Leaving Israel

We say goodbye to Israel with a day at the beach on the Mediterranean sea in Tel Aviv ... as we leave Israel i am reminded of a quote by David Ben-Gurion one of the architects of the state of Israel.... "In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles." realists who believe in miracles is the best definition i have found to describe the people of this great land...thanks it has been real.... and I too believe this land still contains many miracles.

Black mud

We went to a spa and rolled around in the black gooy mud which you let bake onto your body in the sun.... it was near where the The Dead Sea Scrolls were found....but as interesting as the scrolls are the real find has been the mud and minerals found in the area used today for beauty products and cosmetics to preserve our youthful looks... the egyptians used it for balms to preserve their dead through mummification... ahh we all want to live forever.... well the egyptians did we just want to look young forever...

a dead sea swim

A swim... well a float in the dead sea...422 meters (1385 ft) below sea level... you just sit and you can lift your hands and feet out of the water.. a very strange sensation....a little different than actually walking on the water but just as fun.... i might have stayed on the swim team if we had to swim in water like this... strange to me though is that why, when it is almost impossible to sink into the water, would they have a life guard on duty...

Masada

We visited Masada and rode the cable car up to the ancient fortress built in about the year 35 by Herod the great. Masada today is one of the symbols for the survival of the Jewish nation... An uprising by zealots around the year 70 led to the destruction of Jerusalem and a group of 960 men, women and children escaped to Masada and held out there for three years... the Romans could not breach the walls so they moved a mountain next to the fortress to build a ramp... when it looked like the Romans were going to break through the zealots, rather than being taken by the Romans, set up a suicide pact selecting 10 men to kill everyone then themselves....so today the memory is part of an oath taken by Israeli soldiers "Masada shall not fall again." ...it kind of reminds me of the the official motto found on license plates from New Hampshire "Live Free or Die"... kind of makes me glad to live where the motto is just good old "beautiful B.C"....

Saying Goodbye to Haifa

As we sadly head out of Haifa we say goodbye to many new and old friends as well to an amazing area full of history and life.... one thing I have learned on my travels through the castles of Europe is that while kings and queens come and go leaving little but statues ... artists, musicians and inventors change the way the world works and sees itself... and poor, humble Prophets illuminate the spiritual life of the planet....., But i have also learned that you can never say goodbye...for example we met Martin and Tarra Kerr in a park in the south of England at the Jane Austen festival and out of the blue here in Israel we meet them again.... small world... As well i think maybe some of you might have met him as well for he was a finalist on Canadian Idol... him and his wife are amazing people... and if you don't know him... do get to know him....you will be happy you did... i know i am... martinkerrmusic.com

Adrian

It was a great bonus to find that my nephew Adrian arrived in Haifa to do a year of service working in the Baha'i gardens. Getting time to know him better was an extra bonus of our coming to visit the Bahai world Center... He too has to walk up the mountain every day, as he lives in the building marked with arrows at the bottom of the terraces leading up the mountain. However walking is a small price to pay for living in such a beautiful place... as well as a long distance runner he can probably use the exercise... as if mowing and hard work would not keep him in shape...

Most Holy

The most Sacred place in the world for the Bahai's is here at Bahji, the resting place of Baha'u'llah. With the amazing gardens and natural beauty along with the spiritual significance every one whether Baha'i or Visitor, or Wedding party coming to take their pictures all find some beauty and pleasure and deep satisfaction in this special place.

a kind heart

Although there are many easy ways up mt Carmel we took the hard way. Every day we climbed up the steps as Aja developed a relationship with the various scruffy cats and creatures on the mountain and figured they needed the bits of food and loving that we gave them.... so each day we got our exercise, (not taking buses or taxi's up or down the mountain) and moved snails and slugs off the path into gardens, fed and patted cats. In Bahjí, aja had to make her stop to give bits of apple to a community of ants... she was very sad about leaving the scruffy cats on mt Carmel... especially since in the pictures you can see that one of them learned how to give a high five... i know breanne's dog can do that but don't think brittany's dog can do it yet... and I just know Zoe is smarter than any cat...

the Ark

Baha'u'llah said that God would sail his ark on Mt. Carmel... but as a big boat to hold two of each animal would have to be really really big for all of today's creatures and would not hold too many people ... so instead the Bahai's have built the things needed for the development and creation of a united world community with buildings for understanding the law, teaching, study, an archives, and a library.... this ark may not float on water but to me the idea holds a lot of water..

