back

The sixteen on the coach back to York have all been delivered up to their destinations. Hope A&L and Si have got home safe and sound too.

17 in Vienna

The 17 of us flying via Vienna are at the gate and just boarding. Hopefully the 2 going via Frankfurt are ok as well!

about to fly!!

We made it to Ben Gurion airport, despite the delays at a couple of checkpoints which slowed us down by a good hour and a half. Anyhow, it now says 'boarding' for the most of us ... though two are leaving half an hour later on Lufthansa. We have had an amazing, intense, memorable and at times exhausting trip.

A Palestinian in Beit Sahour said to a few us "thank you for spending your tourist money, not on a beach or in the Canaries, but buying some stress from this place instead"!

day 14

Seeing as the trip began on a Wednesday, and it is now our last morning in the Holy Land -- we fly around 4pm -- that means it must be day 14! We arrive back into York in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The last day was varied and enjoyable as we split off into smaller groups, then we reconvened for a fabulous meal in East Jerusalem together. The many and various activities of the day were satisfying and the stories we have heard and shared since coming back to Jerusalem and Bethlehem will live with us all for a long time.

The families in Beit Sahour are under extreme pressures and all the ordinary ones too. That has meant that for some of us, we have been a helpful distraction from the daily hassles, and have been suitably entertained. For others it has been a matter of fitting in with or fitting around the family we have been with. This section has been fascinating. Beit Sahour to Jerusalem without a separation wall would only be 5 miles, with it, it is well over an hour away with three bits of transport and a checkpoint. Even after three days of trudgery it amazes me that some have to do it as a commute (which for a Palestinian will often take 2 hours not one) and that many many more would give practically anything to have that same freedom.

Our group, though, its a tour group, and we've got this journey to make one last time. A tourist coach transferring us to the airport must be one of the fastest ways to get through on a day like today. It is likely that the checkpoints will be very difficult for locals after yesterday's killings in Tel Aviv. The coach will even be faster than being a foreign diplomat or an MP -- they have been told by Israel that if they come into the West Bank for meetings with any Palestinian MP (Fatah or Hamas) they will be boycotted by Israeli and disallowed to return to Israel for five years.

Some of us, I imagine will be coming back in far less than five years; moved, inspired, provoked and changed by this remarkable and troubled part of the world.

yesterday evening and today

Those who stayed in Jerusalem went for a second night to the best eatery in East Jerusalem -- Askadinya. Some of us met up after meals with the families for a brief Western, Protestant impromptu service for Easter Day (any there had been had happened by 10.30am and those of us in Beit Sahour missed them all).

Then Samer took twelve of us to the Three Kings Hotel in Beit Sahour. Egyptian Christians on a tour were anxiously watching news about attacks on three churches back in Cairo.

We went upstairs, there were the hubbly bubbly flavoured tobacco pipes, the most bizarre G&Ts ever, vodkas, a huge plate of lemons and much hilarity. Photographic evidence was collected.

Between the nineteen of us there are many and various plans for this last full day. Peter, Joan and Margaret are going to hit the Israeli Museum. Sian, Will and Carley are off to one of Herod's palaces. A crowd are staying in Bethlehem and another are going up to Jerusalem for various bits of shopping.

homestay realities and time in Jerusalem

A brief blog entry and Happy Easter (Western Easter that is, most of what we've seen today is Orthodox Palm Sunday).

Well, the homestays are straightfoward and yet nothing like the luxury or remarkableness of the many other places we have been. What is apparent is that these are very ordinary people, living in remarkable circumstances. What it is like as a visitor just depends who's home you're in, and whether you 'click' or if it's a bit 'awkward'. So there's been a mixed bag of responses to this bit of the experience.

It certainly felt like a privilege though going up to Jerusalem today for Western Easter when we knew most of the people we were with haven't been allowed to go, or only very occasionally for the last five years or so.

One person from Beit Sahour asked me to light a candle for them at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in Jerusalem, since she would not be allowed get there to do so herself.

