Day 1-3 - Travel and Exploring Up to Galilee

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Travel to Israel

Day 1 was Monday, February 3, 2020. That was the day we departed from Cedar Rapids around midday. We traveled through Detroit and then JFK in New York.

When I tried checking in at a kiosk, it told me to go to an agent at the counter. I didn't realize it had printed my itinerary, but I knew the boarding passes would have to wait until the counter agent examined my passport. I saw a coworker of mine in the Cedar Rapids airport. He saw the slip with my name on it and had grabbed it. So he handed it to me when he saw me. He was on the same flight to Detroit as I was taking, but we would part ways there. JFK had extra security at the gate before we boarded for Tel Aviv. I had to part with the water I had on me. My seat assignment wasn't on an aisle, the person on the aisle slept most of the way, and the crew rarely brought water or other beverages, so I found myself uncomfortably dehydrated for much of the flight. I tried to stay awake during most of the flight, knowing it can help adapt to the offset of 8 time zones from the prior night. There were times I wanted to sleep and couldn't. I was surprised at how little the seats reclined for an international flight. Surprisingly, I didn't leave my seat once for the entire flight, despite the flight being in the air for more than 10 hours.

We arrived in Tel Aviv in the late afternoon. I was one of the last people to reach the passport and customs area. I somehow found the slowest part of the line that was more of a mob than a real line. But they eventually allowed some of us to go to the lanes intended for Israeli citizens. I thought I was holding up the group, since I saw people from my flight had gotten through the passport control area long before I did. But they had to wait for baggage claim. I packed very lightly and avoided checking ANY luggage. That surprised even me, considering the trip lasted 10-11 days and involved international travel that benefits from power adapters and having more items that might not be as easy to acquire when one is nowhere near home. So the group was just getting ready to go about the time I met up with them, and I was told I didn't really hold up the group much, if at all.

Tel Aviv

I was amazed at the hotel's buffet. They had an amazingly long lineup of food and a large dining area. I would later realize this is common for the hotels we would visit. They can book tour groups every night, and each of them gets a buffet in the morning and evening, allowing us to eat somewhere else midday. So they all have large dining areas and have to accommodate lots of food, and they tend to choose to offer a wide range of food options.

We only stayed in Tel Aviv for one night, since it was near the airport. We had to check out the very next morning. It was nice while it lasted. I took a photo from my floor the morning I checked out so I could see the Mediterranean Sea. The more I would see of it, the more beautiful that sea appeared. We were told we could just put the luggage outside our rooms when we headed to breakfast, but that we needed to make sure it made it to the bus. With just minutes to spare, I saw the hotel staff was way behind and pulling luggage out of their elevator. I went back up to my floor and found they still hadn't picked up my luggage, so I grabbed it myself and made sure it made it onto the bus.

View from the Hotel in Tel Aviv

We boarded the bus and began the drive up the coastal plain to Haifa. Along the way, we prayed a bit. We were also told a little about the country and cities. As the rhyme goes:

Jerusalem is where we pray,

Tel Aviv is where we play, and

Haifa is where we stay.

We would only pass through Haifa though. Our first stop was Caesarea, the old major port city midway between Tel Aviv and Haifa. I would take many photos on the trip, and I meant to experiment more with my camera before the trip, since I finally have a DSLR camera as of Christmas. It can pair with my cell phone to receive location data and sync the photos if desired. It defaulted to syncing a 2 MB version of the photos, which is more reasonable than the full resolution versions. Even on these posts, I'm only sharing that lower-resolution version. By not trying the camera out enough in advance, I wouldn't realize that I had it set to not sync the location automatically, probably to save the battery a little. So most photos for the first day or two lack location data. After a day or two, I knew to manually sync the location occasionally. But I would eventually find the setting to make that automatic.

As we drove from one site to another, we sometimes chose to pray a rosary or at least a decade of the rosary. This made sense since the rosary is so deeply rooted in the life of Christ and the prayers point to God repeatedly. It was just a little unfortunate that we prayed the mystery of the Annunciation before arriving at the Church of the Annunciation. But anything we prayed on the first day in Israel would suffer from that same deficiency. So it wasn't so bad.

Added note: For people who don't know much about the rosary, it's easy to think it's all about Mary and repetition. But there's all sorts of stuff one misses if one believes that. Since this is about what I saw and experienced on this pilgrimage, I don't plan to go into more detail right here at this time.

Caesarea [Marítima]

We visited this site for both historical reasons, and some religious reasons. The port was the 3rd largest in the Roman world, aside from Alexandria and Athens. The Muslims leveled the port aside from the foundations long ago.

Saint Peter baptized the first gentile convert who was named Cornelius. Saint Paul would provide a defense of the Church here. Saint Paul would also set sail from this port to reach the many other places where he brought the Good News. All of these events occurred after Jesus walked this earth, so seeing it first felt a bit out of place. But geographically, it made the most sense to catch this along the route to where Jesus grew up and started His ministry.

We were fortunate to arrive in the off-season. The crowds were much less in size than if we had come even a few weeks later. We saw the beautiful sea. We also saw the ruins of the heavily damaged port city that was once more amazingly engineered than most things I've ever seen.

As we would continue on to the Hippodrome, I would see that the locally quarried stone blocks had a very unique texture and composition compared to anything I had seen before. It was loaded with holes and tiny tunnels. The texture appeared to me to consist of what coral rocks would have. So these were likely taken out of ground that was at one time under the sea. At first, that sounds like a rather unusual choice for quarried stones, but considering that the Romans submerged so many things into the sea to form the port and built gigantic statues to make it look like giants were walking on top of the deeper waters, they were already doing plenty of things under the sea...under the sea...(Little Mermaid sing-along time)

Welcome to the Hippodrome! People would sit in the stadium watching races. I hoped to see some hungry, hungry hippos, but there weren't any around. My expectations were misplaced.

