The Journey Continued...

Netanya, second home:

crappy night shot

morning panorama

sunrise over the city

the next day, more Roman ruins.  Caesarea - where we spent more time disrespecting boundaries to get our feet in the Mediterranean than we did interacting with the history:

"look Mom, I touched it!"

one of Herod's many swimming pools

I found the pentagon-shaped canal interesting

after which, we headed to Jerusalem!

from the Mount of Olives

looking towards the Mount of Olives

Garden of Gethsemane on the other side of that church

Tomb of Absalom

Yay!  one of my favorite places - just inside the Jaffa Gate

some sub-par pics of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre:

entrance

Stone of Anointing

the mosaic behind the Stone depicting its use

the Aedicule - the tomb itself

Golgotha - the site of the Crucifixion

Chapel of St. Helena mosaic

ancient graffiti worship

in the shuk

all the things I want!

the Kotel:

paratroopers

the Wall

the Israel museum:

we found ourselves observed by these strange alien creatures...

...they appeared at random, out in public

Dead Sea scroll

scroll

fun with texture

a good exhibit

my son caught one!

'Iron Trees' by Ai Weiwei

model of the second temple

in the hotel restaurant:

 there ended the first week - stay tuned for the second half of the adventure, beginning with Masada and the Dead Sea!

Mediterrani

driving to Newark in the pouring rain.

hauling my aging mom and teen through Newark after not having traveled overseas for 20 years.

this nonsense:

on the way to the gate.  what the..?

had these weird faux brick breakaway walls with reprinted vintage pics and bad fake graffiti. 

found among the hollow displays of shot glasses t-shirts and mugs - dark chocolate with pop rocks?  sure, I'm in!

some pretty tasty albums, actually...

worst.  airline.  experience.  ever.

and I've done a good amount of traveling.

I have some negative words to say about United.

but we got there, and we made it to Tel Aviv to regroup.

at the Artplus, about which I have positive things to say.

then off to the kibbutz:

old tractor park

Tabor Oak

my dad's headstone

eitzim (olives) & carob growing next to each other in the cemetery

the tower marks the site of the original camp, Ayal.

the new front gate

these folks... 😊

Beit Keshet is Home.  it was So good to be there.



 we drove out to Tzippori one morning:

a mosaic stating 'enjoy life' by the toilet

the 'Mona Lisa of the Galilee' as they call her.  I think she's Ariadne, seeing as how it's a mosaic depicting Dionysus' life, including a scene of their 'marriage'

pretty fancy floor.  the white space with the black corner indicates where the couch goes

detail

archway

archway

from the tower

these are the grapes that grow over the porch of 'Dionysus House'

that's Dionysus' front porch, where his grapes grow over his terrace

a pomegranate amongst the sabra fruit

look at all that cactus, and all that fruit!

they're like dinosaurs...

but look, a baby!

household bath

 

mosaic everywhere - wonder what this says?

Roman road with chariot-wheel ruts in it (caution: slippery) and mosaic galleries on either sides, most likely for market stalls

and some of the mosaics the place is famous for:

the 'Orpheus Mosaic'

hang in there, this is only the first few days of the trip.  there's plenty more to come!