Saturday, June 26th | Tel Hazor 1993

11:03 AM

I woke up twice this morning before I got up. I woke up at 5:44 and I noticed that Mike was gone, and he was still gone when I woke up at 7:15. I finally woke up at 8:12, as Mike was returning from breakfast. He informed me that I had plenty of time to catch breakfast. I got ready, and got down to breakfast at approximately 8:30. They had just about everything for breakfast: cottage cheese with fruit, fruit, tomatoes, cucumbers, boiled eggs, cheese, olives, yogurt, bread, fish, etc. I didn’t eat everything, but what I did have was really good. At breakfast I sat and talked with Mark Schaffer, and Dr. Germano showed up at about 8:40. Breakfast was supposed to close at 8:45. It was a good, help yourself style, breakfast.

After breakfast I came back to the room, sat on the balcony overlooking Bethlehem, and read in my bible a little. I heard noises in the hall and looked out to see if it was any of our group, and I saw Mr. Stahl. He had just gotten up, and I invited him to come look off our balcony, because his room doesn’t look the same direction. He really liked the view. Mike has been sleeping since he came back from breakfast.

Daytime view from the room, looking toward Bethlehem.

A few of our group taking a Sabbath walk on the hotel grounds.

11:51 PM

I went and took a walk around the place and found the pool. I was surprised at how packed the pool was on the Sabbath. They even have a water slide here. Lunch seemed to be leftovers from last night’s dinner. After lunch we took a walk to the war memorial, which is 3 olive trees on top of three tall columns. After the walk, it was about time for church, so we had to get ready.

Church was held at 2:30 in the television room. We had one guest, Jonathon Rudder, who is from Dallas, and is traveling around the world. We all talked for quite a while after church, then we went to change for dinner.

After dinner, and after I watched the sunset, I changed $40 into 106.4 NIS (New Israeli Shekels). When the bus showed up (8:30) we went to Ben Yehuda street. Dr. Germano paid the bus fare for everyone. Ben Yehuda street is full of shops, and people. My only purchase was a Maccabee beer, it was also the only thing the Michael Whitmire bought. One exciting thing was when Michael asked an Israeli soldier if he could take a picture of him. The soldier said yes, and was more than happy too oblige. The soldier was from New York and had only moved to Israel 6 months ago. After I took Michael’s pictures with the soldier, the soldier let Michael hold his Uzi. I had my picture taken with the soldier, but I didn’t hold the Uzi. We all met together at 11:00 and rode the bus back to the hotel. Mike and I came back to the room and turned on the TV. The only thing on is Jordanian TV.

 -------------

Sadly I don't have more photos for this day. The photos with the soldier were taken with Michael's camera, and I don't have a copy to share.

It's good to be updating this again, hopefully it won't take so long before the next installment.

Friday, June 25th | Tel Hazor 1993

3:27 AM (CST) 10:27 AM (Rome Time)

We’re in Rome now. The flight got here right on time. We were served breakfast on the plane as well. Coming in for the landing at Rome gave me my first real sight of Europe. It didn’t appear at first to look much different than the US, but I saw quite a few differences, including the pink houses. It is impossible to see any of the city from the airport, from here everything looks like wide open spaces. After arriving at the airport, we rode a bus from the plane to the building. It was different seeing airport guards with guns. One even had a machine gun. We wandered the airport, mostly just to see what it was like. The other group arrived around 3:00 AM (10:00 AM). Now we’re just all waiting for the flight to Tel Aviv.

Michael Whitmire and Matt Stocking on the flight.

Don Harms, also on the flight.

9:34 PM

Now that we’re finally in Israel, I have converted to using local time. The time spent from leaving campus to landing in Tel Aviv was right at 26 hours. The flight from Rome to Tel Aviv was uneventful. No movie was shown, but we did have some sort of lunch, which was pretty much nasty looking. I was able to get a little bit of sleep for the first time in the air. I had dozed off a little on the floor of the Rome Airport.

We landed at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv at 4:00 PM. It took us about a whole hour to get in and get our luggage, and get outside the airport. Thankfully all of the luggage arrived safely. We were supposed to be picked up and taken to Jerusalem by a bus, but it never showed up. We finally had to take taxis. I rode in a Ford minivan while others rode in 6-door Mercedes.

Sharon and Shawn Wiese outside waiting for our bus at the Tel Aviv airport.

Alain Cataga, outside Ben Gurion airport.

Hey, that's me. Looking as good as possible with my glasses.

Still waiting for our bus outside the airport, Stacey Linsley, Renee Norman, and Sarah Campbell are thrilled.

The trip from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem gave us a good chance to see what the countryside is like. It is so beautiful. The hills and mountains look wonderful. We were dropped off at our hotel, Ramat Rachel, and had only enough time to get a little cleaned up before we ate dinner.

Michael Whitmire and I are in Room 307, which coincidentally, is also Michael Elliott’s box number at college. We were both impressed by our room. There is a balcony which looks to a valley, and Bethlehem. It is really beautiful at night. Dinner was excellent, it started with an appetizer, and went on to soup, main course, and salad, and desert. After dinner, I came back to the room and discovered the great night-time view. Michael and I decided that bed would be in order. He took a shower, and then I took a bath, which felt so really good after the long trip.

The view from room 307. This is 3 shots stitched together.

This is our view from room 307 a bit later in the evening. Lots of lights to be seen from the other side of the valley. This is also a stitch of 3 shots.

Until next time...