Jerusalem was wet, rainy and cold, and yet still a wonderful, beautiful and mysterious city. The checkpoint in and out of Bethlehem is oddly reminiscent of IKEA, now I realize why, its the blue and yellow paint scheme combined with the metal framed structure!

from Jordanian desert to Beit Sahour

We have had an exhilirating and spacious time in the mountainous desert of Wadi Rum overnight (including a sunset jeep tour, superb buffet dinner and the brightest of full moons). On the way today we took in the seventh century mosaic map of the region in a Madaba church in Jordan, before plunging down from Mount Nebo (the place believed to be Moses's last resting place).

We crossed the Allenby Bridge back into the West Bank and Palestine in record time (only one hour and thirty minutes). We dropped off the three of our group who have opted to stay in East Jerusalem for the final days of the trip, and then sixteen of us headed on to cross through the separation wall at the Bethlehem checkpoint (after refreshments in Jerusalem at the American Colony).

Now we have just received a wonderful welcome at Beit Sahour after ten hours of travelling. We have been accommodated with nine different families all within a short distance of each other. This scheme run by the Alternative Tourism Group for Palestine has been in operation for several years now.

Beit Sahour is the location of the famous Shepherds' Fields and is one of the three connected villages of the Bethlehem district (in arabic 'Beit Sahour', 'Beit Jalah' and 'Beit Lehem' i.e. Bethlehem). Tonight we will all take evening meals with our families, and those of us with the energy will go up the hill to the Church of the Nativity for the Easter Vigil.

Tomorrow morning we will travel back in time to Palm Sunday, according to the Orthodox Calendar, join in the celebrations in Beit Sahour, before travelling forward again a week, as we head up to Jerusalem to be at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Western Easter Sunday.

The transition from Jordan back to Palestine and Israel is a big one to make, and at the moment energy levels are quite low after the challenge of the long journey and the short desert night. Being in real homes, with families though, and a little off the tourist trail will hopefully help us to recharge. I also guess that just as I have already heard a handful of moving stories over a beer and a hot drink with my hosts, the same will be happening in another eight locations this evening where the rest of the group are also learning about Palestine from the inside.

48 hrs in Petra, now to Wadi Rum

We've had a very satisfying 48 hours in Petra: arriving Wednesday, leaving Good Friday. Today most of us stayed by the pool at the hotel, till the coach comes to take us for a jeep tour, and overnight stay at the "Lawrence Spring" desert camp in Wadi Rum, two hours south from here.

Over the last three days we have walked down the Siq, seen the ancient rock carved tombs of the mysterious Nabatean civilization. Many have ridden camels and / or donkeys. Some have climbed high to the Monastery and other high places. Five took the long walk to Jabal H'Aaroun (Aaron's Mountain): to a place which has been venerated for the best part of three thousand years as the final resting place of Aaron, brother of Moses. Here's a pic of Will on top of the world!

The accommodation at the Taybet Zaman hotel, a fifteen minute drive from Petra, has been outstanding. A conversion of an abandoned 200 year old village, retaining most of the original dwellings, thus spreading the accomodation out on a single story plan across a stretch of hillside in a way which is beautiful, idyllic and peaceful. As for the food ... well!

So satisfaction levels are high. Some of us have got very tired from all the adventuring. We are all ready, although perhaps a little uncertain about the unknown of the desert, and the race, tomorrow back across the border to Israel, Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

Dead Sea to Petra

After breakfast we travelled along by the shores of the Dead Sea, including hot springs, a pillar like Lot's wife, a potash factory and a climb up through the mountains to the Crusader fort of Shobak. After some of us clambered back down from the castle down some very badly worn steps in the complete dark, and back up a small way to the surface we headed onto Petra.

Our accommodation for tonight and tomorrow is in a restored village from 200 years ago -- the places are single story stone constructions with small windows and masses of space inide. The food is magnificent. All of us are tired and happy.

And yes, of course, the first sight of Petra, the siz, the horse rides and the sunset as we headed to the hotel were all first class.

