Finishing in Jerusalem & Beginning My Tour!

I went to the museum at the Christ Church Guesthouse today & the guy there suggested that I see King Solomon's Caves where the limestone was sourced for the Second Temple. It was pretty awesome, like much of what you see in the ancient city.

I finished off the day with a meal at a local falafel restaurant - the food was absolutely delicious but a bit pricey!

Next day I wanted to see Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial, which meant a few trips on the Light Rail System. The displays were really well done and were a vivid reminder of the evil that can be in the hearts of men. As you can see, it was housed in an unusual triangular building and on the day there were about 100 police men & women viewing the displays as well.

Straight after that, I caught a bus from the Central Bus Station to Netanya which is about 20 km up the coast from Tel Aviv and where I was to meet the rest of the tour that night. I met Reggie (my room mate) and we chatted for about 3 hours over a meal - thankfully we got on really well together.

Next morning we headed off the Caesarea, another 12 km north of Netanya and saw our first ruins, including and the amazing amphitheatre from around the time of Jesus and which is still in use today.

Next was a visit to Mediggo to see a pretty vast area that had been excavated, including a pagan sacrificial site to Baal (the God represented by the g|olden calf) and the female goddess Asherah.

They also had an amazing water system - in times of siege, the spring could be accessed from within the city walls by descending 183 steps (that's today) and then walking along a horizontal tunnel - in this way, the enemy didn't know how the city was surviving without a water source!

Last stop for the day was at a recreation of parts of the village of Nazareth - it was really well done and the guide used the whole tour as an opportunity to tell the story of Jesus in a very natural and interesting way. The highlight for me was an operational olive press as would have been used 2000 years ago - quite amazing! If we had been there a week later, we would have seen this press in action as they were just about to harvest this year's crop of olives.



More soon - they really pack some experiences into these tours!