Chania, Crete: July, 2007

Normally, I stay with my personal viewpoint in this blog. Billions of other events happen elsewhere while I am experiencing my own life, and I can easily become too bogged down with extraneous details of my own adventures to seriously consider relating other views of reality.

Because I brought it up earlier, however, I should at least tell you that the contingent that went to Chania in search of relatives found a house that belonged to John Megas' cousin, Eftalia Barakis, but she had gone to a home in the hillside village of Madaro to escape the city heat.

While Eftalia didn't have her own phone, her neighbor knew the number for the village phone in Madaro.

Their taxi driver placed the call for them, and after several minutes in which a village messenger found her and brought her to the phone, reportedly spoke with Ms. Barakis, who told him finding the village would be easy if they drove up the hillside.

The two taxis began winding up the narrow country road, but before long, our intrepid voyagers realized they were running out of time. Some short but costly time delays getting off the ship, pumping gas, and stopping at a bakery, which actually proved to be the highlight of their journey for most, delayed their arrival enough to make them abort the culmination of their trek.




Still, they saw much of the coast of Crete and got a feel of where Grandpa Nick lived until he was 18 years old and bravely set out for new worlds.

At the bakery, they enjoyed eating chunks torn from a giant loaf of freshly baked bread, the aroma and texture of which competed with the taste in a sensory celebration. The black ash on the bottom highlighted the unique flavor and appearance of this bread. For them, it was the taste of Crete.

Chania Dig It?

In the summer of 2007, our family went on one of my all time favorite cruises. Traveling with extended family and friends always makes a trip extra special, and in this case, we had the added enrichment of returning to the home of my gorgeous wife's grandfather. (I was referring to Julie as gorgeous, although I don't intend to imply that old Nick wasn't a Greek god in his own right when he set out for America as a young man.)

With a full day on the isle of Crete, the idea was to rush off the ship, snag a cab and head to the hillsides above Chania to see Grandpa Nick's village and find some long lost cousins. As it turned out, they never made it to the village, but they enjoyed a generally enjoyable day touring the countryside of Crete.

I won't say I had an Oracle's premonition that they would not meet their cousins face-to-face, but I had a feeling it might meet with some frustration, leading me to join my oldest daughter Gina and brother-in-law Rollie exploring the ancient Minoan ruins of Knossos near Heraklion. Our jovial trio had an amazing time.


Reunited with the others back on the ship, we celebrated throughout a great evening.

While we enjoyed highlights literally every day, Julie was disappointed to have not met her cousins, and we vowed to return. As luck would have it, this coming season Royal Caribbean announced that the incredible Navigator of the Seas will dock in the village of Chania on her seven night voyages in the summer of 2011, and our die was cast.*

Here's the amazing itinerary visiting some of the greatest places in history with prices starting at just $749 per person:

15-May Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy 5:00 PM

16-May Messina (Sicily), Italy 10:00 AM 7:00 PM Docked

17-May Cruising

18-May Piraeus (Athens), Greece 7:00 AM 6:00 PM Docked

19-May Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey 7:00 AM 5:00 PM Docked

20-May Chania, Crete, Greece 6:30 AM 3:00 PM Docked

21-May Cruising

22-May Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy 5:00 AM

*As my brain works, I wondered how the word die would be spelled in the phrase, "the die is now cast." According to my research, when Julius Caesar acted to bring his Legion across the Rubicon River into Rome in violation of the law, he said, "Iacta alea est" which means "the die is now cast," referring to the singular of dice. In other words, he had now gambled by throwing the dice, and as any craps player will tell you, there aren't do-overs until the bets have been paid. This seems most likely, but some say the phrase is "the dye is now cast," meaning the dye or ink has been thrown in the water and it has thus changed permanently. If the Latin translation is correct, then the former must be true, although the latter also makes sense. In the case of what I meant, it is more like throwing the dice. We would like to go on that cruise, so I set up a group, gambling that perhaps, if we go, perhaps you would like to join us.

I went with the least expensive date, with inside rooms starting at $749 per person and balconies from just $1199 per person, but if more people could go on a date other than May 15, 2011, we can look into an alternative roll of the dice. Would you like to join us on an amazing voyage from Rome?

