Roma...not the tomato

Our second time to Rome! There is much to see in Rome and since I really enjoyed our first visit I was looking forward to our second. I decided since we had seen many of the big highlights in Rome the first time we were here that we would spend time in a museum that we didn't get to the first time around. I had everything planned, get off the ship, walk 15 min to catch the train into town. I knew the schedule and how much it would cost. No problem. But Rome had other ideas. We get off of the ship and start to walk toward the train station when we are stopped by a group of taxi drivers...I didn't know if this was going to be a throw down with taxi driver hooligans or what was going on. They indicated that there was going to be a general strike today. Great!! We would be able to get into the city but not back to port...that is unless we used their services. I was skeptical and thought that maybe they were just trying to make a buck. There was an 'information' booth next to us so figured I had better ask to make sure what they were saying was legitimate. They concurred with the information that was being given to us. The information booth had one bus that would be going into town and we could purchase tickets if we wanted. We wanted. We bought round trip tickets for 80 Euro for the family...four times as much as I would have spent on the train and taxi...so not happy at this point. The Pextons, our friends from Washington were getting off in Rome. They had all of their luggage with them and they needed to pass through customs at the port. They also bought their tickets to get onto the bus to Rome, but they purchased them from a lady roaming amongst the people standing outside of the 'information' building. They were keeping lists of people who had purchased tickets, the problem was they were two distinct lists, there was no coordination of the lists to see who was on the bus. So when it was time to catch the bus we were all able to get on, except our friends the Pextons. They were the only people left standing, with their luggage and no way of getting to Rome. Sharma threw a mini fit, John was fit to be tied and our best efforts looked like they were going to be thwarted. There were seats on the bus, but they were for the infants that were being held on laps. To me this didn't make much sense, since when do you see infants sitting in seats by themselves. After a few tense moments, they relented...probably realizing they were going to lose money on not using those seats and John and Stacey were able to get on the bus.

An hour later we were being dropped off in front of the Vatican. We said our 'goodbyes' to the Pextons as they went to find their hotel and start their two day visit to Rome and we had our own destination. We (us and the Palmers) walked passed Castel Sant Angelo and over the Ponte Sant Angelo, which is the bridge that crosses the Tiber river. It is a nice bridge with marble figures lining the sides of the bridge.

From here we walked to Piazza Navona, my favorite piazza (at least so far). As we did the first time, we got several times trying to find this piazza and had to ask several people. I am not the typical male that won't ask for directions if I am lost. I want to know where I am going and will ask multiple people to make sure I don't waste my time. The Piazza was busy today, there were Christmas kiosks selling items and a lot of people taking pictures. We took a few pictures and looked for our next destination, a bathroom. We decided to find a McDonalds to use their facilities, but we did not realize how hard this task was going to be. It was coming up on our GPS, there were signs but we couldn't find it, it was the varitable needle in a haystack. We found ourselves next to the Pantheon and didn't even have a chance to spend much time here because we needed the bathroom so badly. I found somebody sweeping in front of their shop and I asked where the McDonalds was and she looked at me with this inquisitive and almost berating attitude and said 'why do you want a McDonalds when you have all of these local restaurants to choose from?' I explained our plight and she directed us to a local restaurant to use their bathroom...sweet relief.

We hurried over toward the Spanish steps area and stopped at a McDonalds to pick up a quick bite to eat before we had to get to the Borghese Gallery. In order to visit the Gallery I was instructed to purchase my tickets online because you had to have a reservation to visit it. We finished up at McDonalds so we could make our 1pm entrance time and we needed to be there at least 30 minutes before to pick up the tickets. We left McDonalds and climbed the Spanish steps. Just then Travis realized that he had left his backpack at McDonalds and needed to go back and retrieve it. We decided to split up, McKay and I would go to the Gallery and pick up our tickets in time and the rest would wait for Travis and then come and meet us. I didn't realize how far of a walk it still was to the Gallery, McKay and I took off in a very fast walk to pick up the tickets. We made it there just as our 30 min time limit was expiring. What made me perturbed was the fact that the person in front of me had no reservations and was allowed to buy tickets. I don't know if they say you have to buy tickets online, but the unwritten law is that you can purchase them on a walk up basis if there are tickets still available. Anyway, we followed the rule and retrieved our tickets at the appointed time. Our family and friends joined us 15 minutes later. Then we realized that we had to check in our belonging before entering the Gallery which was another 10 minute wait. They allot you 2 hours to see the Gallery and limit the number of people, which is actually nice, because even though you are fighting crowds it isn't terrible. The Borghese Gallery is spectacular with the finest marble creations I have seen. The bulk of the exhibit is by Bernini. There are several famous sculptures here and they all have intricate detail. The indentations that are carved into the marble, for example where somebody is grabbing somebody else, are so intricate and precise that it looks absolutely real. We spent a good hour looking at everything, but the kids moved through quickly and were anxious to go.