Santa

Walking down the streets in the hot weather that Israel calls its winter I was surprised to walk by this shop selling Christmas trees, decorations and ornaments... In Jerusalem and Bethlehem people were so focused on Jesus and His life and prophecies and although there were were many Christian crosses, nativity scenes, and a host of other memorbelia for sale I did not see signs of Santa or Christmas trees there... To see this store in Haifa reminded me a little of what it must be like back home with everyone preparing for Christmas.

Fire insurance

To walk in Akka is to walk on history... a prison fortress built on top of a crusader castle, built on top of a Phoenician city.... The key stop for the Romans the Crusaders, Asian and European traders and the development of the modern state of Israel. In the picture you can still see a cannon ball stuck in the wall from the time Napolean tried and failed to take the city...

Hosea had said that 'Akká was 'a door of hope'. Ezekiel had referred to it as 'the gate that looketh toward the east' to which 'the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east'

By the time Baha’u’llah was banished here from the east it was a rundown prison at the edge of the Ottoman empire... it was in such a poor state that it was said that a bird attempting to fly over it would drop dead...

Muhammad said that anyone drinking and washing from the water in Akka would be so protected that “God hath forbidden the fire of hell to touch him and his body on the Day of Resurrection.” I am glad that I stopped washed my hands and had a snack and a cup of tea at the house of Abbud in Akka...Dante should have taken the time to come here as it could have saved him from walking through the many levels hell...... anyway it is always nice to have some extra fire insurance....ha ha

Wolves in Israel

It is hard to be in Israel and not be reminded of scripture... to walk where scripture was revealed or read about past and future events prophesied in scripture to take place in this Holy land....

So I opened the Bible on my I-pod and searched for Mount Carmel... The first quote I found was where Isaiah said: "the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose... and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the splendor of our God." and that the Law would go forth from there...

Of course Isaiah also said that “the wolf and the lamb will drink from the same stream... and the lion and the calf pasture in the same meadow” so while Aja and I saw the desert blossoming and many things dedicated to the Glory of God... and while we also saw lambs and calfs.. we kept our eyes open for lions and wolves .... because Isaiah did not say anything about them sitting nicely with humans... and i would not want one of them sneaking up on us.. Leah would not be impressed if aja got eaten by a lion.. luckily we did not see any...

Then I got to thinking that I am a member of the Tagish-Tlingit Wolf clan and felt kind of bad as I realized that as a wolf I had been enjoying the gyro’s with roasted lamb and pita bread served with humus and tasty veggies, olives and chili peppers.... After that we left the mt. Carmel area and I did not have a chance to drink with any lambs...but I promise next time I am in Israel I will stick to the Chicken gyro’s...and take a long cool drink out of a stream with the lambs...

Gardens in Diversity

I wondered why such conscientious thought and care was put into creating the diversity of the Baha’i gardens. But as i walked through each garden and was continually delighted by the many different kinds of flowers... I began to notice that around me were people from many different countries... It struck me that just as the diversity of the flowers increased the charm of each of the gardens, the diversity of people attracted and coming to the gardens reflected the same beauty through their diversity...
As I sat on one of the many benches to meditate on this... and of course to relax in the warmth and from walking up so many stairs... I remembered something my father always quoted from the Baha'i writings “when the various peoples of the world with their different shades of thought, temperament and character, are brought together the beauty and glory of human perfection will be revealed and made manifest”.... Yes even traveling around the world it is important to take time and stop and smell the roses...and think of the people we care about

the not so grave yard

Only once before in my life have I had the experience of being somewhere where i knew as many dead people as i did the living.... The first time was when i visited the grave yard in Carcross in the Yukon....so many of the hero's and role models associated with my childhood and youth are buried there..... and here at the Bahai graveyard by the lower cave of Elijah there are also buried many people that I have met and admired as a youth... I think i must be getting old to know so many people that have died and passed on to the next world... "how many people are dead or buried in those grave yards?" you ask.... and i answer "all of them...."

Tourists

We are in Haifa Israel staying at the base of Mount Carmel a favorite place of Elijah, Israel's eccentric prophet, who on Mount Carmel made his stand against the prophets of Baal... It is the location of the Baha’i world center and the second holiest place in the Baha'i world... This mountain has been mentioned in prophesy and praised in the Torah, the Bible, and the Koran ....In this sacred land after visiting the Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Bahai' most sacred and holy places we are no longer sightseers, visitors or tourists .... In this holy land we have become pilgrims...

