Pompeii



Mt Vesuvias overlooking Pompeii



Entrance to Pompeii



Victim of Mt. Vesuvias



Pompeii was a rich city, a place to visit for vacation in 79 AD.

But then Mt. Vesuvias erupted and 20 feet of ash covered the

entire city suffocating all living beings immediately. It was discovered in the 1800s



 We walked the entire city and even visited one of it's Brothels. It was small with three rooms and a bed in each one. There were pornographic images on the walls.

A rich man's home was very well preserved - murals on walls, and many bedrooms. The people seemed to live very well, but it was all destroyed in an instant.

Jerusalem & Bethlehem



Praying at the Western Wall



Dome of the Rock



Church of the Nativity



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Garden of Gethsemane



Church of the Holy Sepulchre


We began our day at the Garden of Gethsemane, Mount of Olives. The big olive tree in the picture is 2000 years old. It was there when Jesus prayed the night before His crucifixion. The size of the Garden is now 10% of its original size. The Church of Nations built on the Mount of Olives is beautifully designed inside and out. The inside is designed to look like what the Garden looked like when Jesus was arrested. The ceiling looks like a starry night. There are also murals depicting the Apostles sleeping while Jesus prayed and another mural showing Judas betrayal of Jesus.
  From here we were taken to Old Jerusalem. Inside the ancient gate we walk to the Western Wall where, because today is Thursday, we are told that Bar Mitvahs are occurring. On the right side the women are praying. On the left side are the men and their thirteen year old sons reciting from the Bible. It's a beautiful scene. The mothers, aunts, sisters stand on benches to look onto the left side to watch their boys. The Western Wall is what remains of the second temple which existed in Jesus time.
  Walking distance from the Western Wall is the Via De La Rosa (Stations of the Cross) where Jesus carried His cross to His crucifixion. The street is narrow and cobblestoned. There are shops all along the way leading up to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It's quite an experience to walk the same street as Jesus did  2000 years ago. The Church is shared by 8 Christian denominations.  A Muslim family holds the key to the church. They open and close it every day. That way there is no disputes between the 8 denominations. On the Greek Orthodox side ithe altar has a large silver crucifix on the exact spot of Jesus Crucifixion. 
  Bethlehem was our afternoon excursion. The town of Bethlehem is owned by the Palestinians. We saw the Church of the Nativity, site of where Jesus was born. There are many Christian Palestinians with some restrictions in Bethlehem. We were happy to be able to shop in one of their Bethlehem shops where we found some beautiful olive wood creations of nativity scenes and the Jerusalem Cross.









Jerusalem - First Day Masada & Dead Sea



Looking to the Dead Sea from the top of Masada

 Our first of 2 days in Jerusalem took us to Masada and the Dead Sea. Oh My! What a Day! The Masada Hill sits on the Dead Sea. One thousand Jews lived there till troops of the Roman Empire tried to conquer it. For three years the soldiers kept coming. Finally the little community of Masada knew they couldn't win and made a pact with each other to commit suicide rather than be made slaves of the Roman Empire. To this day there is a famous saying in Israel "Masada will never fall again." We were taken to the top in a cable car and walked the circumference of the place. This community, though situated on a hill in the desert, had plenty of water and food. They were living well. We saw the storage rooms and the synagogue etc. As is told the remains of a woman and two children were found in a cave. 

The storage area in Masada


  It's believed that she was left to tell the story of the suicide. Before committing suicide they burnt everything down except for the storage bins to show that they were not suffering for want of food or water. The ruins were found in 1967.
Herod the Great built his summer palace here before the Jewish community moved in.

Resort at the Dead Sea

 Back on the bus to transport us to the Dead Sea for a little float. I say float because you're not allowed to swim there or even put your head in the water. It's extremely salty. The Dead Sea is 1300 feet below sea level. It's the lowest point on earth. Needless to say nothing lives in it. After a nice lunch at this reort on the Dead Sea we changed into our bathing suits and walked in. Wow!! What a unique and other wordly experieice. The water is turquoise like the Carribean and you can see clearly to the bottom. We can see Jordan on the other side. I believe the Dead Sea is 15 miles long.  Anyway, there is no way anyone could drown here. You float. Even when you walk in over your head 



Floating on the Dead Sea

you can be in a standing position and the water

 is at your chest level. Also the Dead Sea has a

slimy feel, but when the water evaporates your skin feels so soft. The rules stated not to stay in the water for more than 15 minutes at a time. There were showers on the beach to rinse off. I had a slight cut on my foot and it hurt while in the water, but no harm done.