We took the Metro back to the Vatican as it was getting close to the time that we needed to get on the bus. Sharma and Corri did some shopping in the shops around the vatican. Me and the kids purchased gelato for everybody. We took pictures of the Swiss Guard around the Vatican and hung out in St Peter's square for 20 minutes. We made it back to the buses and loaded on ready for the hour long ride back to port. All in all, a good day in Rome. Whether there was an actual strike or not, I can't say...we may have been had, but in hindsight it was worth the extra money to make sure we got to Rome....I hope to see you again someday.

It's all Greek to me

Making it to Athens was high on my list, so when this trip came up with not only Israel, but also Athens, I was sold. One of the people in our group used their 'no fee' passports, that are issued by the government to employees/military overseas. He was flagged when he arrived in Athens and therefore they wouldn't let him off of the ship. We all decided to wait for him in the dock area. 20 minutes later he showed up being led by security from the Athens port. He was taken in to a small roomed and questioned about what he was doing here. They gave him a hard time about using his 'official' passport instead of a 'tourist' passport. After another 10 minutes they released him and we were able to get on our way.

We walked into Athens to catch the metro to the Acropolis to see the Parthenon, my main destination. Again, a very brisk morning, so the more we kept moving the warmer we stayed. The hike up to the Parthenon was a pretty steep climb, along a winding path. As we approached the entrance we hit the bulk of the crowds. We all funneled into the passage to reach the top of the Acropolis. The wind was very strong on top, so now it wasn't just cold, it was very cold. It literally blew right through you. The Parthenon was under construction so you had scaffolding that obstructed portions of the edifice. There were tons of people milling all around, so getting the right picture was part skill and luck. The view from the top was outstanding as you could look in a 360 degree panorama over the city of Athens. I didn't linger on top because we were all cold and ready to get out of the wind tunnel. As we descended from the Acropolis I wanted to make sure that I was able to see Mars' Hill, where Paul preached to the Athenians about the 'unknown God', referenced in Acts chapter 17. The hill is not spectacular, but is a rocky outcropping from a hill at the base of the Acropolis. There are some steep stairs the led up to the top of the hill and from there you can navigate pretty easily. I stood there and imagined Paul preaching in this very spot, pretty incredible.

From here we made our way to the neighborhoods of Plaka and Monastiraki to do some shopping. These areas are basically shops and flea markets, but not the traditional flea market you would think of if one said the word 'flea market'. We meandered toward Monastiraki square, a very small square without much to see. However, there was a man selling coconut sticks covered in chocolate, there were delectable. At this point there was a small division in what we should do next. Several of our members wanted to go to "Hard Rock Cafe" to have lunch, which is something they do at every one of their destinations in order to eat and purchase a local souvenir. We decided that we didn't want to do that but wanted to go to Syntagma square instead.

As we parted ways and started to head for the square we passed a Gyro shop. They had spinning meat...which made my head spin. I knew I wanted to have an authentic Gyro from Athens. No better time than the present. We stopped and purchased several. Man! They were so good. I needed to remember this moment so I had my picture taken with the guy manning the spinning meat. We walked up to Syntagma square. A natural meeting place for people dissatisfied with austerity measures that Greece is implementing on its residents. This square has been in the news a lot lately, mainly filled with protesters and people clashing with police. I wanted to make it here if it was safe. We wandered up to the square keeping an eye out for anything that may seem dangerous. There were police around but not much activity. For all intents and purposes, it was a normal square and you wouldn't have known that anything had occurred here. The only tale tell signs were saying in graffiti that were out of place, on the backs of benches, on walls etc. There was your usual band playing for money and people milling around. We walked up to the main road and started to take pictures of a government building when something more interesting caught our eye. There was this dog, a mangy mutt that was patrolling the main street in front of the government building. He would chase anyone on a bike or motorcycle and try to bite them. He had most of his success with slower moving vehicles, so bikes and mopeds were his best option. But he was an equal opportunity biter so he tried anything on two wheels. Did not mess with cars, probably learned this lesson the hard way. As we (probably 10 of us) sat there watching him chase, bark and bite unsuspecting travelers, we found ourselves rooting for him to get somebody. I know, it sounds terrible. He would chase somebody and then he come over to us and sit down quietly, not making a sound until his next victim. Once he saw them, he would chase, bark and bite some more. Come back to us, sit down and wait. He was like Jekyl and Hyde. And we cheered him on. He finally was successful, he bit somebody's pant tore the denim as they rode away. We cheered, feeling like he had won, it was time to move on. That could have been the highlight of our Athens visit. We took the Metro back to our starting point and then walked back to the ship.