Corfu: July, 2007

After a leisurely morning on the ship, we were to arrive in Corfu about 12:30 PM.

The captain announced we would be staying three hours later in Corfu than scheduled, but then we ended up being delayed getting off the ship by about an hour.

Cheryl decided to spend the day onboard enjoying the ship, and Laszlo planned to go out on his own around 2:00 PM.

Everyone else departed the ship together about 1:45 PM with a general plan of going to the beach, although some spoke of first seeing some sites in town.

By this point in the trip, we had come to realize that trying to get more than a handful of people moving in the same direction at the same time can be slow going, as coming to a consensus takes time.

Julie didn’t want to take a chance of missing the best part of the afternoon transporting to the beach.

To reach the Bay of Paleokastritsa, which we heard had the most beautiful beaches as well as some decent snorkeling, Julie grabbed one of the waiting taxis, pointed to a map and told the others we would be going there with Jay and Amy.

We said we would love to have everyone join us but understood if they would prefer to do something else.

The cab driver quoted 40 Euros, and we didn’t try to find any other rate, worried that if we didn’t act, we might miss the chance when other cruisers began swarming the taxis, as happened in Santorini before we decided to just take the bus to Oia.

Corfu is definitely the greenest of the Greek Isles we visited, which I understand is due to Corfu receiving about three times as much rainfall as the other isles.

This, however, was a bright, sunny day with temperatures in the eighties.

We enjoyed a quiet ride on the winding road through the lovely countryside. Our cab driver made few comments but efficiently delivered us to our beautiful destination.

Old Greek dead dudes, as Bill and Ted would call them, like Sophocles and Homer (not Simpson) wrote about the gorgeous Sirens whose alluring songs tempted sailors to abandon caution and crash their ships on the rocks of Sirenum Scopuli where they lived.

While I don’t think Corfu was the Sirens’ home, it is hard to imagine more tempting, craggy rock-lined beaches than at the Bay of Paleokastritsa.

There are actually two bays with beaches separated by the main drag.

The larger beach attracted more people, including several modern day Sirens sunbathing topless.

We went to the smaller of the two beaches, which our cab driver told us would have better snorkeling.

The sea was surprisingly cool. We expected warm water similar to the Caribbean or Hawaii, but this water was cold enough to give me chills if I didn’t keep swimming.

I suppose this shouldn’t have been shocking, since our previous swim in the Aegean Sea by Santorini proved to be cooler than the waters off the Dalmatian Coast in Dubrovnik, but I didn’t think I would wish I had brought a rash guard to stay warm swimming on this trip.

The coral and underwater vegetation is generally muted shades of brown and green here, so it isn’t surprising that the fish trying to blend into their environment were also mostly undistinguished in color. Still, swimming in the turquoise sea around the craggy rocks was refreshing.

Jay and I enjoyed hiking through the crags along one side of the bay, catching some different views of the scenery.

There were boats pulling innertubes, banana boats and something that looked like an inflated easy chair from a dock in our bay.

The larger bay had cave tour boats that go in and out of some small coves.

It all looked fun, but we passed on boat rides this time.

As the afternoon flew by, it soon became apparent that the others had sought a different path.

Eventually we decided to head back to the port town.

At a café between the bays, we ordered a taxi.

While we waited, the kids made it clear that they preferred to head back to the ship so that we could have dinner at our usual table.

A few minutes later, a jovial and loquacious cab driver arrived with our chariot…okay, it was a regular taxi with a price of thirty Euros for the return trip.

As we drove, he spoke lovingly of Corfu and everything we were missing.

He couldn’t believe we hadn’t asked him to take us up the hill to the monastery above Paleokastritsa Bay, or to a scenic viewpoint called “God’s Balcony” when we were right below it.

We told him about the Crete quest, and he said how much he liked people from Crete.

He said many of the people of Corfu were Venetians or Europeans from other areas that had arrived in Greece later than citizens of Crete.

When we told him about drinking ouzo, he asked if we had mezes (essentially appetizers) with the ouzo, saying there were many bars that served only different kinds of ouzos and mezes.

He gathered his fingers together and kissed their tips, spreading his fingers as he took his palm-up hand away from his lips, a gesture he repeated frequently as he described delicious cuisine and beautiful sites of Corfu we were missing.

