Day 01 – Friday, October 15, 2010 – Flight from Denver to Atlanta, Atlanta to Tel Aviv, Israel The sky was dark but with bright morning stars when we woke up at 6:00 to prepare for our travel day. After making sure the house was all ready for Tim and saying goodbye to the cats we left the house at 6:58 right on schedule. It is wonderful to have our friend and colleague Tim who ...
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Day 02 - Saturday, October 16, 2010 - Atlanta, GA to Tel Aviv, Israel Our flight from Atlanta to Tel Aviv was twelve hours but with comfortable accommodations and wonderful service from our Delta Flight staff the time seemed to go quickly. Again, because of the last minute rerouting at DIA through Atlanta, our seats were not together but a young woman was kind enough to change ...
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Day 03 - Sunday, October 17, 2010 - Tour Tel Aviv & Old Jaffa/Visit Llana Goor Museum & Rokach House Museum/Explore Carmel Market/Dinner with Bnei Brak The wake-up call came at 7:00 and we had our breakfast and then met for an orientation gathering at 8:30 in the lobby of the hotel. The first news Ran told us was that Delta found Gennie’s bag and they would send it to Nazareth and ...
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Day 04 - Monday, October 18, 2010 - Overland to Nazareth/Discover Caesarea Roman Ruins/Visit Haifa Today was our first travel day and we were all packed, had our breakfast, and watched Andre and the porters pack the bus with all of our bags by 8:00. It seemed a little dryer today; the temperature was 80º and the humidity was 56%. Everyone was on time this morning and ready to go ...
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Day 05 - Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - Optional Tour to Akko & Rosh HaNikra We had breakfast this morning at the crowded hotel with 10,000 other pilgrims who seemed like they had not eaten for three years! I exaggerate? Maybe a little… We began our day at 8:30 with a bright sunny day, 83º and 38% humidity. We were able to look down from our hotel into the Yizre’el Valley outside ...
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Day 06 - Wednesday, October 10, 2010 - Visit the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth/Explore Tzipori/Discover Zefat/Travel to Kibbutz Kfar Haruv, Golan Heights In order for Andre and the porters to load the luggage in our van this morning we had to wait for the three big tour buses to leave. It was amazing how calm things became after they had gone. We started our tour at ...
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Day 07 - Thursday, October 21, 2010 - Gamla Nature Reserve/Visit Kibbutz El Rom/Home-hosted Lunch in Druze Village Our alarm went off at 6:45 – this is getting to be a habit! We looked out to see the beauty of the Sea of Galilee right below us. The temperature was 73º and the humidity was 80%. A young man brought us a breakfast basket to our cabin at 7:30 with pancakes, eggs, ...
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Day 08 - Friday, October 22, 2010 - Visit Churches at Capernaum & Church of the Multiplication/Sail on Sea of Galilee/Enjoy Panoramic View of Jerusalem Both of us were awake before the alarm went off. Gennie got up early to work on some of her university mail and I caught up on a few notes. Our breakfast basket arrived at 7:30 and then two young women came to collect our bags at ...
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Day 09 – Saturday, October 23, 2010 - Tour Jerusalem’s Old City & Church of the Holy Sepulcher / Mount of Olives / Via Dolorosa After our hotel breakfast we began our tour of Jerusalem, the unofficial capital of Israel, and certainly the heart of the country. Ran changed our itinerary a bit to account for the Sabbath. We left the hotel at 8:30 and met Firas at the bus just a few ...
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Day 10 - Sunday, October 24, 2010 - Western Wall Tunnels/ Israel Museum/ Optional Bethlehem Tour Our alarm went off at 6:00 because Ran had scheduled our tour of the Tunnels and Western Wall at 7:00. We had another cool day; the temperature was 67º and the humidity was 79%. Everyone gathered early and we rode our bus to the site of the ancient first and second temples, King ...
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Day 11 - Monday, October 25, 2010 - Discussion with a Palestinian Woman /Optional Herodion and Ein Karem Tour We had breakfast at the hotel, and then met at 8:30 to have a discussion with a local Palestinian woman. She called Ran to tell him she was delayed at a check point. Ran began our discussion by drawing a map of Israel and we were able to label the cities of the Promised ...
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Day 12 - Tuesday, October 26, 2010 - /Yad Vashem – Holocaust Museum/Visit with Survivor/Machaneh Yehuda Market/Jewish Quarter/Mt. Zion Our routine has been: wake up call at 7:00, breakfast, and then our tour begins at 8:30. This group is so punctual we really appreciate their consideration. We began our morning with a trip to the other side of the city, to Yad Vashem, the ...
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Day 13 - Wednesday, October 27, 2010 - Transfer to the Dead Sea/Qumran Caves/Ein Gedi Nature Reserve/ Masada Today was a travel day and Ran had arranged for an early departure. The wake-up call was at 6:30 and we had planned to load the bus at 7:45. There was a delay and the bus got to the hotel late, so we left at 8:15. Our destination today was the Judean Desert. After a 40 ...
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Day 14 - Thursday, October 28, 2010 - Judean Desert Jeep Adventure/Afternoon On Our Own/Visit the Dead Sea Ran let us sleep in this morning. At 9:00 we met our drivers from the Jeep Company who took us on a 4-wheel drive tour of the Judean Desert. Our driver, Iliad told us this had been the hottest summer and fall on record. As our convoy of four Toyota Land Cruisers left the ...
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Day 15 – Friday, October 29, 2010 - Travel to Tel Aviv/Enjoy A Day in the Life of a Bedouin Community/Visit Bedouin Village, Women’s Association/Bedouin Lunch/Farewell Dinner Our bags were to be out in the hall at 8:00 and we had plenty of time for breakfast before leaving at 9:00. Leaving the Dead Sea we traveled north east back to Tel Aviv via Be’er Sheva and a small Bedouin ...
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Day 16 - Saturday, October 30, 2010 - Flight Home The alarm went off at 3:00 am and surprisingly we saw many cars and taxi cabs out on the streets. We completed our last minute packing and were in the lobby for the shuttle to the airport at 4:00. A full size bus came to pick up eight of us who were all going to depart at about the same time. As soon as we arrived at Ben Gurion ...
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