Jordan border, Jerash, Dead Sea

We left Nazareth at 7.30 and after an hour at the border headed up into the Jordanian mountains of Gilead and up to the fortress of Ajlun. (The coach took the climb at such a speed, there were unpleasant consequences for those sat at the back of the bus!)

Maha our Jordanian guide has explained many things about Jordan and its landscape to us ... the rich, green, fertile area we passed through makes up only one per cent of Jordan's landscape. The agricultural land though provides work for a third of the Jordanian population of six million.

We then spent a fascinating couple of hours at the Roman city of Jerash. It is more complete than any other Roman city remains in the world (having theatre, temples, streets and plaza).

Then it was just a further two hours to plunge down to the lowest point on earth, at the Dead Sea ... for bathing, mud covering, and relaxing in the most luxury we'll find all holiday. It was Janet's birthday, and perhaps that was the excuse for many of the party having at least six desserts.

the day of fourteen stops

1 - At Mount Scopus for a final view of Jerusalem
2 - Wadi al Qelt for a one hour wander in the wilderness(unforgettable).
3 - The petrol station in the Jordan Valley
4 - Just before B'et Shean with the Israeli tank turned into a playground toy where we met a coachload of young people from East Jerusalem (mainly Muslim) on a day trip to the Jordan Valley.
5 - River Jordan baptism site. An unscheduled stop which included a scuffle between a German and a shopkeeper.
6 - The Church at Tabgha. Built in the 1980s using the Byzantine mosaics including the famous one of the loaves and fishes. The church has been a holy site for at least 1700 years, regarded as the place where Jesus fed the 5,000.
7 - Galilee beach / picnic stop and Church of the Primacy of Peter. Some of us had a bit of a paddle.
8 - Capernaum, including the synagogue and the space-ship a church hovering above a Byzantine hexagonal church above the site of 'Peter's House'.
9 - Mount of the Beatitudes - we were all churched out, but we drank in the view and the freshly squeezed juice.
10 - Site of the Battle of Hittim: here Sal-el-Adin defeated the crusaders -- Peter explained the events of the day's battle and the way the Crusaders overlapped + intersected with Sal-el-Adin.
11 - The First Miracle Shop at Cana of Galilee -- they were selling wine.
12 - The Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth -- impressive for many reasons including its size and scale, and the simple grotto which denotes a physical space where it is thought that the Angle Gabriel appeared to Mary.
13 - St Joseph's Church -- a church venerated as being the home of Joseph.
14 - Nazareth Greek Catholic Church. The iconography was superb, and the screen behind which the eucharist was prepared is remakable since it is a fusion of Orthod and Roman styles.

third and final Jerusalem day (for now)

Well between the nineteen of us who are here, we've managed to cram so much into our final day -- including nine of us scrambling under an unfinished section of separation wall in East Jersalem. There were visits to Yad Vashem, and many joined the exuberant Palm Sunday procession with all denominations, thousands of Palestinian Christians and many others from all over the world. There was bottle-necks, singing, palm fronds galore and a long slow shuffle to the Lion Gate entrance to the city. On entering, rice showered down from the windows above. There's a reluctance from most people to leave. Margaret has only just arrived; there will be time for more Jerusalem next weekend.

Back to the trip to Bethany though. We (nine of us) were stood in Mary and Martha's garden close to where their home may have been. I was hit by a moment of rhetoric as I could see the map of our morning pilgrimage ... I said

"So here we are at the place Jesus turned up, late, and Martha said to him 'if you'd been earlier our brother Lazaurus would not be died' and Jesus said 'take me to the place you have laid him'. Now today we can get straight to Lazarus's tomb, two minutes away, because its just down the hill and there's a final gap in the separation wall that hasn't been built, yet. So we can go this week, but by next week it will probably be closed off. So today we can go straight, next week though, we'd have to go back the way we came, get another bus and take forty minutes at least to get round, not allowing for the checkpoint.

So we headed to the end of the garden -- the gated section, where the wall is to be built, was padlocked off today: we started to clamber underneath -- two local Palestinians came with hammer and chisel to smash the lock, but we asked them not to risk trouble for themselves and got through by crawling and rolling!

