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Friday, January 4 - "Layers of History"
Morning, drove to the Mediterranean coast and explored Caesarea and its sprawling archeological ruins, which include a theater, a hippodrome, Herod's seaside palace, and what was, for a brief time, one of the best harbors on the Mediterranean. Even after the harbor began to deteriorate, the city remained an important Roman town, with a large temple to one of the Roman goddesses. When Emperor Constantine became Christian, he tore down the temple and built an octagonal Byzantine church on the same site. When the Muslims took over in the 600s, they razed the church and built a mosque. The Crusaders came in 1099, destroyed the mosque, and built a chapel nearby. Finally, in the 1200s, Saladin leveled the Crusader city. Layers of history, indeed!
Lunch, back in Jerusalem at the Mahaneh Yehuda market, a wildly colorful and crowded place covering several square blocks, some outdoors and some sheltered under translucent roofs.
Kabbalat Shabbat Services at the Conservative shul across the street from the Prima Kings Hotel, Beit Kenneset Moreshet Yisrael Yerushalim, followed by dinner at the Fuchsberg Center with Rabbi Jim Liebo. Learned of the death of group member Esther's sister, Evelyn, back in St. Paul (she had been ill for some time, so it wasn't entirely unexpected, but still sad, of course).
Overnight in Jerusalem.
Saturday, January 5
Morning, many of us went to services at Moreshet Yisrael Yerushalim again.
Lunch at Prima Kings Hotel.
Afternoon, everyone did their own thing. Mike, Michelle, and I walked to the Israel Museum to see the Shrine of the Book (containing the Dead Sea Scrolls). Also enjoyed the scale model of Jerusalem in the first century C.E., as it might have looked just before the destruction of the Second Temple. We all gathered for havdalah around 5:20 p.m. as we did the week before, only this time in the hotel lobby. Finalized arrangements for Maxine and the Krauses to take care of a couple of Esther and Harvey's bigger suitcases, so that they could make a quick connection at JFK on Sunday morning without having to bother with any checked luggage, and thus hopefully get home in time for Evelyn's funeral.
Dinner and early evening on our own: Mike, Michelle, and I paid one last visit to Ben Yehuda street.
Boarded the bus at 8:30 p.m. for our drive to Ben Gurion airport. The eleven of us traveling together (several people stayed in Israel for an extra few days) checked in with plenty of time to spare for our 1:00 a.m. flight back to the States; some of us collected our VAT refunds and then devoted time to spending the last of our shekels at the duty-free stores in the airport's shopping area.
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Aqueduct that served Cesarea 2,000 years ago |
The theatre has been partially reconstructed and is used for concerts |
View along coast toward remains of the old harbor |
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Cesarea is a jumble of ruins from multiple cultures stretching back two millenia |
One of numerous vegetable stands in the Mahaneh Yehuda market |
Scale model of Jerusalem as it was during the Roman era, at the Shrine of the Book |
Sunday, January 6
Arrived at JFK Airport about 6:30 a.m., as scheduled. Harvey and Esther left the plane before the rest of us and successfully caught their early flight home.
Our final nine group members made it through customs without incident, boarded our shuttle bus around 7:45 a.m., and reached LaGuardia about 8:35 a.m. Then the fun began. We proceeded to stand and wait… and wait… and wait some more in a snail's pace line at the American Airlines check-in counter. Finally got up to an agent about 9:50, only to be told that that our 11:30 flight had been cancelled! However, the agent and a colleague worked quickly to get us all on a 10:35 direct flight to Minneapolis/St. Paul, and we got (almost all) of the luggage checked and our boarding passes in hand by about 10:05 or 10:10. Then we had to drag all our bags to the checked-luggage security scanning area….heard the "last call for boarding" announcement for our flight (with a specific request that "the Kaplan party report to Gate D8 immediately") as we were entering the security area where carry-on bags are checked. Maxine asked the many passengers in line ahead of us if they would let her go through, because her flight was about to leave, and, in a wonderful display of basic human decency, all those strangers stepped aside and let her, and the rest of us, go past them. Then, for a final bit of excitement, my bag was pulled aside for hand inspection! It turned out to be my own fault: I'd left a "prohibited substance" in there -- a jar of preserves -- instead of switching it to one of our checked bags. I let the inspector throw it out, my bag was approved as acceptably safe, and I RAN to the gate, where Mike was peering worriedly down the concourse, waiting for me….we were the last people to board the plane, but we made it!
12:15 p.m., we landed at Minneapolis/St. Paul, and all of our luggage except for one bag arrived with us (and the delayed bag showed up safely late on Sunday night). As much as I love traveling, after that final, hectic 24 hours it was good to be home!
Journal notes
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