Golden Arch

This sign about whether or not walking through a metal detector is considered work shows how much work... i mean debate...goes into the meaning of work.... i am going to have these guys work on my job description...i think i may be working too hard or not getting paid for work i am actually doing that i did not know i was doing... and yes there are golden arches... as the for candy that you have to work for... kinder eggs they are actually designed differently so as not to be as much work to open.... but even though they are easier i am not sure if you would be able eat them on the sabbath day..... for news of the work protests in Jerusalem and other places see this bbc news article sent to me by francis....

BBC NEWS | Middle East | 'Sabbath' protest targets Intel

Golden opportunity

This is the Golden gate in Jerusalem.... when Christ returns someone figured that of the 5 gates into the old city of Jerusalem He would most likely enter the city by this gate.... so it was quickly bricked and cemented up and a grave yard placed on the wall outside .... the theory being that when the Father returned in the Glory of the Lord he would not walk across sacred ground and would be stopped by the 5 meters of solid bricked up gate..... as the rest of the prophesies suggest he would return sometime in the 1840's so it looks like bricking up the gate and building the cemetery might have slowed Him down a bit...

It is the Sabbath again today so most things are closed until 530... the Jewish day starts at sunset on friday and goes to sunset on saturday... then after sunset the city comes to life.... I guess with everything closed we could always go and take more pictures today....

the Riot

Aja and I tried hard to get pictures of the Hasidic Jews as they, being ultra-orthodox, had the most traditional outfits.... we did not have much luck, then on the Sabbath day (saturday) as we were walking back to our hotel we noticed a whole group of them.... so we rushed ahead to take their pictures.... little did we know that they were in the midst of trying to shut down a Jewish parking lot that was open on the sabbath... to them it is forbidden to work on the sabbath.... there was a wall of police trying to hold them all back... little did we know that taking pictures was also considered work... when they saw us taking pictures there was a lot of shouting and the wall surged forward and a few broke through the police line yelling in Hebrew... it took a few seconds for us to realize they were shouting at us.....aja later compared it to a scene from the wizard of oz where Dorothy and toto were surrounded by the flying monkeys... so boys and girls if your thinking of leaving Kansas be sure to read your travel manuals about upsetting the locals...

Dome of the Rock

The most famous Islamic site in Jerusalem is the Dome of the Rock. It is a mathamatically perfect structure and houses a hair of Muhammad's beard and the sacred rock inside the shrine stood in the center of Solomon's Temple. For Jews, it is the rock on which Abraham prepared to sacrifice Isaac. For Muslims, it is the rock from which Muhammad's winged horse lept into the sky, accompanied by the Archangel Gabriel, on the "Night Journey" into heaven. Muslim tradition holds that an angel will come to the rock to sound the trumpet call of the Last Judgment at the end of the world... when we went around the corner I made a trumpet sound but no one got too excited or paid too much attention.... I got more reaction for making bagpipe sounds in Scotland..... may be I should have tried the bagpipe sounds here as everyone knows hearing them puts the fear of the Lord into you...

There is also a tradition that if you say a prayer here after having walked around the rock you can get a certificate entitling admission to paradise... if anyone wants access to paradise let me know and I will have it buried with you....I think I am covered from the few coins i threw into the pot at the church of the Holy Sepulchre....

Vi Delorosa

The Via Dolorosa (Latin for Way of Grief or Way of Suffering) it is held to be the path that Jesus walked, carrying his cross, on the way to crucifixion. It is currently marked by fifteen stations of the Cross. It is very common to see a procession re-enacting the scene (most with far less whipping and kicking than was show by Mel Gibson) we saw several, many with simple or even elaborate props... we also discovered we could have bought a crown of thorns and rented a cross if we had liked.... The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is quite a crowded but wonderful place shared between several Christian churches and secular entities in complicated arrangements essentially unchanged for centuries, all happening in front of throngs of picture snapping tourists...

Jerusalem Western Wall

The holy of holy places for the Jewish World.... the last remnants of Soloman's Castle, the site where Abraham built his first church and was asked by Jehovah to sacrifice his son... reputed by some to be near the location of the garden of Eden....we spent the day walking lost along the streets of the old city of Jerusalem until we came to the Western Wall..where we sat a long time and meditated on how our footsteps, the footsteps of many tourists and the footsteps of modern Jews in the act of worship...were a part of a journey through time with this sacred spot which has felt the footsteps of many prophets and to many even the footsteps of God...

loot

Aja said that when her and brittany and dave and oreanna went to hawaii, dave had his swiss army knife taken away because it was in his carry on bag... she said he would have missed the plane if he had run back through security... have heart dave... in budapest they put the items taken from people on display for the entertainment and enlightenment of the rest of us.... we did laugh and think of you... we were hoping this thing would have a coin slot and a little claw hand and we could try and win one back for you... but it was just a display ....