I asked how much extra it would be to swing through the town and point out some sites, and he agreed to ten Euros, but the kids insisted on returning to the ship for dinner, so we passed, although I still paid him the extra ten because he really made the cab ride special.

We learned later the others had taken a bus to a closer beach and then gone out to dinner in town.

We picked up Cheryl and enjoyed another wonderful dining room experience despite our half empty table.

Nobody missed the ship, and we dutifully headed for the Trivia game, in which we had been humiliated (and rewarded with key chains) the previous night.

Did I already mention that we won this night?

I guess I did, but perhaps I should remind you: WE WON!

After the longest losing streak in our Trivial history, the hostess finally asked the right kind of bizarre questions.

The previous night, questions about sports photos found us floundering, but this night asked questions about topics with no particular point or significance, which is our specialty.

Leatherette baggage tags….ooohhhh yeah!

We all went to the 42nd Street Theater to see Spectrum, a quartet of tuxedoed singers, perform “A Tribute to Motown and R & B.”

Several of us were in the front row center, and when Spectrum did their Temptations-influenced dances to the catchy melodies, we did our best to keep up, prompting them to give us props from the stage.

They asked for a man in the audience to stand up and say something about loving his woman.

Now of course I would have stood up and made a spectacle of Julie had she been next to me, but she was sitting in the “mature” section next to Rollie and Cheryl about 2/3 of the way back in the crowd. Rollie, between the two ladies, stood up and received the microphone.

He proceeded to speak for about fifteen minutes about his first date with Cheryl and how it was impossible to get him to utter more than a few syllables before meeting her.

I must say, she changed his life!  He paid her a nice tribute and received a big round of applause.

We all thoroughly enjoyed the show, and being fired up by all those great Motown classics, we were ready for Rock-A-Rokie.

As inspired as I felt, I couldn’t bring myself to sign up to sing in front of a crowd.  Considering that twenty years ago I used to carry a guitar with me and serenade unsuspecting people almost everywhere I went, perhaps I changed even more than Rollie.

Gina and Cheryl did eventually drag me up to join them on a song, but my microphone didn't work, and I can't say I was upset about that.

Thinking about this late night out, I just realized I forgot something that happened the night before at the Rock n’ Roll Dance Party.

There was a twist contest, with Jered and Amy selected from the dance floor to be one of three competing couples. Amy backed out, so the hostess brought in a woman to replace her. Jered didn’t win, but got a T-shirt for participating.

Getting What You Want

"You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want."
— Zig Ziglar

My parents lived by the same principals espoused by Zig Ziglar, and they raised me to do the same. I wish I had been more attuned to their lessons when I was a teenager. I wouldn't have been the equivalent of an "American Idol," but I would have accomplished far more than I have career-wise.


Madaro, Crete

However, I have enjoyed an amazing life, primarily due to helping others get what they want. As a travel agent, a field with admittedly limited financial potential for a one-person operation, I do my best to help my clients get the most from their vacation time. As a father, I have successfully worked to help my children find their own paths. As a husband, I have supported my wife's career, holding down the home front so she could focus on her career goals.

My wife is arguably my best "customer." Whether getting her Baby Ruth bars and Johnny's pizza when aerobics burned off the calories in the 1980s, Reduced Fat Doritos and Wow potato chips during her low fat days of the 1990s, or sunflower seeds and Atkins bars for the low carb decade, I have tried to provide her what she wants.

Julie is an avid traveler with a bucket list full of check marks, and as ironic as this seems for a Cruise Planner, I really have little say in where we go on vacation. I just help Julie get there, and in doing so, I end up seeing some amazing places myself.

Most recently, the goal was a return to Crete so that we could visit the village of Madaro where Julie's grandfather Nick was raised before immigrating to America as a teenager about 100 years ago.



Nick wasn't deterred by 35 miles of winding roads between Madaro and the coastal town of Chania, most likely riding there in a bumpy horse-drawn cart, or by thousands of miles working and living in the belly of a ship without stabilizers to cross the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas and then the vast Atlantic Ocean. He reached his goal, America, and then migrated across the country until finding work in a coal mine in Rock Springs, Wyoming. As a result of the courage of his convictions and the sweat of his brow, his son was able to attend college and become an engineer, and that man was Julie's father John.

