Israel is thought provoking indeed!

You will need a few minutes to read this – it's long and perhaps a cuppa will help!!

Israel is thought provoking indeed… and a bit difficult for us to “get our heads around.”  Writing this blog has been quite the challenge and we thank you for being there to read it – we’ve grown from the exercise.

We never thought we’d get to Israel.  The usual reasons people go seem to be related to religion, culture, tradition, etc. but, for us there never was that fit.  A friend planned an extended visit to study in Safat, and then we learned that another couple were going to be there at the same time, and they asked if we’d like to join them to tour the country.  Being with folks for whom Israel was special and important would give us the  opportunity, to absorb some of the pleasure and meaning it held for our friends and others.  It brought Israel “up a notch” on our list and it turned out to be a very rewarding trip.

It may be that our doubts originally were due to a feeling that Israel would be very intense – and it was.  There is so much deep history, so many stories, so much to see and to understand, so many stresses on this small country. 

We were there for 15 days. We began our time in Tel Aviv and ended it in Tel Aviv, but in between we drove all over the country, with the exception of several days in Jerusalem when we were without a car.  We were exceptionally fortunate to be with 3 really wonderful friends from Tucson; LynnRae Lowe, an artist, had been in Safat (Tsfat) for several weeks studying kabalistic Judiasm, Karen Zittleman, who had never been in Israel before and is not Jewish, and her significant other, David Sadker, brought up in the Jewish tradition who had been a few times but not in recent years. 

As we said, we spent our first night in Tel Aviv (could have been any city in the world on the water), admiring the wonderful beach and amazed at how international the city is.  We rented a car the next AM and drove to Safat, (in the northeast part of this country that is the size of New Jersey!) meeting up with our friends and a guide, Adam, to hear about the city  The road signs are in Arabic, Hebrew and sometimes in English – this kept us on our toes throughout our visit.

Safat has a very large and popular artist quarter – LynnRae (http://www.lynnraelowe.com/) will be represented there soon – and where we spent some interesting time as well. 

It is the city where studying the Kabbalah is a tradition and so is filled with very religious folks.

 

 We had an exceptional Friday evening, first attending, a service in a very old synagogue, then Shabat dinner with a really remarkable family – one son studying to be a rabbi, another a sharpshooter in the army, who each brought a friend.  There were other children and families – about 20 people around the table (the Mom, chief cook and bottle washer, MickyG from California, said every Friday is a Thanksgiving in this house).  LynnRae had rented an apartment from them and became very good friends with MickyG and we certainly benefitted!!!  The conversation and being part of the ritual was really wonderful.  WOW!

 

Saturday, we left Safat and headed west to the Mediterranean.  Stopping at Akko for a lunch by the water and to see the crusader ruins, then heading for Haifa where we were blown away by the beauty of the B’Hai Gardens, by their beliefs and by the monument to the founder. http://www.bahai.org/

 From Haifa, LynnRae and the two of us went on to Natanya for a couple of nights, while the others headed to Jerusalem.  From Netanya we explored the ruins of Megiddo (with much ancient history and identified as the site of the final battle between the forces of good and evil at the end of time) and those of Caesarea, the huge seaport built on prior ruins by Herod where we had a most delicious lunch!

www.parks.org.il

Then we joined Karen and David in Jerusalem for a few nights.  What an amazing city.  K & D had engaged a truly fine guide, Nadav, and the five of us spent a day together with him trooping through the warrens of the old city focusing on the Jewish history.  After a goodbye dinner our 3 companions left Israel and then we spent another day with Nadav….but before we talk about that – here’s a story for you….

While at the Western Wailing Wall (which is divided)  the Davids (Sadker and Cooper), and Nadav went into the men's side while Karen, LynnRae and Susan went into the women's side.  While there, David Sadker had a tefillin tied on and David Cooper told them about our friend, Steve Schram who is a chiropractor/acupuncturist in NYC, and is very interested in the relationship between the tefillin and the meridians.  Nadav remembered reading something about that during his studies.  Susan sent an intro email to Steve and Nadav....and had a response from Nadav.  The articles he refers to below were written by Steve – one of them is here: http://www.drstevenschram.com/tefillin.pdf

            “Susan Shalom

Hope you and David are well. 

