A Trip to Israel: March 10 and 11 Jaffa

About ten months ago, Judy called with an invitation to join them on a trip to Israel. 

I thought about it for 1.3 seconds, and quickly accepted. A Holy Land trip has always been on our bucket list, and despite a camera that refused to work, food poisoning (Stan), an annoying cold (both of us), and an embarrassing and painful fall (me), it did not disappoint. 

I cannot imagine a more interesting, amazing, and perceptive-changing place to go. 

We left Billings March 10th at 1:25 pm and arrived in Israel March 11 at 3:20 pm, about a 18 hour journey, accounting for the time difference. 

It was a thrill to finally step off the plane and find ourselves in Israel.

We left the airport and joined the Cannons, along with their friends the Haws and Vines, in the city of Jaffa. Jaffa is actually the old part of Tel Aviv, and site of significant biblical events.

Jaffa is also an important and ancient port city.

To my great joy, Jaffa is home to this lovely gelato stand. Upon seeing the variety of tasty flavors, I had high expectations for the rest of our trip. I was to be sorely disappointed.

Judy, telling me to get thirds because this would be one of our few opportunities to get REALLY good gelato. At least that what she SHOULD have been telling me.

Our next stop was St. Peter's Church, a Franciscan Catholic church, built around 1654 over a medieval citadel, destroyed, then built again between 1888-1894. We found that was common--an invading group would destroy or take over a church and rebuilt or remodel a dozen times over the centuries.

 We were enthusiastically greeted by Father Ison, who was very familiar with Mormons, having worked in Hawaii at the Polynesian Center. He spotted members of our group outside, and asked if they were Mormon. I was soon to discover he was the first of a multitude of warm, welcoming souls in this corner of the world who willingly spent time with us, talking with great sincerity and passion about their own area of expertise. 

The church had several panels depicting events from Peter's life, such as the raising of Tabitha from the dead (Acts 9:36-42), an event that took place in this city.

The front of the church with

 a picture depicting Peter's dream in Jaffa (aka Joppa), as recorded in Acts 11:5-6.

I love this depiction of the descending dove, above the pulpit.

 The ceiling was high and arched, not unlike the cathedrals we saw in Europe, although this church was smaller and simpler.

Of course, this being Israel, the menorah is everywhere, even in a Catholic church.

The outdoor corridor and 

 courtyard, with a statue of St Louis. 

Father Ison showed us the citadel connected to the side of the church, originally a fort built by the crusaders, who came to the area beginning in 1099.

According to Father Ison, this room was used as a prayer room, as well as housing for such dignitaries as Richard the Lionheart and Napoleon.

Ceiling of the prayer room. It must have been quite a feat to make this domed, circular room with stones and mortar.

 The bell tower of St Peter's, probably the tallest building in town.  Hailey, looking over my shoulder as I am typing said, "Are those palm trees? I thought palm trees lived in California." So did I. I certainly didn't picture Israel as a home to palm trees.

Jaffa is the place Jonah hopped on a ship to avoid preaching repentance in Ninveh, That didn't work out so well. You can see our excellent guide, Yosef Spiezer, there on the right.

Jaffa is also the location of a zodiac sculpture/water fountain.

  

 We saw one of the gates to the city dating all the way back to the 13th century BCE. Those figures down the sides are the many titles of  King Ramesses II

 We visited the new old shops of Jaffa, a mere 200 years old. Compared to that gate, it's a spring chicken area.

 It was beautiful in the evening light.

Our guide took us to "Oranger Suspendu" in the old shop area, a work by Ran Morin. According to this internet site it is "an [o]range tree, steel structure covered with ground stone & pigments, steel cables".

 Our guide said this area used to be full of orange groves, but no more.

 View of the city.

 The city is a maze of stairways,

side streets,

and pathways. It would be easy to get lost here.

We walked down to the harbor.

You can almost see poor Jonah, desperately looking for a space on a ship to get out of town.

Here, our guide pulled out some glasses and delicious grape juice. He told us it is customary to toast the first time you are in Israel, remembering you were "put by God at this time in this place". I loved the patriotism and pride that radiated from all of our guides. Yosef was no exception.

 Our final stop of the day was Dr  Shakshuka, a fabulous local restaurant.

The high ceiling was covered with old heating burners. 

I took a couple of blurry pictures before I dug in. We ordered a group meal, several kinds of dishes of delicious food, humus, sauces, and sides

and ate till we couldn't eat any more. We had a few meals like this during our journeys; family style dishes everyone took a serving from, always much, much more fabulous food than we could finish. These were, without exception our very best meals.

We collapsed at the end of the day in the Dan Jerusalem Hotel, located at 32 Lehi Street. Hmm. I wonder who named that street?

It was a lovely hotel room, with the exception of this large, obnoxious bathroom scale. Seriously, who wants to have a scale on vacation? Not me!