Holiday in Israel

I recently came back from a holiday to Israel. It´s been on my bucket list forever!

We only went for 5 days, so of course, we didn’t get to see everything, but we still managed to pack in quite a few sites.

Here are a few photos of the different places we did see.

The old town in Jerusalem, which is divided into the Jewish quarter, the Christian quarter, the Muslim quarter and the smallest being the Armenian quarter.

The Western Wall, in the Jewish quarter, was one of the highlights, especially at night with the men  singing.

Men on one side, woman on the other 😉

The temple mount, we weren’t allowed inside the temple, non-Muslims are not allowed, but still wonderful to see from the outside, with wonderful views. Hubby and I were wearing shorts to the knees but still…. BOTH of us were ordered to wear long skirts loaned to us by the guards. I had such a laugh seeing my husband in a skirt 😊

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, in the Cristian quarter containing the two holiest sites in Christianity, the place where Jesus was crucified, known as Calvary or Golgotha, and Jesus’s empty tomb, where he was buried and resurrected. We waited for about an hour and a half in the queue, to see the tomb.

Massada – where the famous siege took place between the Jewish people and the Romans, in +- 74AD,. Here you can take the cable car up and walk around the ruins, it´s very interesting.

The views are incredible!

The Palace Guards 🙂

An Original mosaic floor

Thank goodness they have the cable car, some people actually walk up and down, but I’m not that sort of people 🙂

Ein Gedi –  A nature reserve, with lots of small waterfalls along the trail. We spent quite some time alone in this little waterfall that emptied into a tiny little pond, it was gorgeous

The Dead Sea, which I have wanted to go to all my life, I finally made it, and what can I say…. I loved the experience, however, it´s so salty, that when a few drops fell into my eyes I had to rush out to wash them because they started burning so much. Actually, the recommended time for being in the water is only 10 to 15 minutes at a time. Still, it was loads of fun.

Of course, we had to spread mud all over our bodies when it´s washed off the skin feels really soft, but a little smelly from the sulfur 🙂

The garden of Gethsemane, the spot where Jesus said his last prayers before he was arrested by the Romans.

The Basilica of the Agony, or church of all nations as it is also known, enshrines a section of rock where Jesus is said to have prayed before his arrest.

The Garden Tomb – Considered by many to be the actual site of Jesus´s tomb and where the resurrection took place. It´s quite lovely here, very calming and relaxing, definitely worth the visit.

On our last day in Jerusalem, we visited Yad Vashem, the official memorial to the victims of the Nazi Holocaust,

This was a very sobering and moving visit, I found it very hard to keep my emotions in check and not cry. The world certainly needs this memorial so that it never forgets what happened.

Our last day, we spent in Tel Aviv, and at the beach, which was great.

I could go on and on about this trip which was so fascinating, however, I´ll just end with this interesting custom I saw during our visit to Jerusalem. Water is so precious that all the public bathrooms and outside fountains have these containers so as not to waste water, they pour water into the container and use that water in the container to wash their hands, I love this idea, I´m going to get myself something similar and apply this at home. One of the things I love about traveling is seeing how people do things differently and learning from other cultures

Time to start planning the next trip 😉