Turkey on turkey day

We reluctantly left Israel and headed for Turkey. We have been to Turkey and like Turkey so we shouldn't have any reservations about going. Since we have visited Turkey before we knew what to expect, the hustle and bustle. Since this is our second stop to Izmir, with the main attraction being Ephesus and us visiting it last time we decided to keep it simple this time and just stay in Izmir.

I had done a bit of research on what there is to see, it is not ladened with tourist sites but there were a few that I wanted to hit. We stopped at the Agora, an excavated area that had some ruins that were in various states of uncovering. It was a cold morning, we hailed a taxi and piled in. He wove through the streets of Izmir like a man who just robbed a bank and was on the lamb. He pulled off to the side of the road and he waved to us to go across the street. We exited his vehicle and crossed the street and wandered down a road to a fenced off area. The Agora sat in front of us...very underwhelming. We peered through the fence, took a couple of pictures, realized how cold we were and decided it was time to move on to the bazaar, to warm our cockles by doing some shopping.

We walked 20 minutes to the bazaar and immediately realized that this could entertain us for a few hours. We had a great time wandering, browsing and just taking in everything. We found several items that we liked and most of them were extremely inexpensive. McKay found soccer jerseys for about 5 Euro apiece. We found scarves that were dirt cheap. I bought some nice leather shoes for Sunday and trainers to wear during my travels. The kids found all sorts of clothes. Sharma even purchased a small nightstand. When we were in Istanbul they had really good cherry tea, so when I saw several guys carrying around trays with tea I thought I had found heaven once again. I asked one of the runners how much they were, he told me and indicated to follow him...which we did. He poured us five small glasses of tea...except it wasn't cherry. It looked red...cherry red, but it didn't have the same taste, in fact it didn't taste very good. We tried to drink as much as we could so we didn't appear rude and not appreciative. I drank most of mine and then realized that the kids had not hardly touched theirs. I went into 'dad' mode and decided it was time to take one for the team. I drank out of each of their cups to the point that they were almost gone. I know the glasses appeared small but when you don't like the fluid contained therein, the glasses suddenly seem like 64oz. Big Gulps. I choked it down and decided it was time to move on. We came upon a mosque in the middle of the bazaar, actually there a few but this seemed to be a little larger than the others. We peaked inside but did not go in, even though I was beckoned to come in by a guy coming out of the mosque. On our way out of the Bazaar we stopped at a pizza shop and enjoyed a quick sit down meal.


We walked to the Izmir clock tower. This is probably the most famous tourist spot in Izmir. It is located in Konak square, a large cemented area near the sea. In the middle is a tall structure with four fountains, completed in 1901. We took several pictures in and around this area. After walking over to look at the sea we caught a taxi back to the ship. We were ladened down with many bags of trinkets, clothes and furniture, I think we broke a record of how much we transported back to the ship on this trip. Now my concern is getting it packed away and off of the ship.

That evening we had dinner on the ship and since it was our traditional Thanksgiving, we were all in the mood for turkey, stuffing, potatoes, pumpkin pie. The turkey that was served and every other dish that was supposed to replicate a Thanksgiving meal were terrible at worst...especially the pumpkin pie...inedible. At least they tried, but this instance it would have been better that they didn't.

The Holy Land-Day 2

We started the day at 7am...like we should have on Day 1. We found our bus and settled in for a ride to Jerusalem. It was little over an hour to Jerusalem and Moti did a good job of teaching us about his country and the relationship with the Palestinians. We would pass Palestinians settlements and you could tell them because they were the ones that had large cement fences with barbed wire at the top.

I felt very lucky having two people in our group who had spent time for a semester at the BYU Jerusalem center. They were a fountain of knowledge and could explain everything with a LDS perspective. I split them up on the buses so each bus had somebody who was well versed...beyond our tour guides.

As we approached Jerusalem I became more and more excited. Finally, there it was Jerusalem! We rounded a bend on the freeway and we could see the tale tale sign of the Dome of the Rock. There is no mistaking it. We drove a little further and passed the BYU Jerusalem center! So cool. It was so surreal, I really can't put it into words...seriously. From knowing Jerusalem through pictures, through biblical stories, through the news...and here I was.

