As I woke up this morning, my heart prayed this prayer. "Lord, grant me an open spirit, a listening ear, and a willing heart." A good prayer for any day, but maybe especially on a day I begin a pilgrimage to Israel.
Today is a travelling day. The first plane left at 7:11am and arrives in Newark around 9:00. My travel companion and good friend Rose arrives at 1:30. Our flight to Tel Aviv leaves at 5:00pm and arrives at 10:00am. Problem is that it's a 7 hour time difference so our bodies will be telling us that we are landing at 3:00am. Tomorrow will be a long day.
So since nothing exciting will be happening today (I hope!) I thought I'd share a rough outline of our itinerary. Since it's just the two of us going, we were able to create our own itinerary based on our interests and passions. After much planning and researching we came up with this plan. We hired a private tour guide Meir More (highly recommended on trip advisor) who helped us put these ideas into action. With more explanation in the coming days, here is what we hope to see while we are here.
March 1 - Arrive in Tel Aviv airport at 10:00. Catch a 5:00pm flight to Eilat on the southern tip of Israel on the Red Sea.
March 2 - Take a guided tour to Jordan and the city of Petra, one of the great wonders of the world.
March 3 - Catch a bus to the Dead Sea and meet our tour guide. Travel to Massada, float in Dead Sea, see Ein Gedi nature reserve, the Qumran caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, and Qasar el Yahud where Jesus was baptized. We might even be able to squeeze in a camel ride.
March 4 - Day 1 in Jerusalem. There's just too much to make a complete list. In two days we plan to go to the Wailing wall, Holocaust museum, see Dead Sea Scrolls, go to Temple Mount, Via Dolorosa, gates of the city, garden tomb, upper room, golgotha, mount of olives, garden of gethsemane, King David's tomb, the underground tunnels of the wailing wall, pool of Bethseda,
March 5 - Day 2 in Jerusalem. See the places above
March 6 - Travel around Jerusalem to Mount of Olives, Bethpage, Bin Karem where John the Baptist was born, Bethlehem, Emmaus.
March 7 - Go to Beit Shean and archeological finds, Mt. Tabor where the transfiguration happened, and Nazareth where Jesus grew up.
March 8 - Start walking the Jesus Trail, a 60 km marked trail, that will take us 3 days. Today is 14 miles and takes us through Cana where Jesus turned water into wine.
March 9 - Today we walk 12.5 miles through Arbel Nature Park and the caves.
March 10 - Today we finish the Jesus trail walking about 13 going through Migdal (also known as Magdala where Mary was from), Taghba where Jesus fed 5,000 people with a few loaves and fish, and onto the Sea of Galilee and Capernaum.
March 11 - We explore the Sea of Galilee region - the Mount of the Beatitudes, take a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee, eat some of Peter's fish (also known as Tilapia), and explore Tiberius.
March 12 - We now travel north of the Sea of Galilee to see the area where Jesus drove out many demons from one man into a herd of pigs who through themselves from the cliff, and onto some of the natural parks, and Ceasarea Philippi, Mt. Bental, and Mt. Hermon.
March 13- Meeting our tourguide once again, we travel to the west coast of the country on the way back to Tel Aviv. We will see Megiddo from Revelation, Mt. Carmel where Elijah challenged Baal, Ceasarea, Joppa (where Peter stayed with the tanner and had a vision of unclean animals on a sheet).
March 14 - catch a 10:00am flight back to Newark and the United States. Arrive safely home at 10:00pm.
May God grant us an open spirit, a listening ear, and a willing heart.
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