What's stopping you from getting what you want? I would love to help you get there. "Better service leads to better trips."

Why should you cruise on Royal Caribbean?

Few if any prospective cruisers need me to tell them why they should cruise with Royal Caribbean.

Royal Caribbean has done an excellent job making their own case, as evidenced by the fact that they frequently win best cruise line and other top rankings among their peers.

Like many other Southern California residents, I personally accumulated many notches in my Crown & Anchor profile with three and four night cruises back in the day when Royal Caribbean's Monarch of the Seas and other ships regularly cruised from Los Angeles.

Royal Caribbean had newer ships doing longer cruises from Los Angeles, too, always delivering terrific experiences.

We enjoyed our West Coast voyages so much that we were happy to trust RCCL for our first European cruise when they included Crete, an island rarely visited by modern ships prior to that cruise in 2007.  Julie's grandfather immigrated from Crete, so her sisters and their families joined us for a family trip to their ancestral homeland.

We gladly returned to the Mediterranean with Royal Caribbean, plus a couple of cruises to the region featured in their name.

Yes, when Royal Caribbean goes where we want to go, we certainly have no qualms about choosing one of their wonderful cruises.

But it wasn't until the ships started adding surprising features like ice skating rinks, onboard surfing and sky diving that the brand really took off with the general public, justifying loftier pricing than competitors.

Everyone I know who has gone on one of Royal Caribbean's newest mega-ships not only comes back raving about the onboard experience on these amazing ships but almost inevitably begins planning a return trip to bring their friends or relatives along so they can see for themselves.

I don't know of higher praise than that.

Royal Caribbean's marketing appeal is to adventure-seekers and families, but everyone across all demographics seems to love Royal Caribbean vacations.

Their best suites for families have become so wildly popular that it is difficult to book one unless you do so as soon as they go on sell.

While their commercials seem a bit too frenetic for me (which is why I don't feature too many in my blogs versus Princess, another line we love that creates videos I often find perfect to illustrate my blogs), they undoubtedly do the job of appealing to new cruisers, which are the lifeblood of the industry that allows the continued expansion of newer and more astounding ships.

Once you've taken your first cruise, you're probably hooked for life.

Have you tasted Royal Caribbean?

You should, whether cruising to the Caribbean, Europe, Alaska, Australia, South America, Canada/New England, Bermuda, Asia or anywhere else they cruise.

"Better service leads to better trips!"

Return to Ephesus

While clients frequently reject cruise itineraries that take them back to ports they've already visited, there inevitably are alternative side trips on paths not previously taken. On our return to Kusadasi, I found that taking the exact same shore excursion route can also yield a unique experience. How?

Library of Celsus in Ephesus

All of us bring our personal backgrounds and beliefs to our travel and jobs, and that influences how we approach our subject matter. As luck would have it, our guide was the grandson of immigrants from Crete, which gave us an additional connection, since Julie's grandfather immigrated to the U.S. from Crete.

In Ephesus, our guide shared stories about early Christians. In the first century A.D., Christians could be thrown to the lions and ripped to shreds for the entertainment of the masses simply because of their beliefs. This obviously made them cautious about what they said and to whom. To be certain he was talking with a fellow Christian, one person would casually scratch an arc in the ground with his toe. If the other was a Christian, he would casually scratch a mirror image of the arc, crossing through at one end, with his toe. The result was what looked like a crude outline of a fish, the same symbol you'll see on the back of mini-vans throughout the heartland of America.

Our guide four years earlier spoke about Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and the Apostle John, who reportedly spent their final days around the great city of Ephesus. He spoke at length about Paul, who wanted to preach the Word of God in the large Greek Theater in that city and who wrote letters to the Ephesians which, like John's Book of Revelations and the fourth Gospel possibly written in Ephesus, are included in the Bible. Our guide this time touched on those pillars of history, but not in as much detail, preferring to share less famous anecdotes, including an explanation of a more complex symbol found etched all around Ephesus that, like the fish, had secret meaning for Christians.

A far less religious marking along the road leading up toward the town from the coast was a primitive ad for the house of ill-repute at the corner across from the Library of Celsus. Our guide said there was a tunnel beneath the street from the library to the whore house. While certainly not exactly the same experience, it reminded me of how my high school friends and I would walk to Thrifty's for an ice cream while we were ostensibly at the library to study. We were always looking for girls too, but we certainly never found carnal knowledge there.

