Eilat

A Day With Alon ~ Historian

Mt. Arbel

I was going to write extensively about our experience but I think Sarah did a great job. Here is her link: http://sarahsisraeljourney.blogspot.com/2011/11/mt-arbal.html

Pictures below:

Cote's under the carob tree - visable from almost everywere in the Galilee

Alon Barak - Historian and amazing Teacher!

The land of Naphtali

Ancient Synagogue

Elijah loves that Yeshua was here. Hugging the heart shaped column

There was only one way to enter and that was through the doorway. If Yeshua went to ALL the synagogue's in the area, he most certainly went through this one. It was so special to say the Sh'ma and learn how Yeshua would have spent his shabbats! 

Tomb of the Matriarchs

Memorial candles where people come and pray for their mothers on the anniversary of their death.

Ginosar

Kibbutz Ginosar is located on the western banks of the Sea of Galilee in Israel. North of Tiberias.

 

Restoration of an old fishing boat

Boats were made with several kinds of wood

Daniel's Boat

A Dip in the Sea of Galilee

Tiberias - Informational Video

Visit Jewish.TV for more Jewish videos.

Sukkot in Jerusalem

Sarah and I took the little kids and met up with Glenn and Nolan in Jerusalem for Sukkot. We took a bus from Tiberias early in the morning and found our way to Beit Sh’muel Hostel. It was only minutes from the Jaffa Gate entrance to the Old City. We met our Landlords, Leah and Gershom for lunch and they toured us around the Old City. Elijah warmed right up to Gershom and they became buddies. It’s nice to go with people who know so much and can explain what’s what. Such wonderful hosts! I’m sure they know everyone in Israel!

We met up with our dear friends, Blair and Linda Wetmore. We had so much fun with them. We toured around the Old City, prayed at the wall, had lunch with our Israeli wine, and danced in the streets! That evening, we went to the Tower of David Museum - Night Spectacular which was another highlight of our journey.

Sarah and Nolan particularly loved Ben Yehuda Street. There are lots of shops and restaurants along the way. No shortage of shawarma’s and falafels there! Lots of street entertainment and sukka’s everywhere.

Dead Sea - Glenn & Nolan

Glenn and Nolan went off to the Dead Sea with nothing more than a bag of sandwiches with Nutella. They camped over night, floated in the Dead Sea, and then off to Jerusalem. Here is a slide show of their journey:

Wildlife

Sukkot Part 1

On Monday morning I was woken by the sound of chain saws. As I looked out the window, I saw that they were pruning the palm trees. I just thought they must be doing maintenance and then realized that they were doing this in preparation for Sukkot! After 10 years of celebrating this feast in various ways in Canada and the USA, we get to celebrate it here in Israel!

It’s now the eve of the first high Sabbath so everyone is getting their Sukka’s put together. We helped our friends put theirs together.

New People - Yom Kippur

We were invited to a cook out with our friends and met lots of new people. They were having a celebration for some of the new immigrants who recently made Aliyah. Aliyah literally means “return to the land”. Ketzi, our host, has a very cool place. It’s over 200 years old with high ceilings, narrow hallways and gates on the arched doors. She has it done in trendy colors and has herb pots on her patio. She has been here for three years and gave up 10 acres with a big country home. She said it was a big adjustment but wouldn’t want to be anywhere else!

Yom Kippur was a very quiet day of fasting, praying and reflecting. The streets came to a stand still and there was not a car or bus to be heard. We went to the Beit Knesset (synagogue) for our first time at the end of the service. They go from 6:00am to 6:00pm. Men and women don’t sit together so Nolan was able to go into the men’s side and see them putting the big Torah scrolls away and hear the blasting the shofar. It was very cool.

Getting Around

We learned how to take the bus and it has been our main source of transportation this far. You can pretty much get anywhere on a bus. We had to buy a rolling cart to tote our groceries around. The Shook downtown has been my favourite place to go for fresh food. It’s like a farmers market with all kinds of fresh bread, fruit, olives, nuts and legumes, spices and clothing. On our way home we like to stop at the corner store for our iced coffee.

Israel!

We arrived in Israel at 2:30 am and our luggage arrived too! That hasn’t been the case on our last couple of trips. We’ve lost our luggage before so we were so excited to see each and every suitcase. Customs was a breeze. Our officer has family in Calgary and was just visiting so we just talked about the Rocky Mountains and then we were on our way. Our driver was there to meet us and we were off to Tiberias which was about a two hour drive. Our dear friends were at our apartment and settle us in. We were exhausted!

View from our apartment

We slept for a few hours and spent our very first erev Shabbat dinner in the land with our friends.

Amsterdam

YOTEL

When we arrived in Amsterdam at 8am (12am our time), we stayed at a Yotel which is a room you can rent for four hours at a time. It was well worth the money spent as we had twelve hours until our next flight.

KLM Airlines - The Only Way to Go!

The journey was very smooth and we couldn’t have even planned it better ourselves! KLM Airlines is a wonderful way to travel. Our seat ended up having an infant cot that hang in front of you on both flights. Benjamin slept soundly which made it easier for all of us.

Infant cot

Tiny little country

Watching a movie

Journey to the Land

Wow. Who would have thought that we would be in Israel for the fall feasts this year? We certainly didn’t. Within three weeks of finding out, we were on a plane making our journey. It happened so quickly and planning for a family of six was quite challenging as we would need enough for three months.

My biggest challenge was - how do I pack ten baby bottles for the airplane? There’s nowhere to clean bottles and I don’t even have ten. I decided to switch to Playtex bottle liners so I can dispose each time. I sterilized the nipples and kept them in a zip lock. I used powdered formula and frozen breast milk delivered from my friend in New Brunswick. We made it to Israel with milk to spare!