Haifa, Israel



 From the Haifa port we can see the B'hai Temple and the gardens going to the top of the hill. Instead of taking a ship excursion we decided to walk up to the temple and see the gardens. It was a very long, steep climb. The exercise was good for us. Unfortunately, we had to walk through some littered, smelly neighborhoods to get to this lovely temple. It is a holy place where their founder is buried. We were asked to remove our hats and our chewing gum (whoops) before entering. Inside this temple we could see where he is buried. That was all. The gardens, though, are beautiful and well maintained



Gardens at B'hai Temple



Cyprus - Garden of Delights

Our excursion called Garden of Delights, took us into the hills of Cyprus where olive and carob trees grow. The hillsides are beautiful overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. In, what was called a Theme Park, we were shown the old style of how olive oil was made in ancient times. Huge stones, monoliths, with holes in them gave a clue as to how. We learned that an olive tree will always return. In ancient times a person would be punished by having their olive trees burnt to the ground, but a new shoot always appeared. Carob in Greek means locust. According to our tour guide from the Greek translation of the Bible John the Baptist ate Locust. We were lead to believe this meant grasshoppers, but he actually ate carob.

Our next stop was into a little village to sample some local wine. The wine tasted like port, very good. We were also offered some fire water. Oooooh, this tasted like moonshine. No Thank You.

The Church of the Holy Cross in this village has a holy relic, the hem of Jesus robe which He wore to His Crucifixion. St. Helena, Constantine's mother gave it to the Church.

Time for shopping in the little shops. Most of the shops sold doilies. I'm not too crazy about them, but they were handmade by little old women. I went into one shop to look around and, sure enough, sitting there was an elderly woman crocheting these doiles. Nice, but not interested. As I left the shop out the back way an elderly man grabbed my wrist and asked me to go back into the shop to buy his wife's doilies. I said "no thank you". He insisted. He even offered me a glass of wine. "Okey" I said. He had me taste the grapes that the wine was made from. They were small and purple. Tasted good. Then he poured me a small cup of wine. It was ok. He wanted to sell me a bottle. I told him  "I can't take it on the plane". He then said "look at his wife's lacy doilies". I figured I better buy something or I'm never getting out of there. I picked up a doily for 6 euros, but only had a ten and two five dollar bills. I showed them to the old lady and she said "that's good" and was about to grab my $20.00, when I said "Wait a minute, these doilies are only 6 euros". So she took the ten. Oh well, the price was worth it for the story. The doily now sits on my dining table and it will always remind me of Cyprus and that elderly couple.

I love Cyprus. It's a very Christian country. Many small villages that are all named after a saint, plus the village church is the name of the Village saint. People there are, for the most part, named after a saint and celebrate their patron saint's day, including receiving presents, moreso than celebrating their own birth date.

Cyprus has 320 days of sun and so each home has solar panels on the roofs to heat their water, which began in the 1960s. Cyprus is definately worth a revisit.

Ephesus, Turkey - I would love to return

Turkey surprised me. It appears to be very modern. 97% of the people of Turkey are Muslim, and yet it is a secular country and is tolerant of all religions. Our first visit was to fhe final home of the Virgin Mary. It is believed that St. John the Apostle brought her here after Chist's crucifixion. Her home is small with 3 tiny rooms. It is now a chapel. The house sits on a quiet hill overlooking Ephesus surrounded by green trees and there's a spring that she would have received her water from. We were given a clay pot to fill with the water, but I wasn't able to bring it on the plane. : (. Oh well, I still have the pot and that water has been running for over 2000 years. The original foundation of the house is shaped like a cross.                                                                     

From Mary's home we were driven to Ephesus, the third largest city.of the Roman Empire. 250,000 people lived there. The city is well preserved. Walking down the streets I could imagine Mary and John walking here, doing their shopping. Well, why not? It made Mary feel more human to me thinking about this. There were many shops, theatres and to the left was their library. Our tour guide told us that when the king visited Ephesus red wine was poured out onto the street, thus the saying "roll out the red carpet".