Capping Off Crete: July, 2007

Every evening we returned to our table for twelve in The King & I Dining Room to share tales about how we spent our days, and we enjoyed another terrific family feast after our day in Crete. To cap off our first Greek port, Royal Caribbean planned Greek Night in the atrium, with traditional, rousing folk music played by Trio Greco. The Cruise Director’s staff taught us the basic steps and a circle of dancers began the Syrtos or Kalamatianos dances, I think. As I understand it, these two dances are essentially the same, although Kalamatianos is livelier and has a 7/8 meter instead of a 2/4 or 4/4 like Syrtos. Maybe I was doing Kalamtianos and everyone else was doing Syrtos. Who knows?

In any case, we danced like Cretans in our oblong circle and sometimes ran around the room in a chain of fools. I may not have danced the best, but I think I danced longer than anyone. Many of our group joined in the frivolity, and my nephew Jered, as usual, took center stage at one point in the dancing with some high kicks worthy of Zaporoque’s Cossacks. Opa!!!


The songs were all fun, but of course the familiar strains of “Zorba the Greek” received the best reaction, and my son Jay bought a CD of that classic the next day on shore.

When the dancing stopped, I dragged myself into the 42nd Street Theater and plopped down next to Rollie to watch a performance by Mysteriaque. I thought this was the same team that did the puppet show that put me to sleep the first night, but instead they turned out to be fantastic dancers, acrobats and magicians who put on a unique show. They won international dance competitions a half dozen ago with their elegant style and athleticism, but for an entire show, that wouldn’t be enough, apparently, so they added some remarkable illusions.

The very tall woman must be quite a contortionist, as the assorted tricks where her husband sawed her in half undoubtedly required her to squeeze into some tiny compartments. Either that or she’s a quick healer. The tricks that most amazed me, however, involved tying up the woman and later someone selected from the audience in what must be magic rope from which they inexplicably escaped. As if all this wasn’t enough, the tall woman also was a quick change artist, frequently switching costumes in the middle of a magic trick within a second of concealment. Rollie and I couldn’t help but wonder why so many people miss these wonderful shows worthy of the big ticket prices in resort areas like Las Vegas.

Then again, there’s always so much happening on a cruise, you can’t do everything. We proceeded up to the poolside deck where Gina said she would be watching the ice carving demonstration, and we arrived as the band at the Dancing Under the Stars Party began playing “Hot, Hot, Hot.”

That happened to be the music for a line dance many of us learned the day before at a class, so of course I joined on the dance floor. I wasn't surprised to see Julie, my daughters and other family members who took the class joining in, but I was surprised that Jay got up there to "roll it down, and roll it up" with the rest of us. He had been mostly reading and occasionally snickering at us as we took the class, but apparently Jay saw enough to learn the dance as well as any of us.


The band followed that with Gloria Estefan’s “The Rhythm Is Gonna Get You,” and we began dancing in a joyful conga line around the sun decks.

The band took a break, and the ice carving demonstration began with the artist chipping at the base of the ice to make it more stable. He then proceeded to chip away everything about that block that wasn’t a beautiful swan, as we tried to guess what he was making. The masterpiece joined other ice carvings, faces and other pictures carved out of melons, and bouquets made from fresh vegetables and fruit in a lovely buffet under the stars. It’s a shame these works of art last only one evening, but they’re reminders to appreciate the present moment. We were still too full from dinner to partake in the sumptuous buffet under the stars, but we would have liked to stick around for Rock-a-Rokie, where passengers would sing with the live band on stage instead of the usual karaoke tracks. We knew, however, we had a big day in Kusadasi starting early the next morning, and we didn’t want to blow our chance to see Ephesus by partying too late, no matter how fun that would be.

Jerusalem

Church of Mary Magdalene, a Russian Orthodox Church
near the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem

If you believe the story of Noah and his Ark (not to be confused with Jonah and the Whale) to be history rather than allegory, then Noah's family tree would be ancestors to each and every one of us.

How about that, Cousin?