I have not yet contacted your friend but wanted to inform you that I have The Source and will be getting to read it real soon. 

Check these articles I found in my research of my second year... :)”

Another WOW!!

There is so much to say about Jerusalem.  Some highlights are:

A tunnel dug by archeologists along the 1500’ retaining wall built by Herod (of which the Western Wall is the above ground part) – people are inside the tunnel praying at that part of the wall all the time.

 The Jewish, Muslim, Armenian and Christian Quarters of the Old City, full of shops, cafes, and monuments, much of it below ground, crowded and super busy.  This photo was taken on the Via Dolorosa - the path that Christ followed after being condemned to death.  The real path is probably far below this, buried by eons of rubble and dirt, but the Church has put the stations of the cross on the buildings along this route and so this is the "official" trail.

 The Mount of Olives - there are many stories about this place, most religions have some sort of tie to it...but, one story we heard is that Jesus ascended to Heaven from here and when he returns to this dimension, he will return here to enter Jerusalem through the gate in the wall at the bottom of this Mount, but he cannot walk through a cemetery, so to keep him out of the city the mountain is filled with burials (???).

The Temple Mount and Dome of The Rock.

We were so fortunate to be here on a day when the public was able to enter this area - it is restricted to 2 days a week and then only for a few hours - non-Muslims are never allowed inside the Mosque - it is a remarkable building and a remarkable place.

 

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher   - occupied by several religious groups, there are many things going on in this building....theoretically it houses the cave that Christ was placed in, a piece of the cross, the slab that he rose from, the rock the cross was placed in, and on and on.  Many branches of Christianity claim it and that sometimes creates unseemly issues - but mostly it's cool.   To quote A Historical Tour of the Holy Land by B. Ratzer..."Possibly the most complicated of the holy places is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, also known as the Church of the Resurrection.  The key to the church is held by a Muslim family who open the doors in the morning and close them in the evening.  One representative each from the Orthodox, Catholic and Armenian churches are permitted to remain in the Church overnight.  In addition to these three churches, the Copts, Syrian Jacobites and Abyssinians all have a small part of the church."

And there is so much more!  Clearly Jerusalem was the highlight in a trip of seemingly endless highlights!

The last chunk of our time was spent at a dude ranch (yes, a dude ranch) overlooking the north end of the “Sea” of Galilee for two days (it is really a large lake).  From there we toured around the Galilee area.  There were more ruins to see and at one of them – Kursi – we sat for a long time feeling extraordinarily peaceful at what has been identified as a magnetic power point - (strongest under this rock) (http://www.geobiology.co.il/Articles/High_Energy_2.asp). We were also treated to watching a group of young, beautiful and playful Japanese tourists amid the wonderful flowering trees and bushes. 

 

The Church of the Beatification was another wonderful stop.

 We had a delicious lunch in the Little Tiberas Pub ion the resort town of Tiberas and were waited on by a pretty cool gal from California. It was amazing how many people we ran into who had transplanted themselves to Israel from the U.S.

  Hearing the planes flying over and seeing tanks on the road, everywhere young people, in the army, carrying automatic rifles, brought home the reality of the situation in Israel....and the conditions under which people live.  The problems are not simple and the solutions even more elusive.  On some level we knew this, but now it is more real to us - having the opportunity to talk with Israel's people face-to-face was really great - one really good reason to travel.

On our way back to Tel Aviv we got caught in nasty traffic in Nazareth (wonder if the donkey traffic was as bad…), made a stop in Zippori to visit more impressive ruins, then a stop in Netanya to pick up David’s cell phone left there by accident a week or so before, and finally back to Tel Aviv.  We had a great apartment at the Diaghilev Hotel and walked a bunch, particularly along Rothschild Blvd, which is filled with Bauhaus buildings.  That night we had champagne with our Indian dinner then, in the morning, flew back to London via Rome arriving late at night…..we will tell you about our next adventure on the British Isles next time.

Much love, many hugs and WOW!!

The Costa del Sol and onward.....

Time has certainly slipped away from us.  We must be - we ARE, in fact - having fun!

