Farewell Israel

Today was our last full day in Israel and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We started the day visiting the memorial just above the house we are staying to the Har'el Brigade who fought a pitched battle with the Jordanians for this hill in the 1967 war. Photo 1 is the radar tower built after that, as this is the highest point in the Judean Hills. The settlement is called Har Adar, a Hebrew attempt to put radar in the name. The tower is now a look out we climbed to the top of. Great view! Photo 2 - the memorial tanks and trench park looking towards Tel Aviv and the coast.

Then it was off to Jerusalem for the rest of the day, nicely dropped off by Sheryl. We did the souk, the markets. Much cleaner and safer than Amman and so abundant in produce. Tomorrow is the beginning of the Festival of Purim that celebrates Esther's story in the Bible. Young people dress up in fancy dress. Photo 3 - snapped these guys while we were having a coffee. Then they wanted to know if we wanted our photo's with them for a small cost. Nup!

Eventually we found the old City which we love walking through, and my direction finding was pretty keen for a change. We went back to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for the third time and discovered another level upstairs - the Orthodox level - smells and bells and chantting priests - Photo 4. This time we lined up and went into the holy sepulchre, the supposed tomb of Jesus. While I am sure that Jesus wasn't laid out on pink Italian marble, it is archeologically possible that it could have happen around the site because this site was outside the city walls of Jesus time. The actual sepulchre fits four people, so we shared with Russian Orthodox Christians.

Then we tottled off to the Garden Tomb for the second time. This also has a good case to be the place because it is in a place where there is a skull face in the cliff, that was a place of Roman crucifixion, and is now a depot for Arab buses. It is also Mt Moriah that Abraham climbed to as God tested his faithfulness, and is now a muslim cemetery. Anyway, Picture 5 is looking straight at the two eyes of the skull face. You might notice the fresh looking forehead area above where the nose would be. The forehead fell off just over 3 weeks ago when Jerusalem had the same big snow event Amman had. Pity that.

The garden tomb enclave was almost empty of people, unlike last time. Helen and I were able to spend 10 minutes alone in the actual tomb, which Helen talks about in the short video.

We have enjoyed Israel and the sites and the sights. It is a place of "peace', but with incredible tension. Today we took the light rail from Jaffa Gate back to Bus Central. We just got on when there was an announcement for everyone to get of the train quickly - so 2-300 people did just that, then the empty train took off leaving bewildered and concerned looking punters. Five minutes later another empty train came and we all got on. That was OK until I noticed 4-5 soldiers sprinting the direction we were heading. Anyway, we made it to Bus Central and back to the house again. Apparently Purim was a terrible time for attacks in Jerusalem until the wall went up.

Tomorrow morning we pack and fly out at 12.30pm to Istanbul for 3 nights, with our bucket list adventure being visiting Gallipoli. I can't guarantee effective internet contact from now on, but will do the best that I can incase you are still interested in what we are doing.