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Adam is
purportedly buried directly below where Jesus was
crucified,

Before you dismiss God's flooding the world as religious claptrap, perhaps you would find it helpful to substitute the term "Climate Change," and assume that the "sins of the world" were some ancient euphemism for pollution.

Or, in the current day, substitute "God" for "Climate Change," and perhaps you'll at least find tolerance for whatever morality tale you previously scoffed at.

Church of All Nations Mural
of Jesus at Garden of Gethsemane.

You also could find rationalization in thinking of the flood as a more localized event, wiping out every place Noah, who lived in an age before cars and jets, probably knew of existing or at least had ever visited in his lifetime.

An apocalyptic destruction of his world, perhaps along the lines of the civilization-ending event for the Minoans in Crete, would seem like the entire earth must have been covered with water.

In any case, for the sake of this narrative, let's assume that we all must have descended from Noah, who incidentally was the tenth generation down a family line of Adam and Eve.

Noah had three sons: Ham, Shem and Japheth.

Julie at Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed after
partaking in the Last Supper with his disciples.

Several generations later, in about 4,000 BC, some descendants of Ham established a civilization in the country we call Egypt, which of course became quite an amazing civilization.  About the same time or maybe 1000 years later (what's a few hundred years when you're having fun?), other descendants of Ham established a city called Jebus, the city that would become Jerusalem.

The Church of All Nations beside the Garden of Gethsemane.

The tenth generation of Noah's descendants down the line of Shem included Abraham, who had a few interesting adventures that I won't go into here.  Several generations later came Moses, who became step-royalty to the Pharoah in Egypt before leading his people on an Exodus to the Promised Land, which became Israel.

After conquering their new homeland and settling in, the Israelites decided they wanted a king, despite the fact that God told them He would guide them through His prophets.

Mural of Jesus Praying at
Church of All Nations

They chose Saul, a Schwarzenegger-like man who stood head and shoulders above the rest of the Israelites.

One day, an army of Schwarzeneggers, the Philistines, showed up in the Valley of Elah (a valley we saw on our way into Jerusalem) and made camp on one hillside, taunting King Saul and the Israelites on the opposite side of the valley with threats of their impending violent, merciless attack.

The Philistines challenged Israel to send out their greatest champion, who most Israelites would have thought to be Saul, and let only those two men fight to decide who would rule the Promised Land, saving the obviously inferior fighting force of Israel from being utterly slaughtered by the superior Philistine fighting force.

The Philistines sent out their greatest champion, Goliath, who was an intimidating giant in full battle regalia.  Just the sight of Goliath was so frightening that no Israelite, including Saul, would come forward.

A humble shepherd boy named David, who was in the fourteenth generation of Abraham's heirs, happened to be there.

Embarrassed by this humiliating spectacle of neither the powerful king nor any other Israelite warrior coming forth, David stepped forward with the belief that God, to whom he sang Psalms of praise daily while tending his sheep, would stand with him, just as David protected his flock. He knew that with God's help, anything was possible.

We all know the story.  As he walked toward the giant who wielded the most gruesome weapons of that age, David pulled out the sling shot used to fend off predators who would otherwise ravage his lambs.

Ancient Olive Tree in Garden of Gethsemane

As Goliath laughed at this mere boy sent to combat him, David put a rock in his sling shot and landed a stone right between the titan's eyes, and Goliath fell forward like a felled tree.  David took Goliath's huge sword, almost too heavy for the boy to hoist, and cut off the giant's head.  At least that's the way I learned the story.

Ceiling at the Church of All Nations

The Philistines ran away upon realizing how powerful this God of David and his ancestor Abraham must be, if a mere boy could defeat their hero.

David became a great fighter and then general in Saul's army, greater even than Saul himself.    Despite not being Saul's heir to the throne, David was selected by the Israelites to be king.  What was the first order of business for King David?

Gateway to Jerusalem

"David and all the Israelites marched to Jerusalem (that is, Jebus). The Jebusites who lived there said to David, “You will not get in here.” Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion—which is the City of David....

"David then took up residence in the fortress, and so it was called the City of David.  He built up the city around it, from the terraces to the surrounding wall, while Joab restored the rest of the city.  And David became more and more powerful, because the Lord Almighty was with him."

---1 Chronicles, Chapter 11 Versus 4, 5 and then 7 through 9

Like all Jews, Jesus came to Jerusalem for all high holidays.