When we left you last time, we’d moved on from our Holy Week adventures to Spain’s Costa del Sol where we would be until late May.  Last time we posted a photo of the incredible view from the apartment we rented, so we won’t repeat that (though it’s almost worth it).  A good bit of our time was spent getting reacquainted with old friends and their families and catching up on all their news.  Amazing that there are now a number of grandchildren where there were just babies and school age kids when we used to visit.  For example, here are the delicious grandchildren of our friends Virginia and Pedro, Aitana and Adrian.

Since we sold the place we owned in 2001, the Costa del Sol has expanded and modernized, but now is showing some signs of the difficult economic conditions felt everywhere, with more vacant stores, restaurants and apartments than usual.  Even so, it is a fun place to visit and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there.

We contented ourselves with checking out the places we’d known before and seeing how they’ve changed.  One highlight, though, was a day when we ventured into the mountains near Marbella to a small, old town called Istan for which we’d seen signs but never visited.  It is really built into the mountain, with very narrow streets and buildings just sitting on the rock outcroppings.  It was quite a sight!

Entering the town is accomplished by driving from floor 0 to the 8th floor of the parking garage and exiting into the town square - this picture was taken from the top floor of the garage.

We left Spain and headed for England, to the county of Lancashire and a great cottage (owned by a terrific couple) we rented on a farm with millions of cows and billions of sheep and not another dwelling in sight.  Rolling green, green, green hills, very narrow roadways, delightful inns and pubs.  One reason for being there was to check out Susan’s father’s family – Francis was born in St. Anne’s on Sea (now joined with Lytham) in 1910 and was brought to the US in 1916 – that’s a story for another time….  We found his baptism record in the local church and then, in the Preston library, found census pages that revealed many connections, dates and names – not the least of which is Barnaby Hull (Susan’t great, granddaddy) from Goosnargh, not too far inland from St. Anne’s. (the photo is of David (not Barnaby) on the one evening at the farm when the weather cooperated for an alfresco dinner).  We also made a stop at the house her Dad was born in and were given a quick tour by a renter.... it was all really neat.

 

Another highlight was a stop at the Leeds and Liverpool Canal (there are over 2000 miles of canals in Britain that have been restored (mostly by people a little at a time).  After seeing a documentary on British canals we stopped and talked with a couple who have brought up their kids living on a canal boat – mostly parked in the town we visited near Foulridge – and with a couple of guys who gave us a tour of their boat which is much like a motor home but mostly these boats are only six feet wide, and 40 feet or so long.

We reluctantly left our farm and drove to London, stopping at Stratford-Upon-Avon for a great lunch.  We spent the night at Heathrow and left on a 6 am flight to Tel Aviv the next morning and that adventure will be the topic of our next posting (we are so far behind....).  On a rainy day from Scotland we send you all many hugs and good wishes.

Semana Santa (Easter Week in Spain)

This post is long! If you have little interest in this topic, skip to the bottom where there is just a little more news &  photos, or just hit the delete key…..

We’ve been in Spain in years past during Holy Week and have always been very moved by the Semana Santa activities during that week before Easter.  The music is especially compelling and watching the people in the processions is just a remarkable experience.  

http://www.emusic.com/album/Various-Artists-Semana-Santa-en-Sevilla-religious-music-of-Sevil-MP3-Download/11021917.html   (play #'s 3 & 4 especially)

This time, Susan was determined to get to see the “inside” story and we did!  We set aside the whole week for this; we booked Sunday through Wednesday in Seville, and because we knew that Seville would get very crowded toward the end of the week, we went to Jerez de la Frontera, a small town in extreme Southwest Spain, for Thursday through Sunday.  Jerez is most known as the capital of the sherry business, but the area also produces some of Spain’s finest bulls, and it has a strong Semana Santa tradition.

The Holy Week processions reportedly began in the 1500s, and there are forms of them in other Mediterranean countries (and in New Mexico and Mexico we’re told).  In Spain, the men in the churches take the life-sized statues of Christ and Mary into the streets of their neighborhoods, working their way to the Cathedrals and then returning.  Because of the size and weight of the statues, they built platforms for the statues to ride upon - these platforms are made of wood mostly covered in gold or silver (the real stuff), it takes dozens of men, under these pasos, to carry them.