The visit to the tomb and back through the wall was a poignant pilgrimage with a difference, and perhaps an unrepeatable one for many years to come if the wall goes up and stays up.

Saturday: Ramallah, Yad Vashem, Bethany etc

What a day. Well there are 18 of us sampling as much as we possibly can so its not surprising that there's too much to tell. Nine headed to the Israeli Museum for a couple of hours, many of us saw the exhibition of children's art about the separation wall which opened last night at St George's Cathedral. Four of us headed one mile east of the Old City to the Apartheid Wall just beside Bethany and managed to squeeze through it to get down to Lazarus's tomb. Others got to the Tower of David museum in the morning, and others visited there in the afternoon.

A crowd of us headed on up to Ramallah after two in the afternoon. We split onto two buses, and the first views of the separation wall running along beside us for three miles was disturbing and moving for many of us. There were a few surprises in Ramallah, from the cheese in the desert, to the machine gun wielding men paying too much attention to a two or three in our group. There was also the randomness of a new system of a direct bus from Jerusalem to Ramallah. This new service has only been happening for the last four days. A comment from one shop-keeper was that it had changed the mood in the place. It has shortened the journey time, but some of the residents are still too surprised at seeing a crowd of western 'tourists' turning up en masse for it to be relaxing for them or us!

The journey back, once we found the temporary and informal embarkation point for the Al Quds (Jerusalem) bus was the fastest of all my journeys -- 30 minutes door to door! We came via a couple of Israeli-Jewish settlements in the West Bank on a fast road. When we came to a check point the soldier took one look at the clientelle on the bus and stepped straight back off.

We've carefully planned for the next 3 days, which requires early starts (breakfast at 7.30am then 6.00am then 7.00am) so I guess I better stop blogging now and get some more sleep. Palm Sunday here we come!

first full day as a group

(Blog entry written by Carley, Gosha, Sian, Will and Jem) First risers this morning were Lisa and Eleanor who forgot to reset their clocks and got up 5.30am two hours early. They caught sunrise though.)

Breakfast -- the halva experience wasn't a pleasant one for Carley, variety and pitta and cheeses.

Sian and Will headed off the Yad Vashem and had the place to themselves for the first hour or so, and went the reverse way round which avoided the tourists groups. Then headed down to the Western Wall, and spent an hour with Mohammed in his shop (friends for life). Will and Sian also went to the Sepulchre Church.

The rest of group walked down Salelhadeen St to Herod's Gate and then back out of Lion's Gate to the Tomb of Mary by Gethsemane in the Kidron Valley between the Old City and the Mount of Olives. Its a deep fissure in the rock where there's burial grounds.

Some went back up the Mount of Olives and others to St Anne's Convent, and then we reconvened at the Western Wall. Everyone got to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and had lunch made for eleven of us by one man, in his tiny felafel / kebab shop in the Christian Quarter.

Jem dragged everyone up to Jaffa Gate to the closed Tower of David Museum -- sabbath comes early to this place these days. Some of us went up on a roof next door, and then we split up to explore the Old City, go shopping in the Suk and wade through 'rivers of blood' in the meat market (well some did). Then it was time to survey the scene from Damascus Gate, some walked the Via Dolorosa and others went to the American Colony and the local cafe for further refreshments.

Tonight its dinner at the Azzhara Restaurant!

18 arrived

This blog entry written by Anjuli and Simon, typed by Jem! All safely ensconced in Jerusalem at the St George's Guest House and we've been down to the American Colony for a drink. Being here is still a bit surreal following a whirlwind tour of the views of Jerusalem: to suddenly be out from the UK and slap bang into the heart of the Middle East. Other surprises were the motorways, the skyscrapers of Tel Aviv and young Israeli Defence Force personnel waiting at bus stops fully armed. Another different thing was the road checkpoints run by the military.