Our first stop was the Mt of Olives. We pulled up and the first thing I saw was a camel...yep, a man trying to make money was selling rides on his camel...we're not in Kansas anymore. The view from the Mt of Olives was fantastic...just amazing. It overlooked Jerusalem, the Dome of the Rock, the outer wall, the stairs to the temple, the city of David, the Lion's gate and Bethlehem off in the distance. Here is the funny thing about the Mt of Olives, there are no olive trees on it...zip, nada. The hillside is one large Jewish cemetery, containing over 150,000 graves. From our vantage point we could see the Golden gate leading into Jerusalem through the old city wall. This gate is sealed but we know that Christ passed through this gate on Palm Sunday and upon his return he will pass through it again. The gate was sealed and a muslim cemetery was placed in front of the gate to prevent the Messiah from entering here. In front of us was the corner of the wall of the city, from here Jesus might have been tempted by Satan to cast himself down after he had fasted 40 days and nights. Next to this were the stairs leading into the city where the temple would have stood. These are the steps that one could imagine Mary and Joseph returning to Jerusalem and looking for the young Jesus as he was sitting among the learned and teaching them or you could imagine Christ cleansing the temple of the money changers on these steps. Off to our left in the distance you could see Bethlehem perched on a far off hill. Bethlehem is in a Palestinian area and therefore necessitates crossing over into Palestine, which equates to changing bus driver/tour guide and getting your passport stamped etc. We didn't have enough time for this on this go around. We could also see the City of David off to the left of Jerusalem. We had our devotional and a group picture. After spending 30 minutes here...and frankly I could have spent another hour here looking at everything, we left.

Our next stop was the Garden of Gethsemane. We hopped back into the bus for a short 15 minute drive, which actually wouldn't have been that long if we would have walked. We got off of the bus and crossed the street, next to the old wall of Jerusalem. We walked passed an old church and onto a side street. Up the side street we came to two walls that lined either side of the street. On the right side of the street was the public viewing of the Garden of Gethsemane, on the left was the private viewing of the Garden of Gethsemane. I don't know what Moti did or who he knew but he was able to get us into the private section. It is much like the public part except it is quieter, with less people and the path winds in and amongst the trees whereas the public part appeared to have the path around the perimeter of the trees. By this time we learned that Moti was going to talk a lot at each of our stops and if we wanted to get some photos we just had to wander away. So wander away we did. I loved the Garden of Gethsemane. The trees looked like they had been ripped up by the root, twisted, wrung out and placed back in the earth. They looked so old and I could well imagine them being privy to the Atonement that took place in that garden spot. Again I could have spent another half an hour just taking it all in. There was peace in that Garden, much different than on the night of his atonement. To give me perspective of our proximity, just beyond the walls of the Garden, lay the Dome of the Rock.

