Holy Land

GREECE, ISRAEL, ROME

A HOLY LAND TOUR - November 1993

Here we are in the Diavanti Hotel, Athens, Greece; we are in a shell-shock state as we sit here watching the Tour Busses unload people into this Hotel. The Walkers, Pete and Norma and I, have just come from a camping low budget marvelous experience in Egypt. After people watching for an hour we decide to have a meal in a Greek restaurant, the meal was excellent, and it put us out of the grumpy mood we were in finding ourselves in a big tour hotel. We are here to meet a group from Idaho (including my husband Greg) who have signed up for a Scriptural Tour of Greece and the Holy Land. The leader of this tour is Father Simeon, a Benedictine Monk and good friend. They will arrive here at the hotel to-morrow.

(Marge and Greg)

The temperature is in the 60’s and we are feeling the cold after being in the heat of Egypt, so donning long pants and jackets we take a ferry boat to Aegean Island. The weather turned out to be nice and warm on this island, we could have worn our shorts. This is a natural harbor with many sailboats moored here from all over the world. It is a town of narrow streets filled with small shops and after exploring the town; we bought our lunch of beer, yogurt and biscuits and ate it on the Fishing wharf. We just had a nibble of what the Greek islands were all about, so we must come back someday.

(Greek Palace Guards, note the sidewalk where they have marched.)

Back at the hotel, we meet the rest of our group and my husband, who absolutely does not like to travel and has had a unique experience. Their plane landed in Denmark and the next day they took a flight to Greece. This would have been the first time he needed to show his passport, well he could not find his passport, everyone was in a dither and somehow Fr. Simeon got him off the plane and through immigration. Then the passport was found, he had put it in one of those security bags you put around your neck and there it was all the time, around his neck.

(my neighbor Fran and I pose at the Acropolis)

Next day, we went for a sightseeing tour of Athens, including the beauty of the Parthenon atop the Acropolis, the Roman Temple of Zeus and the Agora. We continue to drive outside Athens as we cross the Corinth Canal, an engineering marvel carved out of solid rock and opened in 1893. We are going to ancient Corinth, best known for its association with Apostle Paul.

In the evening we went to a Greek restaurant in the Placca area of Athens, which was jammed with non smiling tourist from Japan and Russia. About eight of us ended up in seats by the kitchen door, which meant having trays bounced over our heads. We had a great view of the entertainment and the belly dancers, and some of us outgoing Americans joined the dancers on stage.

We are now driving up the Greek Coast along the Saronic Gulf to Cape Sounion where we stop to see the ruins of an old temple where the Apostle Paul preached, then up to Cape Sounion to the ruins of the Temple of Pacedon “God of the Sea”. We had Mass outdoors using a slab of old marble rock for an altar, this was a perfect site. It has been a very busy day and we stop for dinner again in a Greek Café, I am starting to like Lamb. We leave Athens today and drive to Tel Aviv for our flight to Jerusalem. Sometime this morning the power went out in the Hotel, luggage became a problem and a little chaotic, three of the rooms had their luggage stuck in the elevators. It is now 10 a.m. and our flight leaves at 11.05, even in 1993, the security going into Israel was very strict. Our tour leader told us to be very quiet in the line up at the airport, and if pulled out of the line for questioning, just tell the truth, especially why we were late arriving. Two of our group were pulled out and taken into separate rooms and questioned. Finally we are off and flying for the two hours flight that lands outside of Jerusalem.

(My Favorite Food)

On the bus now, our first stop was Emmaus and the Benediction Monastery (French) at Abu Gosh. This was a marvelous building and they were restoring all the paintings on the Walls. From here we go to Jerusalem and check in to the Hotel National Palace where we will stay for the next six days.

These next six days are jammed packed with sightseeing, first we had a bus tour of the New city of Jerusalem, and at a high spot overlooking the city we could see the wall and where the old city is. Next we saw St. John the Baptist Church and the exact place where John the Baptist was born in the cave in the village of Ein Karen, then we saw the church of the Visitation, and here the paintings and the Mosaics are wonderful. After lunch we went to Bethlehem, St. Catherine’s Cathedral…then the birthplace of Jesus and so much more…I feel I am getting too much at one time and it seems like too much of a rush. After we got on the bus at Shepherds Field we saw a Shepherd with one sheep coming up the hill. (That had to be planned).