So everyone is very tired from getting up so early and staying up all night at Heathrow. Anjuli commented how interesting it was that there were quite a number of orthodox Jews who in flight to Tel Avv got up to prayer before lunch. They were wearing prayer shawls, the big hats and black coats, and the male kids had skull caps and side-burn curls. It included everything including 'wailing prayers' and of course kosher food was served.

Bethlehem, checkpoint, 'servis'

Servis, pronounced 'sir - veece' is the minibus or stretch vehicle taxis that wait to take you places. Took a servis to Bethlehem from the bus station in front of a rock face with a skull like detail to it (unlikely to be the 'Place of the Skull' but claimed as such by a few folks in the nineteenth century). The journey was smooth, and the new checkpoint feels more like an IKEA warehouse than some of the more bleak control points I've had to wait at here and elsewhere in the West Bank. It continues to be peculiarly cold, rainy and windy, this is freak April weather. I'm not expecting it wil last.

I'm feeling both nervous and excited thinking of the sixteen people making the trip this evening via Heathrow to arrive here tomorrow, I do hope it all goes smoothly.

coffee at the American Colony

One of the greater institutions of East Jerusalem has to be the American Colony hotel ( www.americancolony.com ), where the business, media and wealthy types stay and others come to browse the bookshop and drink the coffee in nineteenth century surroundings. Its only a minute's walk from St George's. A calm place to come and sit after the day's activity and sample the arabic coffee.

questions at Vienna

The Israeli security questioned me for 45 minutes at Vienna. They were worried that I was such a friendly person that someone could have planted a bomb on me. I pointed out that only they and the Austrian Airlines staff knew that I was on an El Al flight. They wanted me to prove that there really was a group coming out after me, so I showed them the ticket inventory on my laptop -- it all took rather a long time -- they were particularly friendly though and must have apologized about thirty times for asking personal questions!!! The funniest one was 'do you have any Arab friends, Iraqis / Palestinians / Lebanese', I said 'yes I have many friends from all over the world'.

The people who did the security interview saw me at the gate when I was boarding, we looked at each other as if we'd known one another for years!

damp and cool

Wearing a jumper and a coat this morning.

Jerusalem -- Monday 3 April

Wonderful to arrive, sat here eating Greek salad and pitta in a cafe just over the road from St George's where we're staying. I'm surprised there's wireless internet in a cafe ... things progress so fast everywhere. I'm excited about everyone else coming out to join me on Thursday, and glad to get re-oriented first. The accommodation is fine and friendly, the courtyard is so restorative and looks impressive now its spring.

The trip was extended with an overnight in Vienna, due to an air traffic control problem over Europe. I met someone from St George's at the cancellation desk in Vienna, and also met a couple studying in Totnes coming over to Israel for a fortnight and someone else from London going over to Kosovo to bring her husband back to the UK! Fun, although sitting around in a baggage hall for 3 hours got a little wearing ... the company made up for it. Vienesse apple strudle, and four of us crammed into a hotel room sleeping like babies was all very amusing.

Flying El Al wasn't planned, on from Vienna to Tel Aviv, but it was the best flight on Monday. The questions, they were fine, just about the rest of the group, could I prove they existed and had I packed all my own things. They were very friendly about it, it took 45 minutes. I felt tired mainly though nervous a few times because I didn't want so many questions. At Tel Aviv it was much briefer: they said 'what is the purpose of your visit', I said 'tourism', they said 'what is your occupation', I said 'a priest', they said 'do you know anyone here', I said 'not really', they said 'where will you be staying', I said 'St George's', they said 'who do you know there', I said 'the people who run the place', they said 'what is your reason for coming now', I said, 'it's Easter', they said 'what was your reason for flying El Al', I said 'because my connection in Austria failed', they said, 'what made you choose El Al', I said 'I didn't, it was the only option', they said 'have a nice stay'! It was very fast ... just thought I'd give you a taster!

The weather's warm enough, though now as the sun is setting I've put a jumper on. Been shopping already and have been thinking of felafal, fresh bread in the morning, arabic coffee, walking through the Old City and bargaining for the odd thing. That though will have to wait till later tomorrow after a day's work on some of this research / documentary stuff.