We're sitting here at the airport in Tel Aviv waiting for a 12:30 am flight back to the states. It's crazy to think our time is done and that we've already been here almost 2 weeks! What a great trip...super wonderful people to spend the time with...awesome guide(s), bus driver, and schedule...more food than we could ever think of eating (I plan to do a seperate post to show you all the food).
Anyways, Friday was our last real tour type day. We began the morning over at Beit Shan which is an incredible site...lots of archeaology uncovered there. You can see the pics looking down from the high hill all the area they have discovered. The primary OT text here is that Saul's body was fastened to the walls and then removed by the men of Jabesh Gilead. There is a tremendous amount of 1st century Roman history here as well. One of the pics is of the ampitheatre where the gladiators would fight. The long trail up the hill has some Canaanite and even Egyptian levels. We joke that sites have to be at least 2 thousand years old for us to be interested around here...but, in the States we're amazed at places only 200 years old...different perspective for sure.
And, lastly, we headed over to Bethlehem. It's definitely a disappointing site to see, but it's still the place of Christ's birth. That town is under Palestinian control currently so Israeli tour guides are not welcome there. The wall with lots of graffiti on it seperates the two people groups. As expected, there is a large church on the historic site and three different sects control part of it. The present church was built by Justinian and the lovely mosiacs below the windows are from his time, I think. More interesting really than the church is just being in an area controlled by the Palestinians...it felt a bit unsettling to me and just more chaotic. Nice to get back to Jerusalem.
Today is also Dave and my 17th anniversary...nice place to celebrate!
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I wasn't able to get internet yesterday afternoon/evening so couldn't post this...we just arrived back onto American soil...good to be halfway back. :-)
Well, I thought I had internet at JFK, but was wrong...so, we got back into Wenatchee early afternoon and have been enjoying being with the kiddos, getting unpacked, and trying not to fall asleep. :) Can't wait to get to bed tonight!
1 comment:
Looks like you had a fabulous trip! Thanks for posting all the great photos and stories. You must be exhausted.
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