The beginnings of our Pilgrimage.

Jerusalem is the most amazing place. We arrived in Tel Av iv around 3:30 in the afternoon .We found our luggage after a good walk through the airport and then arrange to catch an airport van to our hotel on the Mount of Olives. We had a relaxing ride through the country to Jerusalem. Our hotel was called The Mount of Olives Hotel and it was very interesting in so many ways. It is situated at the top of the Mount of Olives where Jesus ascended into heaven and is to the east of the Old City. Our room was on the third floor overlooking a street that was situated on a very busy intersection. When I say that traffic was crazy I am not exaggerating in any way. There were a number of men just sitting around doing nothing. At one point we heard a commotion on the street and looked out the window in time to see a young boy on a camel. It was a dangerous place to ride but the boy seemed happy to show off his camel riding skills. Before I could get my camera out a few of the men yelled something to the little camel jockey in Arabic and he galloped out of sight. I suppose they told him that he should quit fooling around in the street with his dad’s expensive camel. The Mount of Olives is a steep incline leading down to the city of Jerusalem. If I could have tossed a bowling ball out of our hotel window it would have hit the street and rolled continuously downhill. In a few minutes it would have come to the Garden of Gethsemane.This is the garden where Jesus may have spent a lot of prayer time. There are eight olive trees in this garden that may be at least 2,000 - 3,000 years old. They still bear fruit. If they are not the actual trees in the area where Jesus prayed, then they could have been young saplings when Jesus came here with the disciples on that night after the Last Supper (Matt. 26:36; Mark 14:32; John 18:1).It was a very quiet place.There was no one in sight. The air was hot and dry and the sound of locusts were in the trees.The view of the countryside and of the wall of Jerusalem were beautiful.There were so many olive trees mixed with cedar and pine spread out through the rolling hills. A profound atmosphere of calmness and serenity are in this place.

Excitement on the Mount of Olives

So we hopped on a plane and flew across the world to sleep on the Mount of Olives. We actually had a room in a hotel on the Mount. We were possibly at the same spot where Jesus ascended to heaven. How awesome is that? We had a beautiful view right over the Garden of Gethsemane and into the old city of Jerusalem. We arrived at our hotel very close to sundown on Friday so we were privileged to hear the sabbath being ushered in. We walked up our street and crossed over. We found ourselves looking into what we later realized was probably part of Gethsemane. Past that were tombstones and then the wall of Old Jerusalem. We had a perfect view of the Golden Gate.

Jerusalem

Our daughter Shauna and son-in-law Roberto came up with this crazy idea while they were on their honey moon in Paris. Picture this: they are walking through the Louvre and somewhere between Rembrandt's Bathsheba and Leonardo Davinci's Mona Lisa, they plotted to send us to Israel for or 25th wedding anniversary.

What a beautifully unselfish thing to do, not too mention expensive.
So they surprised me ten days before the trip with well planned out gifts in numerical order. For example say number one was a travel pillow with ear plugs and a sleeping mask. That threw me off because I have never used such things in travel. Probably because I was never that well prepared. Our daughter however is a well organized planner who thinks of everything.

Number two was several packs of gum which I always take on a flight to keep my head from exploding but I still did not put one and two together. By now I imagine that everyone was very frustrated and ready to throw in the towel. I was the only one who did not know about this trip. They had been planning it for at least eight months.

I'm sure they were very excited to have me get the clues. Shauna had to have put considerable time into coming up with the ideas and then buying the gifts and wrapping them. Looking back I really feel stupid when I think of how one of the gifts was a book on learning Hebrew and another gift a travel book of Israel. How dumb can one person be. It was starting to sink in by then but the thought of the possibility of such a trip was just not comprehensible to me. Well, it could have been a 'working up to a trip on Israel package'. My motto has always been, "never get overly excited about anything until it is actually happening" or at least I'm sure that it will happen.

When I realized that the tickets were bought I still could hardly believe such a possibility was mine. How amazingly wonderful and exciting. I still find it hard to believe at times, that we were actually across the world in Jerusalem. To be continued...