What remained of the massive port was really minor in comparison. They showed a movie that explained what once was here. But I wished they had something to look through that would lay it out so one could grasp the full magnitude of the massive port.

The amphitheater seated many people. It had great acoustics. Father Chris demonstrated by singing a little bit. We were not seated at the time, but other groups applauded. I chose not to record the incident.

Not far from the site, we viewed the aquaduct from the bus. We were a little behind schedule already.

Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel

The Carmelite order is named after this mountain. Elijah spent time in a cave on this mountain. The shrine is dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, but Elijah clearly has a major place here. Both of the two are depicted on the doors to the church.

Mary appears above the altar, while Elijah has an altar in the cave just below the main altar.

One could view the Mediterranean Sea from the mount that overlooked Haifa.

The Baháʼí Gardens are in Haifa. We just drove by them, but they are said to be very beautiful.

Nazareth

We ventured on to Nazareth for our midday meal.

Then we went to the Church of the Annunciation. The Annunciation took place where Mary lived. That is preserved with an altar in the lower level of the church. The Annunciation is described in the Gospel according to Luke. The passage tells of the time when the Angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would conceive of Our Messiah. The literary method used in the account draws parallels between the Ark of the Old Covenant and Mary, the Ark of the New Covenant. The columns and supports of the structure have cylindrical pieces cut out of them. They are just at the surface level and similar to an I-beam, the size and location of them are such that their removal didn't negatively affect the structural integrity of the building. The removed pieces were sold to raise funds at one point. So this church is very holey and holy.

Church of the Annunciation Façade

Site Map for the Church of the Annunciation

Courtyard of the Church of the Annunciation

Door Containing Religious Stories Depicted in Art

Another Door Containing Religious Stories Depicted in Art

Nearing the Place of the Annunciation

Line Leading Down to the Site of the Annunciation

More of the Line

People Outside the Gated Site of the Annunciation

"Holey" Pillars

Depiction of the Annunciation Near the Site

Altar of the Annunciation in the Cave of the Annunciation

The Floor Pattern Leading to a Major Doorway

Opening for the Angel to Come Down

The trees near the site in Nazareth even seemed to form an "N" for Nazareth. I'm not sure what was wrong with the one tree in the middle.

N is for Nazareth

The Church of Saint Joseph is also on the same grounds. His workshop exists in a grotto below. There are other archeological digs in the area.

Saint Joseph's Workshop includes some artwork depicting the family. This area is also marked with an altar.

We prayed Mass in the Church of the Annunciation. One thing about Masses in the Holy Land is that they don't follow the standard liturgical cycle. One has the readings specific to the location, which makes much more sense. In each reading, they emphasize "HERE" to make it really sink in that you are in the presence of the events that took place...you are where it happened.

The ceiling had a more conical shape, trying to depict the motion of the angel up/down through that area, passing through the hole that led down to Mary's home below. The walls were adorned with artwork from all over the world. After Mass, I had another chance to take some photos, and captured a more distant shot of the outer courtyard.

Cana

The Bible passage for the Wedding at Cana appears on a very long engraving along the path to the church. I broke it up into 3 separate panoramic photos.

The church is just a church in Cana. The exact location of the wedding and the events that took place in the Biblical account are not very clear beyond simply occurring in Cana.

Cana Wedding Church Façade

Cana Wedding Church Sign

The "jar" is likely just a cistern. But it provides a bit of an idea of the amount of water we are dealing with in the Bible account. I thought back to a group of friends who once studied these passages and noticed the number of jars was 6. Someone asked what the number 6 represents. It is incompleteness, among other things. Seven is the number of completeness. We also noted that this is the start of the ministry of Jesus, and it is bookended with His sacrifice from the Last Supper through Crucifixion. He turns water to wine here, and wine into his blood at the Last Supper, making him a prophet like Moses who turned water into blood. He told his mother that His hour had not yet come, while at the Last Supper, His hour has come.

But what about the incomplete 6 jars? In the account of the preparations for the Last Supper, Jesus tells his Apostles to follow the man carrying a jar (the 7th jar) that brings completion.

It was disappointing to see the amount of graffiti that led them to put up signs telling people not to write on the walls.

People Seek the Jar More Than Jar-Jar

Don't Write/Deface the Site

Graffiti

The "Jar"

We entered the church and had a renewal of vows for the married couples.

Six Jars Appear on the Altar

An Inscription on a Stone Below the Floor (I forget what this was supposed to be)

Now for the renewal of vows. The women were given bridal veils. Couples were given certificates afterward. I barely knew most of the people yet, but would know most of them much better within days.

As we were about to leave Cana and head to our hotel in Tiberias on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, we couldn't help but notice that right across from where the bus parked for the church, there was a shop selling dresses. Were they wedding dresses? We weren't sure. But they were lit up and stood out.

Oh, and regarding the Ark of the New Covenant... Since Mary is the New Ark, I didn't think too much about it when I stumbled across this box, so I left it where I found it.

Ark of the Old Covenant I Left Behind

Thus, the travel to Israel was complete, I had a night's rest, saw a few sites on the way to Galilee, and was resting in the second hotel that we would use for just two nights. It was easier to take notes on this first day of exploration since we had so much time between sites. The pace would rapidly speed up, making notes harder to jot down as the trip went on.

Continue to Day 4, Part 1