(the Rock of the Dome)

In the next few days we see the following;

We take a bus ride to the Mt. of Ascension, and the Pater Noster Church, along with a faith walk, stopping at the chapel of Dominus Flevit. Then we go into the ancient city and the Kedron Valley, the Garden of Gethsemane and visit the chapel of Mary’s tomb. Next day we saw the Wailing Wall, the Dome of the Rock and the El Aqsa Mosque, the Church of St. Anne and the Pool of Bethesda. We then walk along the Via Doloros, Way of the Cross, and visit the Chapel of the Flagellation and walk the entire Stations of the Cross, ending at the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre.

We saw newer sections of the Holy City, visiting Mt. Zion, then to the Upper Room, the Cenacle or place of the Last Supper, and Dormition Abbey to view the beautiful mosaics. Then, the Mt. of Olives which will take us to Bethany and the house of Mary, Martha and Lazarus and the chapel which marks the place of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.

(Fr.Simeon, begging for Alms, also wearing his new shirt from Egypt)

Next day we see Jacob’s Well, Hezekiah’s Tunnel and the Kennedy Memorial along with the model of ancient Jerusalem. On our last day in Jerusalem we had Mass at the Sisters of Zion Convent on the stone pavement where the soldiers gambled for the clothing of Christ.

During these past six days we had Mass each day in wonderful historic locations; I absolutely loved the paintings and mosaics which decorated most buildings. My favorite thing to do; get up really early and walk with Fathers Conrad and Jerry, we went into the old city and I learned my directions from the walks. I also had some quiet time, there were not many people around at this time of the morning. My favorite place to go was into the Old city and ending up at the Church of the Holy Schepular, we would walk for one and half hours and this would set me up to enjoy the rest of the crowded days.

Once back at the hotel each day, we would have a sharing time (happy hour) and have dinner at some neat restaurant. People are starting to get sick now, do not know if it the water, the different foods or what, including my husband Greg who gets motion sickness on the bus.

Our bus is now headed for Jericho and the Dead Sea, I have enjoyed the scenery; the deserts, mountains and an old Monastery called St. George’s high in the mountains. it is built on the side of the hill and has blue domes. Apparently you can hike to this Monastery from Jerusalem and then on to Jericho, it is a day hike. This afternoon I lost my voice and am not feeling too well. We had to be rerouted due to rock slides on the road, so we are not going to the Dead Sea but are heading North to the Galilee and Tiberius areas. To-night we are staying in a Kibbutz (a high class motel with dining room and lounge) it was great. The only thing is, the toaster does not work on Sundays, something to do with the religion.

( On the Sea of Galilie)

I am feeling good again now, the weather has turned chilly, we went to Peters Primary a wonderful spot on the shores of Lake Galilee, and we have now stopped at Cupurnam, the house of Peter. Fr. Conrad says 'this is one of the truly authentic places where you can actually put your finger on the actual spot'. Our lunch today was St. Peters Fish, it was good. We take a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee and to our hotel on the shore of the Sea. I had a great early morning walk the next day; the sea had big crashing waves.

To-day we saw a wonderful Hot springs Spa and a old Jewish temple with a 1000 year old mosaic floor that had pictures of people. We drove up to the top of Mt. Tabor and coming down we had marvelous views of the Jordan Valley. The next day we are on our way to Nathanth and are passing Hatten Valley. The Basillica of the Annuciation (where Angel Gabriel came to Mary) was absolutely the BEST for me, I loved this church, and they had so many mosaics from all over the world and each depicting Mary and child in their own nationality and style. I could have stayed in that church for hours just looking, it was wonderful. We have now reached Haifa and we visited the Carmelite Monastery which is all done in Italian Baroque style. We have stopped for lunch in Haifa; there are huge waves and surf coming in from the Mediterranean. We toured the ruins (still under a dig) of Caesurae; we will spend the night in Nethanya which is a wonderful modern Jewish city.

Today we travel to Tel Aviv and the airport to catch our flight to Rome. It took two hours to get through Security and then another hour to get ticketed. We got to our hotel in Rome at midnight, everyone is really tired. We only had a couple of days in Rome, so we visited the Vatican and had a sightseeing tour of the city including the Coliseum, the Basilica of St. Mary Maggiore and the Roman Forum. Next day we visit the Vatican again and a visit to St. Peter’s Basilica where we had Mass. In the evening we had a four-course dinner at a local restaurant and then pack up to leave in the morning for the Rome Airport

Our flight takes us to Copenhagen where we spend the night and then next day board the plane for Seattle and Boise Idaho.

This was action planned tour, and I did enjoy it, but I may have to go back and see all these places at a much slower pace.

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