Over the years – centuries in many cases – fraternities have formed (called cofradias) associated with one church or another, and they arrange processions for usually two statues, plus bands (following the Christ paso is a drum and bugle corps, following the Mary paso is a full band  – some of the processions also have a band in the lead).

The cofradia members also walk as robed penitentes, some barefoot, and you may see some all dressed up and purposefully walking through town to their assembly point,

and military-like honor guards. 

In larger cities like Seville, there are as many as 7 or 8 processions a day, all week, most lasting about 12 hours.  Since some do not leave their churches until late afternoon they continue into the wee hours of the morning. 

We had the smallest hotel room we’ve ever seen, in the old Jewish quarter on the route of some processions and about a 10  minute walk to the cathedral where all the processions pass through and where most people believe Columbus’ remains lie(but Santo Domingo disputes that).

At about 11:00 PM on Monday equipped with a bottle of wine and camera we took our places on the 4^th floor roof of the hotel.  It was a treat to see the cofradia and its pasos plus relatives, etc. coming down the street from our vantage point. Often they stop for extended times, as they did below us.

By custom most of the hooded penitents do not talk during the procession.  But, the younger ones especially would talk with family and others walking along with them.

The Spanish handle the crowds graciously and it seems you can always move around and through the processions even in the very narrow neighborhood streets.

 When the entire procession had passed, we went to the street and manuevered our way up to where the band following the Mary paso was stopped, and we were just blown away by the haunting beauty of the music and being in the middle of it.

We had gotten into one of the nearby churches on a rainy afternoon to see the pasos all completely decorated with tons of flowers, multitudes of candles and the statues, all ready to go.  Parishioners had been bringing flower offerings (red for Christ, white for Mary) and were stacking them in front of the pasos. 

 Unfortunately that night the rain forced the cancellation of the processions and there were many tears from everyone...for example, the men hold a lottery to determine who will carry the paso - everyone wants a chance.

But, the next day, Susan saw a man carrying a big white floral arrangement together with two women, all walking quickly down the street in the drizzle – “We’re going to follow them!” 

 And we did, through the old quarter, across main streets, through the commercial meat packing district, into an unremarkable neighborhood (imagine David’s nervousness) – the drizzle turned to rain (it’s probably how I got this nasty cold I have been nursing).  They finally turned into a building next to a church where men were building ramps in front of the main door – “Eureka!”.  Another man came out, saw us trying to figure out what to do and motioned for us to come in…..he led us into the church were people were working on decorating the 2 pasos (tons of fresh flowers are used on all the pasos during the week) for their procession the next day and he gave us a million dollar tour!

 The next day, we kept crossing that procession as it moved through the streets feeling very much a part of it.

Then, off to Jerez de la Frontera by train…rain was forecast and rain it did.  Many processions were cancelled but on Easter Sunday things changed…the one procession originating and returning to the cathedral was held, 

AND the Tio Pepe bodega was open for tours and sherry tastings.

On Monday we took the train to Malaga (on the way we were supposed to connect with Shirley Freriks - from Mendocino - but for health reasons she had to cancel her trip :-(, we rented a car and drove to the apartment in Sitio de Calahonda, Mijas Costa, (on the Costa del Sol) where we will be until the end of the month.  As we look out the huge windows in the living room we see mountains, white buildings and the Mediterranean – it is just beautiful.  

One of the first things I did was to start washing dirty clothes, I remembered most things from the apartment we owned here for so many years, but for some reason the washing machine presented quite the challenge.  There was 1 bottle of what looked at first glance like washing liquid – 3 places to put stuff in the washer….so, I put some “stuff” in the left side and ran about 4 or 5 loads (it’s a really small machine).   No dryer, so hung them out on the terrace on a rack.  They smelled wonderful on the surface, but if you put your nose in them – not so great.  Turns out I was washing them with softener….so much for efficiency!

Please let us hear from you – we do get carried away with Samana Santa, but it is – and always has been – very close to our souls….something about the music, the silence, the ancient and narrow streets, the obvious overwhelming faith of so many people…..

Hugs to you all!