Unfortunately we needed to cut our time short because we had an 11:00am appt to see the Garden Tomb. You can't see it without an appointed time and our time was coming very quickly...in fact we were going to be late. I was frantic with anxiety...we can't miss the Garden Tomb. The bus ride took longer than I had hoped, traffic and narrow streets with cars did not help us. We scrambled off of the bus and followed Moti, our fearless leader. We all looked like Lemmings, each person following the next...actually we were dysfunctional Lemmings because we had large gaps in our line, some people would stop and take pictures and others would wander off of the path. To my surprise and utter astonishment we made it to each of our destinations with each person accounted for. We entered another side street lined with cement/rock walls that curved around to the left. On the right hand side there was a small door, big enough for one person to enter, this lead to the Garden Tomb area. We met our Garden Tomb guide, he sounded British. He first led us to the far end of the garden, to a small lookout. The view was of a small parking lot, next to a building on one end and a rock wall on the other end. To the casual observer this scene wouldn't amount to too much. He started to tell a story of a British gentleman that was at a hotel near this area and as he was looking out of a window, looking at this rock wall, he noticed something odd...the face of the wall looked like a skull. Golgotha, meaning skull, he surmised this might be the place of the crucifixion of Christ. Now as we gazed upon this rock wall, you really couldn't make heads or tails out of what you were looking at, certainly no skull remained. But you could pick out the original holes and indentations of the wall where the skull would have been. And he explained this whole area would make sense for his crucifixion because from this spot they would have wanted to bury him quickly before sunset, so the garden tomb was literally a stones throw away. He led us over to a sitting area, complete with benches. He began to tell the story of the crucifixion and burial and as soon as he did the world tried to drown him out. We were not the only ones in this garden, there were several other groups here to pay their respects. We had one group next to us, probably 40 Brazilians from a church singing, now when I say singing I don't mean the peaceful, reverent songs of respect and thoughtfulness...I mean at the top of your voice, drown out any peaceful and reverent feeling you may have...singing. It was annoying, loud and disrespectful. And just when you thought it would end, a new song was begun. Our tour guide, you could tell, was a bit annoyed. Behind us we had another group chanting, albeit much quieter as they were contained in a small building. This immediately impressed upon me as I sat there. I compared our own desire to concentrate on the Lord and our desire to hear what he has to say, while the world and her distractions vie for our attention and makes it hard to concentrate on things of the spirit. This is the way I felt sitting in the Garden Tomb, trying to listen to our guide, feel of the spirit and take it all in, while the world around me shouts, yells and tries to distract me. We made our way over to the tomb area, it looked like all of the pictures that I had seen in Sunday School. The sun shown down through the trees, shadows falling across the Garden Tomb entrance. A small square hole in the side of the rock, a path worn in the rock in front of the door where one could roll a rounded rock to open and close the tomb. We each waited patiently for our turn to enter the tomb, Once inside I could see how small the actual tomb itself was, just a small room maybe 20 x 15 feet. To think, this was where Christ was laid to rest, this was where he was resurrected...wow. We gathered as a group and had our devotional, it was quiet this time and we could concentrate on the presentation and testimony given. The whirlwind around us had abated and we were finally left to feel the spirit in this serene place. The Garden Tomb was closing and we needed to leave. We walked to the exit, which led past the tomb itself. The door of the tomb was closed and on it was the inscription..."He is not here, for He is risen". I think that sums it up nicely.

Upon leaving we wanted to visit an olive wood store to buy some carvings. We knew of a gentleman that comes to the Ramstein Bazaar and sells his wares, we like him because he has a lot of LDS carvings. Our tour guide Moti had run over to his store while we were at the tomb and reported back that it was closed. We had Moti find his cell phone number and call him up to see if he would open it. We were in luck, he said he could meet us there in 20 minutes. We got on the bus and stopped at his store. We piled into his shop and started shopping. His work is fantastic. He had many carvings of Christ, scenes from the bible and he had many scenes from the Book of Mormon. Some LDS specific work included the Liahona, Father Lehi, the title of Liberty and Nephi, just to mention a few items. We bought something for each of our children so that they could remember their trip to Israel and we bought a carving of Lehi, kneeling down holding the Liahona.

At this point there was a divide of what people wanted to do, a few wanted to go to the BYU Jerusalem center and the majority wanted to go to old Jerusalem. Our group walked down to the Damascus gate and entered in. It is a lovely gate, very large and formal. As we passed through the gate and into the old city I soon realized that old Jerusalem did not differ much from Istanbul's Grand Bazaar. Old Jerusalem consisted of shops, merchants, small restaurants, falafel stands etc. There are four distinctive quarters of old Jerusalem, Armenian, Jewish, Muslim and Christian. I honestly don't know which quarters we visited as we just wandered without direction for most of the time. We purchased three falafels and drinks, I bought freshly squeezed pomegranate juice, which was very good. The only direction we had was we needed to meet at the western wall (wailing wall) at a predetermined time to meet our group. In hindsight, I think I would have opted to go with the other group to the BYU Jerusalem center. I felt like old Jerusalem was so much like Istanbul that I had seen it before. In order to get to the western wall we had to pass through a metal detector, which I though was interesting. The only place that I saw a lot of military presence was at the western wall. Israeli military were all over this area. After meeting with our group briefly and getting the low down on going up to the wall, we decided it was time to approach. Sharma and the girls had to go to the 'female' section of the wall, a much smaller less prominent area of the wall. McKay and I donned on our yamakas and approached the wall, at first just holding back and observing. We were told that we could take pictures as long as we weren't being obtrusive and disrespectful. We took some pictures and just let it all sink in. There was one guy sitting in a chair, dressed all in black, with locks of hair, rocking back and forth repeating his prayer. Nearer the wall was where all of the action was happening, men, young and old, citizens and military line up against the wall placing their notes in the wall and praying. There were a few gentlemen standing around what looked like an old cart and inside the cart there were these long leather strips, connected to a small box and inside of the box there were contained prayers. Men would come up and have the orthodox Jews wrap these boxes to their arms or their foreheads and then they would go to the wall and pray. McKay and I each had a note that we had written and we took them up to the wall and placed them into the crevices of the wall. I had to touch it just to say that I did. We then stood around a bit longer and upon leaving I decided that I wanted to get my picture taken with one of these orthodox Jews manning the cart. As I asked him for the picture, several in our group gathered around as well. The guy running the cart, that I had asked, picked out Ian Price and started to question him...no, not just question him but badger him and really put him on the spot. He first asked Ian "Where is God" Ian, being a shy boy anyway, didn't answer at first, instead was looking to his father for help. The old man seeing this, said "Your father an't help you". The answer the old man was looking for was "Everywhere". After a few minutes of Ian trying to figure this out, the old man then asked "Is God in the heart of the Devil?". Again, Ian stammered around a bit, he had that 'deer in the headlight' look to him. As I stood there, wanting to help Ian out, it dawned on me, that Ian only being 13 but holding the office of Deacon in the Aaronic priesthood had more power assigned to him that this old man who had studied the scriptures for many years beyond Ian's age. Ian held the power of God, whereas this person didn't even know who God really is. I did get my picture taken and we hurried back to the group.

