The Road To Pilgrimage: January 31, 2009

1-31-9 Saturday, 2000, Sun City Hotel

Hurried out the door to meet the tour van at the Mercure Hotel; walking down Allenby Street I slipped on a piece of cooked yam on the sidewalk and went down fast. Hit left knee and elbow, right outer foot. Suddenly surrounded by Israeli faces, more or less yanked up to my feet by one gentleman, and offered water by another [hilarious to me. I fell, I'm not thirsty. But he meant well.]

Met tour at Mercure Hotel on Ben Yehuda Street. Saw Megiddo from afar, a hill [tel, actually] spiked at the top by palm trees, the site of a bloody battle in World War One between the British and the Ottoman Turks; plausibly the site of an already accomplished Battle of Armageddon. Interesting to me for the history. [See "The Servant The General & Armageddon" by Roderic Maude and Derwent Maude.]

We passed Mt. Tabor from afar, and visited Nazareth up a winding hill. In the rain we hiked up to the Church of the Annunciation, where Mary was informed of her impending pregnancy by the Holy Spirit, by the angel. Also the House of Mary and related Church. On to Capernaum and the Church of the Loaves and Fishes by the Sea of Galilee. It was a rainy day. The highlight for me was an ancient olive oil press.

We ate at Tiberias, then on to a kibbutz on the Jordan river all tricked out with concrete pools and ramps for people to baptize themselves like Jesus. A Russian Eastern Orthodox lady asked me if I was going to "dive." She bought or rented the white outfit and into the river she went. The river Jordan was beautiful, a slow, green stream with white gulls circling over it and trees, especially Eucalyptus, along the banks. Someone was running a chain saw on the far shore. I picked up a twig with Eucalyptus leaves and berries for my friend Becky at work.

It was a long drive back in the evening to Tel Aviv. Speaking with the driver, we hooked up with a tour to Jerusalem with luggage, and an agreement to drop us off at the bus station at the end. Take the express bus to Haifa, and voila. Enayat was angry that I vetoed the trip to Bethlehem. I said, "take it up with the Universal House of Justice."

Elbow pain is the worst. Sleep, or pack?