Athens, Greece has so much history

Sadly, Athens is filled with graffiti and litter everywhere you look. The traffic is atrocious and there seemed to be a red light every 50 feet and detours. OK, enough of the negative.
Our excursion was to the Athens National Museum. What a treasure trove this place is. It is filled with antiquities and our knowledgable tour guide gave us a full explanation pertaining to each sculpture she showed us. I was like a sponge taking it all in. To the right is a statue of Poseidon, the Sea god. He was found in the sea. I know I've seen pictures of this statue many times, and here it is up close and personal.

We also were taken to the Parthenon and it's beautiful.

Athens is the capitol city of Greece. Too bad the people of Greece don't take more pride in their famous capitol city. It was so sad to see the dirt and graffiti covering every blank space on most every building. I've never seen so much of it as here.

Day at Sea and then to Mykonos, Greece

I like that our first full day on the ship was a Day At Sea. This is so relaxing. You can sit on your balcony sipping a glass of wine and just let the ship take you wherever, listening to the waves crashing against the boat is therapeutic. Of course, it's your choice to do nothing or pick from a myriad of things to do. Since we're traveling to the Holy Cities of the Mediterranean I chose to attend a lecture on Alexander the Great. The lecturer is a Historian and does know his stuff. He was very entertaining as well. I learned a lot. There also was a drawing class offered by a Master Artist. Loved it all.

We arrived at Mykonos, Greece. It's a beautiful, picturesque little island.  All the buildings, businesses, homes are white and they all have blue shutters plus they're clean. This is a definite must revisit place. There are some nice hotels overlooking the port. It's very quiet, although the lady I bought my jewelry from said that it gets very windy there. We had a Greek beer, called Alpha, overlooking the port  at an outdoor restaurant. So lovely. I took out my sketch book and Eddie was able to check his email while enjoying a delicious beer. Oh yeah!!

Roma - So Rich in Ancient History

As soon as you enter Rome you see ancient ruins around every corner. Rome is so rich in art, and in architecture. Our first challenge was to find our Bed & Breakfast. Thank God for Google Map. Using the print out Eddie had on him we easily found the street walking from the train station. Once settled in we found a draft beer and pizza on a very busy street. Our first venture out on our first morning in Rome was to the Coliseum, an easy 2 stop subway ride away. We lucked out because this weekend is European Heritage weekend and so entrance was free. Alrighty then. We walked around the Paladio and just took in all the architecture trying to picture what this grand area looked like 2000 years ago. The Arch of Constantinople and the Arch of Titus were here. These arches were built to honor battles that were won. The altar where Caesar was cremated is also here. Our lunch was at a small restaurant overlooking the Coliseum. Location, Location. It was inexpensive and delicious. Now to venture into the Coliseum. It's huge. There's a respectful silence from the tourists walking inside. I don't even want to think about all the atrocities that occured there in the name of entertainment.

What a day. Luckily there was a small cafe with outdoor seating just outside our B&B. Typically, in Italy, the menus show a pasta dish as a first course and a meat dish for the second course. I stuck with just the pasta and the house wine. Yummy. We had pasta every day that we were in Italy and it's all so delicious.

On Sunday, in our walk from the B&B we happened upon some ruins and a beautiful Catholic Church, Santa Maria de Angela a Martyrs. The Mass was said in 3 languages - Italian, English and German. The cantor had an operatic voice. This church was originally a Roman Bath and one of the Popes built a church there. The columns in the Church were part of the Baths. Michaelangelo designed the inside of the church in his elderly years. It's breathtaking.

Monday - We're off to Vatican City. Posted in this blog is a picture of the Sistine Chapel. Here we are, there it is. Live and in person - God's finger extended to Adam. How many times have we seen this painting in the media. The Sistine Chapel is smaller than I pictured it to be, but it's all there. Spectacular! Imagine Michaelangelo painting this incredibly beautiful ceiling on his back.

The Vatican Museum is huge with beautiful paintings and statues. It would be very easy to get lost here.

So much to absorb. Time for a beer and a rest. It was all very good. Good Bye Roma. Tomorrow the Cruise.