We walked to the bus and caught it for the final time back to the cruise ship. We sat in silence as we drove back to Haifa, I think some of us were tired and I think others were thinking about everything that we just experienced...I was in the latter group. One of the things that struck me as interesting was to see where each of these historical places were in relationship to another. I always thought that each place was miles away from one another, yet as we traveled most were in walking distance of one another. I was also amazed that all of the places we saw were in the midst of the city, surrounded by sidewalks with people rushing by on their way...to do who knows what, yet within walls just a few feet away the most important things in this world happened. I felt like day 2 was the highlight for me. As I thought about day 1, although I knew what I was seeing, I could imagine the things I was seeing as being anywhere back in the states. What I mean by that, the river Jordan, the Sea of Galilee, Mt. Tabor didn't look like anything special they could have been placed anywhere in America and they would have belonged. But it wasn't until day 2 that I really had the sense of being in Israel. The dome of the rock with its iconic gold dome, the temple mount with graves lining its side, olive trees in the Garden of Gethesemane, the Garden Tomb and finally the western wall all reminded me that Kansas was definitely a long way from here. I was in Israel, the land of Christ.

The Holy Land-Day 1

The main reason we took this cruise was to get to Israel. My bucket list coming to Europe was Israel, Egypt and Russia. One down. I did a lot of research in preparing for coming to Israel. I knew that we needed to do a tour in Israel so we could see as much as we could. I emailed five different tour companies and whittled them down to one who gave us the best itinerary and best price. His name was Moti and he did a pretty good job. I can't give him a ringing endorsement because at times he spoke too much and had too much of a Pro-Israel slant. Don't get me wrong, I love Israel and the Israeli people but please don't put down my country or build your country up unnecessarily...just give me the facts of what we are seeing. Also, you have to realize that our tour guides (we had two buses and each bus had their own tour guide) are Jewish and therefore don't believe our Christian beliefs.

We got off to a rocky start, somewhere along the way I thought we were supposed to meet Moti at 9am. We got off of the ship a few minutes before 9 and there he was. He asked what took us so long because he was expecting us at 7am...your kidding, we wasted two hours on the ship? Man! So we had to adjust our itinerary for the first day and reverse the order. Once loaded on the buses we left the port area. We spent the first 40 minutes in the bus driving past Mt. Carmel, leading to the Jezreel valley (Valley of Armageddon). It was foggy to begin the drive and I prayed that the fog would lift so we could see everything we came to see. Within 30 minutes the fog was gone. As we drove through this large and spacious valley I imagined the armies of the world gathering in this valley and waging a devastating war. Could not believe I was here...this will be the theme of the next two days.

Our first stop was Mt. Tabor, where it is believed that the Transfiguration of Christ occurred. We had to disembark our buses at a base camp and take smaller shuttles to the top. We all filed into the shuttles, which took a little while to get everybody up to the top. It was a long and winding road to the top, but it gave a fantastic view of the valley below. There was a Franciscan church at the top of the mountain to celebrate the Transfiguration of Christ. There were three tabernacles built into the church, one for Christ, one for Moses and one for Elias (Elijah). As a side note, each place we were to visit was assigned to a member of our group. They were expected to do research and present a small devotional at each place where we could hear what happened there and read it in the scriptures. Hailey had the opportunity to read the account of the transfiguration out of the scriptures at this stop. We had a group photo here and then moved on.

