Tag Archives: Israel

One Week in Jerusalem: Seeing Jerusalem with Wondrous Eyes

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Crowd Entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Crowd Entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

I just returned from my one-week trip to Jerusalem, and I was sitting jet-lagged in church on Sunday when the priest at my Episcopal church was talking about how we choose to see the world. In the sermon, he talked about seeing the world with “wondrous eyes.” This phrase has stuck with me, since it is with wondrous eyes that I see all of the places I travel to, but especially how I saw Jerusalem and Israel.

First of all, one week is hardly enough to see Jerusalem, Israel, and the Holy Land, but it IS enough if that is all the time you have. I went to Israel for a conference (the TBEX Jerusalem conference for travel bloggers), and so my time was particularly short. Not only did I have just one week, but I had a 2-day conference smack in the middle of my week. Nevertheless, I managed to see the Old City of Jerusalem (including the Church of the Holy Seplecure, the Wailing Wall and the Via Dolorosa), the City of David, the Israeli Museum, Yad Vashem (the Holocaust museum and memorial), the Mahane Yehuda marketplace, Bethlehem, Jericho and Masada.

View of the Jerusalem Hills from the City of David

View of the Hills of Jerusalem

For anyone from the three major Abrahamic faiths, Jerusalem and Israel is a place of wonder and amazement. For me, as a life-long Christian, I could hardly believe that I was standing at and seeing the actual places from the Old and New Testament in the Bible. My emotions overwhelmed me several times; at the Wailing Wall while praying, at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the early morning during services and at the Unction Stone, at St. Annes while a youth group sang Amazing Grace, and at Bethlehem, both in the cave and when my guide sang Our Father in the language of Jesus. I was very glad to not be with a large tour group for my visit since my husband and I could visit these places at our own pace, pausing were our spiritual needs and desires led us.

Besides the religious places we visited, we were also in awe and filled with wonder at several archeological sites–Masada, the City of David, Jericho and the Israeli Museum with its Dead Sea Scrolls, world’s oldest Bible and much more.

I’ll have separate articles and photos (many already on my Instagram with micro-blogging) on many of the places we visited, some guide services and short tours that we used, and our accommodations. Continue reading →

Twisted into a Pretzel at 39,000 Feet, On My Way to Jerusalem!

On the way to SFO

I am 6 hours in on a 13 hour flight in Economy Plus on United Airlines on my way to Jerusalem. My body still hasn’t fully recovered from my trip to Japan, so this should be an interesting trip. I did want to push myself to see if I could do two international trips back to back, and also to see how I can handle a long-haul flight in Economy. I’ve been very lucky the past few years to do nearly all my long-haul flights in Business Class thanks to a combination of upgrades and cheap business class fares (yes, yes, I do see those tiny violins you are playing for me…I’ve just been lucky and the luck has run out). The business class fare for this direct San Francisco to Tel Aviv flight was quite expensive ($8,000) and upgrades were just not happening (even as a 1K; evidently lots of full fare and Global Service and 1Ks flying from Silicon Valley to Silicon Wadi) so here I am.

I’ll have a full review of the flight later, lets just say I’m on a Dreamliner which is a pretty plane, but whoever made the decision to shove 9 seats across on this 787-8 should be tortured throughout eternity for the torture of all the passengers having to sit in these seats for long flights. My goodness, I’m a small person and I fill the seat completely; no wiggle-room in this 17.3″ across seat. And as for sleep, well the seats sort of slide and don’t recline and even with a neck pillow I keep pitching forward. So I’m writing instead.

I’m on my way to Jerusalem. The Holy Land! This is exciting. I’m actually going to a Travel Blogging conference called TBEX, but also spending a couple of days as a tourist with Mr. Travelholic and my niece Claire who is flying in from Continue reading →