In the Temple as a boy, He amazed Hebrew religious leaders

with his wisdom.  As an adult, He overturned tables of
money changers who took advantage of poor worshipers.

King David's palace in Jerusalem (location unknown) became the site of much drama.

One night, restless and unable to sleep, David went up to the roof of the palace for some fresh air.  He happened to see a gorgeous woman bathing nearby on what I imagine was a hot summer's night.

We walked Via Dolorosa, the route Jesus took to Calvary.

King David sent a servant to find out about the babe, Bathsheba, and learned she was already married to Uriah, a soldier who happened to be out of town on a military campaign.

The king, accustomed to having anything his heart desired, becoming less in tune with God, and so he sent for Bathsheba and...yada yada yada...."I'm pregnant!"

Church of the Holy Sepulchre marks the spot where Jesus was
crucified and also the place where He was entombed and then
finally resurrected, which we celebrate on Easter.

David sent for Uriah in order to get the soldier home from war and into bed with his wife, so that Uriah wouldn't think something's fishy when his wife has a baby almost nine months later.

But Uriah turned out to be a dedicated soldier, so devoted that he refuses to go to see his wife.

David took it a step further with a deadly cover-up.  As commander-in-chief, he ordered his general to send Uriah to the fiercest fighting against the Ammonites, hoping Uriah would be killed.

Julie enters the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Mission accomplished.

David made Bathsheba his wife, and she gave birth to their son.

However, God knows all and sees all, so He sends the prophet Nathan to speak to David on His behalf.

Worshipers pray at a hole that is purportedly
the exact spot where the cross of Jesus stood.

"I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the Word of the Lord by doing what is evil in His eyes?"

David confessed his sin and begged forgiveness, and Nathan, still speaking for God, told David that God would take away his sin and that his life would be spared.  However, Nathan went on to say that the son of David and Bathsheba would die.

David donned sack cloth and prayed that his son's life might be spared, sincerely contrite for his sins, but seven days later, his son died.

Eastern Orthodox Representation
of Jesus on the Cross

David had hoped God might change his mind as He had with Ninevah after they repented following warnings from Jonah (not to be confused with Noah), but no such luck.

David went to comfort the grieving Bathsheba, and....yada yada yada...about  nine months later a new son, Solomon, was born.

David then undertook finishing the war against the Ammonites in which Bathsheba's first husband Uriah had fought, and you may be surprised to learn that they won, bringing back plunder to Jerusalem and forcing all the Ammonites to slave away making bricks, apparently in preparation for a building boom.

David and Bathsheba's second son grew to become Wise King Solomon, whom the Lord loved greatly.

The Wailing Wall, or Western Wall, is the only remainder of

the 2nd Temple of Jerusalem, built on the site of the 1st

Temple constructed by King Solomon in about 1000 BC.
A 3rd Temple on the same spot is blocked from construction
by presence of the Dome of the Rock mosque,
which bans non-Muslims visitors.

King Solomon built the first Temple in Jerusalem in about 1000 BC.

What do you make of that story?

I'd say the Lord works in mysterious ways.

Jews controlled Jerusalem for 300+ years before being overrun by the Assyrians.

Slab where the body of Jesus
was anointed in olive oil.

About a hundred years into Assyrian rule, Babylonians won control of Jerusalem and carried the Israelites into exile.  This was fourteen generations after King David.

Other kingdoms came and went over the millennia.

Roman Empire rule, which lasted in one form or another for over 700 years, began when Pompey the Great besieged Jerusalem in 63 BC.  Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar, Julius Caesar's great-nephew, ruled at the time of the birth of Jesus, followed in 14 AD by Augustus's stepson Tiberius Caesar, who ruled at the time of the crucifixion.  The life of Jesus in Jerusalem, by the way, is covered in the separate narrative accompanying our photos herein. The Roman Empire continued into the early 300s AD and morphed into the Christian Byzantine Empire under Emperor Constantine.  The Byzantine designation is one made by historians; the Byzantines thought of themselves as Romans.

The Byzantines ruled until 637 AD, when following Mohammed's ascent, Arab Muslims took over Jerusalem, until Crusaders recaptured it a few hundred years later.

Old City of Jerusalem behind Suleimann-built wall.