Once down from the mountain we climbed aboard our buses again. Next stop was the River Jordan. The road wound through the mountains and then we could see another valley. This valley had a large lake in it, the Sea of Galilee (lowest fresh water lake on earth). It was much bigger than I imagined it to be. On the other side of the Sea of Galilee we could see the Golan Heights, Syria and Jordan. Wow! Seriously? These countries you hear about in the news...they are right there! We took our picture next the "Sea level" sign, which is interesting because you are used to the sign being near water. This one was half way down the side of a mountain.

We made our way to the Jordan River. Now this isn't the place that Jesus was baptized, it apparently is 100 Km to the south but for tourists sake they have created a stop to sell souvenirs etc. They have built a fenced off area of the River that you can go into. There is the opportunity to perform mock baptisms in the river. There were many many people that had paid money to dress in white, enter the river and have themselves 'baptized' by who knows who. I stood there in awe of what I was seeing...in my mind, making a mockery of a very sacred covenant that a true follower of Christ makes. But I had to take a picture. The river was teeming with huge catfish and muskrats, I don't think I would have entered the river even if I was paid. We had our devotional which was very nice. I bought a small bottle and went down to the edge of the river and filled it up with water. Pretty dirty, but who cares. The river itself was pretty with overhanging beaches from trees near the river bank, much like the pictures I saw in church of where Christ was baptized.

We left the River Jordan area and drove the banks of the Sea of Galilee. Our first stop was Tiberius along the shore. Not much happened here specifically, but it is in the general area of where many miracles occurred. We stopped here and had lunch. We all had falafels (pita filled with lettuce and deep-fried chickpeas) for lunch. After 30 minutes for lunch we were back in the bus and on to Capernaum. This city did hold several stories from the bible. This is where Jesus came to preach after leaving Nazareth. He chose many of his apostles from this small town. We stopped at a synagogue that Jesus preached at, not much of it left now. We also saw the spot that is claimed to be the home of St Peter, a small circle structure made of rocks and mortar. Over the top of his home are the foundations of several churches that have been built. Those have all been destroyed except for their foundation, now there is a modern church/structure that has been built, which still stands. While here many people had the chance to wander down to the shore of the Sea of Galilee and gather some rocks and sand.

Our next stop was the Mt of Beatitudes. Much like several stops there is no clearcut evidence that the Sermon on the mount was held where we visited. But it seems likely that it could have been here. And much like many places we saw, religions have built their churches over/on the spot where they think things occurred. The Mt of Beatitudes was no different, there was a Catholic chapel built at the top of the mountain and another edifice built half way down the mountain. Unfortunately, the manicured lawns, landscaping and buildings detract from what this place truly is. I wish it would have been left in its natural state. It was hard to get an idea of how people would have been gathered due to the planned landscaping.

We jumped back into the buses and started on our way back to the ship via Nazareth. Unfortunately we hit unexpected traffic on the way back and spent excess time in the bus. We would have hit Nazareth in the morning but because I was late getting our group off the ship we had to wait until the evening to see Nazareth. Everything was dark and it was hard to get an idea of what Nazareth really looked like. We stopped at the Basilica of Annunciation in Nazareth. This church was built by the Roman Catholic church and described as the place that they believe it happened. Whereas the Greek Orthodox church says that it occurred at a local spring and therefore they built their edifice there. Because we were running late we didn't have much time in the church itself. The outside of the church had some very interesting carvings in the large wooden doors of the church. We made it in the church and had just enough time to walk through the church without stopping. We went from the second floor down a spiral staircase to the first floor. It opened up into a large chapel that held made different versions of the the birth of the savior, each one from an artist from different countries. We left the church and wandered the grounds. As we were standing there the bells of the church started to chime...I love the bells on churches. And even before the church bells had stopped the Muslim call to prayer began. I also love the call to prayer. Hearing both of these sounds competing for my attention? I just loved it.

We made it back to the bus and drove back to the port. What a great first day. We felt tired but knew that we had seen so many wonderful things. What made it even better was that I was helping my children's testimony of the Savior grow. They got to see places that, up to that point time, they had only read about in the scriptures...in the words of MasterCard...priceless.

Katakolon and Days at sea

I have opted to group our Katakolon, Greece stop with our days on the ship in this blog post.

