A trip to the Holy Land that nearly didn’t happen. Following the usual Pola Planner™ urgency, we started looking at hotel rooms 1 week before XMAS. Failing to realize that half of New York and a stadium full of Jeff Foxworthy loving southern Christian evangelists had booked all the rooms months prior, we were starting to look like Mary and Jesus willing to settle for a manger (with Wi-Fi preferably) to rest our weary heads…when our first XMAS miracle occurred-an available room magically reappeared on an internet site a day before we were to leave Spain and we grabbed it immediately. We were off!
Arrived in Tel Aviv at 2AM and our driver was nowhere to be found. The next morning another “friend” who told us to not pay for high priced guides and agreed to show us Jerusalem’s highlights couldn’t be reached. We were stuck…when the second XMAS miracle occurred-Super Ilan, the concierge, miraculously called us out of the blue and we cried to him that all our plans for XMAS week were gone. He went to work and within 2 hours had us set up with tickets and guides for all the Jerusalem “must sees” including the following which I will elaborate on briefly and assign a (1-5 yarmulke “ ᴖ “for each):
- David's Citadel excavation with a great light show (ᴖᴖᴖᴖ)
- Church of the Holy Sepulcher is also a must see-Jesus's body was laid after the Crucifixion, and the rock where the cross was stuck is also in here (ᴖᴖᴖᴖ)
- City of David/Hezekiah’s Tunnel-took a tour underground-not for the claustrophobics or “big boned” (ᴖᴖ)
- Wailing Wall-most moving experience for me and appreciated separation of men from dames (ᴖᴖᴖᴖᴖ).
- Other sites including 4 quarters tour-interesting but everyone was tired out (ᴖᴖ)
- Food-some excellent Israeli favorites for everyone (ᴖᴖᴖᴖ)
- Prices- The $USD not holding up too well ( ). (“no yarmulkes”)
Christmas Day
Imagine the difficulty in trying to find a XMAS tree in Jerusalem. What Liz and I feared would be a depressing reminder for the boys of what they were missing back home turned out to be one of the most memorable XMAS’s we will ever have. Everyone had been collecting and carrying with them gifts that each had collected in various cities along our journey…and although I was amazed by how much Nate and Gavin had squirreled away in their small backpacks…I was more amazed by the thought that went into each. Aside-I now have enough back rub coupons to open up my own spa when we return.
After the gifts we were opened from underneath the "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree" we had to rush downstairs for our next personalized tour-Masada, Ein Gede and the Dead Sea.
- Masada-highlight of the tour-inspirational story and equally amazing architectural feat (ᴖᴖᴖᴖᴖ)
- Ein Gedi-nature reserve-cool waterfalls but too many Israeli’s in underwear (ᴖᴖᴖ)
- Dead Sea-lowest point on earth and fun to float-not fun to itch later. Must do once (ᴖᴖᴖ)
Mahane Yehuda
The Jewish shuk (shopping area)-sweetest fruits I have ever tasted and amazing collections of foods and goods- Gavin bought Super Mario brothers novelty yarmulkes (ᴖᴖᴖᴖ)
Third XMAS Miracle
As we were preparing to leave to Jerusalem, we had a rental car reserved for our trip to the desert to build mud huts. As the Hertz employee drove our car toward us, we knew we had a huge problem-the car was a Honda Civic….for our family of 5 with 3 huge travel bags and 6 other backpacks/bags of crap. We were in trouble! We had to be at our next place that evening and there were no other larger cars available. Liz was convinced we should take a bus….but I had a newfound faith after a week in Jerusalem…and said we could make it work. After an hour of Tetras-like precision, I had every bag placed inside the car-now if we could just fit the kids in. We were given the third Christmas Miracle and everyone squeezed in and we were barely able to fit in the car.
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