right hand

We had to go into st. Stevens Cathedral in Budapest because for 500F we could climb to the top and get a 360 degree view of the city... as well they promised us that we would get to see the mummified right hand of st steven... who was the first king to be made into a saint... i thought that the hand would be near the alter in a special place... however, the hand was in a back room in a glass case and someone stood and said we could take a picture of it for 200F ....the light was poor and the hand up high so we did not put the money into the priest's not mummified right hand ...

price of entering the cathedral 500... price to take a picture of the hand 200..... getting the picture off the internet priceless....

big shot

The view from the top of the hill in budapest was great... as mentioned earlier you can always find guns on top of most hills around cities in europe... in fact they even had cannons on top of mt blanc... i did appreciate the monuments which usually reflected the lives and deaths of the hero's that built the cities or nations.... however, in some ways i miss the simple wonder and charm of the mountains of ireland and scotland where you found sacred circles of stones instead of cannons...

The Spa

After walking the historic streets and climbing the historic hills of Budapest .... we did what many of the locals do... we went to a bathhouse.... as big fans of spirited away how could we miss the chance to go for a soak.... even though inside there are many rooms with small pools, medicinal baths, sweedish and turkish saunas we opted to swim in the two open-air pools with the loungers and chess players... at a cool 4 degrees outside the hot pools were a delightful way to spend an afternoon....

Up the Hill

Along with walking in Budapest we hiked up one of the local hills to see three things you can expect from any prominent hill in any european city.... a spectacular view of the city, a monument to the city, and cannons.... (none loaded so far) the arrow points to the monument as seen from town looking up the hill.

Andrassy rd Budapest

We have done a lot of walking around many Europen cities and i must say walking the 2.5 km length of Andrassy rd in Budapest was a treat.. The whole road has been designated a Unesco world heritage site. Andrásy Avenue takes you through Budapest's major cultural hubs with the ornate State Opera House, and institute of ballet, many museums and exhibitions halls and every house and buiding is an example of fine architecture... After looking at our pictures of walking down one side we realised in order to get the full perspective we will have to walk down the other side when we return to budapest toward the end of november... so stay tuned for the flip side

home of print

We came to Vienna because we heard it was a great cultural place... the site that drew together the world’s great composers... we also came for the chocolate and coffee.... And just when we think we had heard, seen and tasted it all we discover the other side that also brought us Gutenberg ...Vienna a city with a crazy mix of culture and science...oh yeah and speaking of crazy mix how could we forget Sigmund Freud was from here too... although his shows don’t pull in as many people as Strauss... or do they?

Culture

We could not come to Vienna (Wien) without taking in an orchestra, a ballet or an opera... then we discovered the beauty of coming to a place in the off season.... for a fraction of the price we got to see a scaled down rehearsal of all three being prepared for the fancy New Years production... the Imperial orchestra performing Mozart, Beethoven and Strauss,..punctuated with soloist opera and ballet dancers... because it was not the real thing it was done without all the fancy costumes... but then again we were not really dressed for it either.. and during the intermission the performers walked around and had refreshments with the crowds...

Facade

Ok... not another cathedral you say,... but what was cool about this one was that it was covered with scaffolding as they were trying to clean off the centuries of coal burning smoke that had blackened the outer facade... what they had done, so as not to disappoint the local chruch goers or us off season travelers, was put large pictures onto the protective cloths draping the scaffolding to match the blackened sanctuary behind it... somehow there is some symbolism here... but in the home town of Freud I think it best just to repress the urge to talk about it ... at least in public.

Vienna Various

Some random shots around Vienna (Wein as they call it) or should i say ... some random shots around Wein (vienna as we call it).. either way it is way more fun to say it in the voice of Arnold Swartzinager...another national treasure... and when you do ... both ways of saying it sound quite similar.... voted one of the best cities in the world to live... so what more can you say but ‘I’ll be back’ (hope your still using the arnold accent when you say that)

C and C for R and R

We came for the music and culture but stayed for the coffee and chocolate... a very nice mix... we sat in many cool little cafe’s staying warm .. well i was... aja doesn’t seem to get cold... reading and writing post cards... did i mention that if you send us your address we will send you cards...

Vienna Haloween

Although in Europe halloween is not celebrated like it is back home... it is catching on in some ways... mostly the commercial ones... Aja is at that funny age where she does not really want to admit she is getting too old to trick or treat... but travelling she could avoid having to make up her mind if she should or not... so for halloween we bought and gobbled down some amazing local chocolate and were invited to a halloween party by some of the Baha’i youth in Vienna... and that was a definate treat...