Our days at sea (there were four of them) consisted of sleeping in, usually after a late evening. We would normally get up just in time before the breakfast offering ended. The rest of the time was a game of cat and mouse with everybody, sometimes you would see several people that you knew throughout the day and other days you literally wouldn't see anybody from our group, and remember we approx 70 people in our group. I have to admit that I really enjoyed my days at sea, more so on this cruise than any other cruise that I have taken. I don't know why this was the case, but it probably had something to do with that everybody had their own agenda. Hailey, McKay and Maddi simply wanted to be with their friends all day long. Sharma had a chance to relax with friends, family or by herself and therefore she was contented. I fell into the same boat as Sharma, but I must admit most of my time was spent on sea days to myself. Most of the time I spent my hours in the "Around the clock lounge". This was a large, usually empty lounge that overlooked the sea. There were nice couches and chairs that one could lounge on. I usually had a book, iPad or iPhone in hand to keep me company. If this lounge was busy I was go to "Rick's Piano bar" or the "Wien Wien ballroom", both of which were next door. One of my fondest memories was hanging out in the Wien Wien ballroom with my children and all of their friends while they did homework. They did home work for several hours with a couple of games of chess thrown in just to keep their sanity. My daughter practiced for jazz band on their grand piano in this ballroom. It was awesome to sit in the ball room listening to my daughter play the piano while I was adrift in the Mediterranean sea.

We attended most of the shows at night, sometimes we opted to skip the performances, usually if it was the dancers. The entertainment for the most part was mediocre at best, but we appreciated a few of the acts. Breakfast and lunch were usually on our own, meaning there was no preplanning to eat, sometimes you ate by yourself, other times you had a large group. We opted for late dinner seating, which meant that we ate at 9pm. Very unusual for us, and probably will not opt for the late dinning again. We chose this option because we had some long port days and wanted to make sure that we could make it back on board in time for dinner. We started out with everybody in our group doing late dinning, by the second night, there were probably only 15 of us. We knew coming on to this cruise that the food wasn't their forte and it lived up to our expectations unfortunately. There were a few things that they did really well and there were several that were just 'okay' and there were a few that were complete strikeouts. Their version of pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving is the first thing that comes to mind. 'Horrific' I think best describes it. It looked inedible and it tasted even worse.

Our English liaison on board was able to arrange for all of the families with children in our group to have a chance to go up to bridge and meet the captain and see what it looks like to steer the ship. It is a marvelous opportunity, one that doesn't happen very much, in fact in the 13 cruises that we have been on, we have been to the bridge only one other time. I don't think they liked it too much when I tried to commandeer the ship...but hey it was worth a shot. I am sure there was a moment when the captain thought to himself "What did I get myself into?" when he saw 15 noisy, energetic children on his otherwise quiet bridge.

The ship was very nice, large and relatively empty. This made the cruise even that much better, the less people the better. Usually ships are filled so full that you have to reserve space on it just to sit down. The ship also had soft serve ice-cream. This may not sound like much of a luxury, but when you have kids that love ice cream this is a life saver. They may have eaten more ice cream than actual food.

The only downside to this trip was that some sort of sickness spread like wildfire through each of the families in our group. Our family had three people get hit with sickness. But literally every family had a bought of sickness-stomach ache, diarrhea, vomiting and just plain feeling bad. Luckily it only lasted one to two days and then it was gone.

The other thing about this cruise was that it was the best weather and calmest seas we have ever had. Everyday was sunny and 65 degrees. For three hours one evening the ship rocked moderately, other than that there was no rocking, so smooth you couldn't tell you were on a ship...calmest seas of all our cruises.

This brings us to our first stop...Katakolon. We have been to this stop before and did the only thing to do here...go to Olympia. Therefore because we had been here and McKay and Maddi were both sick we opted to get off of the ship and just find a beach and hang out there. Talking with a taxi driver at the port I found out there was a beach right next to the dock...literally 50 feet, it was called Plakes beach.

When we first got to the beach there was nobody there so my kids chose a couple of large rocks to sprawl across and catch some sun and just rest. Sharma and I did some exploring along the beach and collected sand and some small shells. Then I found a rock and found a comfortable position and let the sun beat down on me. After 30 minutes another person joined us, then 10 more minutes and four workers from the ship came and took a dip in the sea. Then 20 minutes after that another three joined us and so we decided it was time to pack up and go. We wandered into the town of Katakolon, there is not much there. One street 1/2 mile long with shops on either side. The most interesting thing happened however. I was in a shop with Sharma, she had picked out a couple of things so I was given the task of paying for the items. I struck up a conversation with the shop keeper as she spoke perfect English. We started making small talk and realized that she was from the US...then from Washington state...then from Tacoma...then had gone to my high school. She was a bit older than me so I wouldn't have known her, but still, what a small world. She gave me the 'Tacoma' discount on my items...nice.

By that point we were done and decided it was time to go back to the ship. We walked 10 minutes back to the ship and found our way to our cabin. Stop #1 completed.