In 1517, Suleimann the Magnificent (not to be confused with Wise King Solomon) took control of Jerusalem for his Ottoman Turks.  The Ottomans held Jerusalem for 400 years, until the end of World War I when the Brits took over.  We would definitely be crossing historical paths with the Ottomans throughout this trip, culminating in Istanbul where we were amazed by their treasures.  For his part, Suleimann, the greatest Ottoman sultan of them all, built Jerusalem's still-impressive city walls, among many other civic improvements which helped preserve the city for posterity.

Modern West Jerusalem on left, and East Jerusalem on right.

Today, 3,000 years after King David and the Israelites captured Jerusalem from the Jebusites, the descendants of Ham and Shem (and most likely Japheth too) continue to contend over control of Jerusalem and its holy sites.

Shortly after Israel declared its independence in 1948, Jordan annexed East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and Israel took control of West Jerusalem. Barbed wire divided the city in two.

The Jordanian side included the old walled city, with most of its holy sites, and an armistice agreement promised to allow Jews free access to those sites, but it was not honored.

Under the Rotunda, the tomb of Jesus

and a piece of the stone that covered
it are housed in the Edicule, built by

 the Greek Orthodox Church in 1810.

In practice, Muslim sites received maintenance while sites cherished by Jews did not, and that became the norm for 19 years.

In 1967, against the warnings of Israel, Jordan joined with Egypt (United Arab Republic was actually Egypt's name at the time) and Syria in an alliance against Israel.  

With the much larger nations amassing overwhelming forces on their borders, tiny Israel's vaunted secret service, Mossad, learned the exact time for the scheduled all-out assault by the Arab alliance, and thirty minutes before that time, the Israeli Air Force took to the skies.

Like David shocking Goliath with a rock to the forehead, Israeli jets mercilessly bombed Egyptian air fields, destroying almost their entire air force.  With that gambit, Israel had gained air superiority for the entire war.

Tomb of Joseph of Arimathea,
who donated a tomb for Jesus.

The United Arab Republic's military forces were built for offense, not defense.  How could they imagine a tiny country would dare to attack them?

Israel further surprised the alliance by invading the Egyptian-controlled Gaza Strip and also the Sinai with ground forces, inflicting heavy damage on all they encountered, capturing territory like my son Jay with hot dice in a game of Risk.

Israel did not want to open a war front against Jordan, but Syria and Jordan followed Egypt's lead and attacked.  Israeli forces surrounded East Jerusalem, but they did not attack for a number of reasons, including probable negative international reaction.  Despite Israel's warnings, Jordan continued firing artillery barrages from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, so two days into the war, on June 7, General Moshe Dayan gave the order to attack, and following heavy fighting, Israeli troops captured East Jerusalem.

The Woman's side of the Wailing Wall.

During the Six-Day War, Israel won control of East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan, the Golan Heights from Syria, and the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt.

Unlike many of the post-World War II policing actions by the United States and its allies in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, where we've tried to rebuild countries and give them back to their citizens, a truism of war throughout history has been: "To the victors go the spoils."

Shrine in Edicule.

In keeping with this tradition, Israel kept the territories it won, although according to our guide Miki, they'd like to give Gaza back to Egypt but the Egyptians are too smart to accept that constant headache.

The conquered territories to the east, on the other hand, provide an essential buffer to allow Israeli's defenses a chance to respond if attacked.

Did you realize that even after Israel added all of this territory captured in the Six Day War, the combined Islamic countries surrounding Israel are 640 times the size of the Jewish homeland?

Israel is the sliver of red, and Islamic colors are in green.

Can there not be one small sliver of land in the Middle East for a constitutional democracy in which everyone, whether Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Baha'i, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Taoist, Algore-ian Druid or WOMAN, has the same fundamental freedoms of religion, speech, the press and elections as the United States?

Our tour bus had a toilet stop in the outskirts of Jerusalem at this Elvis Gas Station,

 a shrine to the King of Rock and Roll   Despite a constant drum beat of serious

threats, Israelis retain their sense of humor.

The Wailing Wall

The Dome of the Rock Mosque

Location of the Crucifixion

Newer Mosaic of Jesus being lowered from the Cross
at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Greek Orthodox Edicule housing the empty tomb of Jesus.