full of tourists and have multiple tours going on. I'm grateful we had a quiet, serene evening here.  

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was cool to see but for me, this place and the Garden Tomb just had a really special feeling about it. 

Olive trees can get pretty big!

The Garden Tomb was a neat experience too. We had a cute British tour guide who was super knowledgable, respectful and reverent. 

Whoever is in charge of this place, does a beautiful job with the landscaping. It's a gorgeous garden in the middle of the desert. 

Because of erosion the last few years, the eyes of the "skull" on what is believed is Golgotha are hard to make out. You can see it more clearly in the picture on the right.

This tomb area was definitely that of a wealthy man, which is known by the wine press that was unearthed next to it. 

You see that little notch on the left side of the door frame, about 3/4's of the way down? That was the original height of the door. Thank goodness they have made the door larger for us to enter in. 

There was a small tour group of Scandinavians close by that was singing hymns in their native tongue. I always admire peoples faith and devotion to the Lord of all different religions! It makes me so happy. 

While on the Mount of Olives, we visited the Chapel of the Ascension. It contains a rock with "according to tradition" has Jesus' footprint on it that was left as he ascended into Heaven 40 days after His resurrection. 

Another stop while we were up there was to the Church of the Pater Noster, where the Lord's Prayer is written on plaques in over 100 different languages.

We also stopped by Omar's, which is well known among LDS for his beautiful statues and carvings from olive trees. We bought a beautiful statue of the Savior holding a sheep. It's a treasure! Mary's Tomb was something else we did while on the mount. Tons of oil lamps in that place!

On the way down the Mount, we had a really pretty view of Old Jerusalem. You can see Dome of the Rock pictured with its gold, round roof. 

I think I remember hearing that there is something like 70,000 tombs here in this massive Jewish cemetery. They began burying people here 3,000 years ago. Resurrection day will be crazy busy here :)

The Hasidic Jews would gather around what I am assuming is family graves and say their prayers while rocking back and forth. 

Graves from the top to bottom. 

I think I got our itinerary a little out of order on here because I'm now wearing different clothes than before... haha. Oh well. Recording these pictures are the most important thing to me!

The Western Wall, or Wailing Wall,  was a cool place to sit and people watch. It is considered the holiest place where Jews are permitted to pray and is the western wall of the Temple Mount. 

I think it is so fascinating that one of the most holy places for the Jews (the Western Wall) is in such close proximity to one of the most holy sites for the Muslims (Dome of the Rock).  We weren't able to see Dome of the Rock close up this trip. There are only certain times that the plaza is open to non Muslims and the mosque (or shrine?) is only open for Muslims to enter. 

We thought it would be a great idea to walk around the wall of the city to pick up our rental car but must not have realized just how far it would be. Holy cow, it was far! We were so happy to sit in an air conditioned car!

At least we got to see some more of the less traveled areas and some of the excavations. This city has just been built on top of itself (and destroyed) so many times in the last 3,000 years!

On our way to the rental car place, we saw where the Last Supper supposedly took place and King David's Tomb shown below. 

We said goodbye to Jerusalem and drove up to northern Israel and stayed in Tiberius right on the Sea of Galilee. 

We had an adventure on the way by missing our turn and driving through West Palestine for a good while. That was fun! Luckily no missiles were launched at us while searching for a turn around. :) 

In all seriousness though, we never felt unsafe in Israel. It was a wonderful vacation!

The only problem I had with Israel is that apparently they don't believe that you should be able to cuddle with your significant other while sleeping in a hotel.  We ask for a queen and we get two twins side by side. It was probably the best sleep Justin has ever had though with out me hogging his whole side of the bed  :)

But we sure did wake up to a beautiful view of the Sea of Galilee. Which by the way is not an actual sea... it's just a big, pretty lake. 

On our way to Capernaum, we stopped by really fast to see the home town of Mary Magdalene, Magdala. Excavations are still going on but I'm sure that this was a cute little fishing village back in it's day. We met 4 BYU professors here as well, scouting it out to bring BYU students to in the fall. 

Capernaum was a really neat place to visit. 

So many miracles happened here during Jesus' ministry. He healed a man with an unclean spirit, healed Simon-Peter's mother in law, healed a Roman centurion and the paralytic who was lowered through the roof. This was also the home of His apostles Simon Peter, Andrew, James, John, and Matthew.  

Unfortunately, Capernaum did not accept Jesus as the Messiah and so he cursed the city. I'd say the curse still stands....

The darker colored buildings actually date back to around the Savior's time. Pretty cool!

I think 2 temples were built and rebuilt right on top of each  other here as well. Even though these ruins are younger ( built in the 1st and 4th centuries), the details are impressive!

They have built a modern shrine above where they think Peter's house would have been. You can see the ruins of a big house below the see through flooring of the shrine. I loved the carvings they had all around the room of all the different miracles that we know were performed in Capernaum. 

We headed out to see the Mount of Beatitudes where is has been believed for over 1600 years that this is where Jesus gave his Sermon on the Mount. I think I could've definitely sat in this pretty place for while, enjoying the Savior's teachings.

Even though it is believed that Jesus was baptized in the River Jordan south of Jerusalem, we still had to stop by and see it in the north! 

It's awesome that the Jews will go out on the rafts with their families fully clothed. Some of them even had on their Hasidic gear! 

Our flight left for London at 3pm that day, but we did our best to see as much as we could with the short amount of time we were there for. 

On our way back to the airport we stopped by Cana and Nazareth. 

Cana is where tradition holds this to be the place of Jesus' first public miracle of turning water into wine at a wedding feast.  

And in Nazareth, we saw Mary's well, where it is believed the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her that she would be the mother of the Messiah. 

The well could be seen at the very end of the long hallway. Everyone was praying off to the side and I felt weird just walking up there, taking a picture, and leaving, but we had a time crunch. 

We also stopped by to see where they think Joseph and Mary's house was located and Joseph's carpenter shop as well. I bet you can guess what they did to preserve it...yep, they built a church over it :)

It was fun driving around Nazareth. It's a big city that's settled on a beautiful location up on a mountain. I just imagined the Savior either walking or riding a donkey from this spot down to Capernaum, Magdala, and other fishing towns around there. From where Nazareth is settled, it couldn't have been an easy journey. 

We had to boogie to the airport and ended our time in Israel with a bang as our tire got a screw stuck in it and deflated. Luckily, an awesome Israeli guy was close by and fixed it for us in like 7 minutes and only charged us like $5! We are getting ripped off back at home in America! :)

I really mean it when I say that Israel has been one of the neatest places that I have every visited. It is so different from anywhere I've been and I loved it! The different cultures, the food, the historical sights and their significance to me and my faith... I loved it all and I can't wait to go back someday! It was a trip of a lifetime to see the land that raised the most important person that has ever walked this earth. I feel so much gratitude that I had the opportunity to experience this amazing trip and to have the scriptures come alive to me as we visited the Holy Land. I will forever read the New Testament in a whole different light when I study it. I feel so blessed that my sweet hubby found a way to make this part of the trip happen. 

Up next...London!