Israel visit 2010

King David and his harp

I spent a week in Israel in November, and have now managed to get all the photos up online. It was mostly family - a wedding, and cousins both old and new on both sides; the wedding and family photos are separate, any family or friends who would like to see them, please email me.

There was also time for a number of visits and excursions, and an opportunity to get to places I hadn't seen on my previous trip last year.

On the first day I met up with cousins Halina and Harry for a trip to Jerusalem, and although I'd been to some of the places before, it was still a fascinating and moving visit. We started the day on the Mount of Olives, with its fantastic views of the cemetery and the Old City, and then walked round the Old City, where I managed to lose the group for a while (as you do). I'd only stopped for a moment, to take the photo of King David above, and when I turned round they'd disappeared. Just like that.

We met up again for the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is an amazing jumble of churches, chapels and shrines in different corners and on different levels, all belonging to different sects. It's the focal point for Christian pilgrimages from all over the world, and the people are as fascinating as the stones.

We then went to Yad Vashem, the holocaust memorial. I'd been last year, and found it just as shocking this time. You are not allowed to take photos inside the museum, for obvious reasons, but I did take a few outside.

The following day cousins Maureen and Franklin came over to Old Jaffa, where I was staying, and we had a walk around the old town. As the day before, it was great to spend a day with cousins that I rarely see - even though we had to go all the way to Israel to meet up!

After the wedding, and a few more family visits, I stayed for a couple of nights at Kibbutz Daliyya, saw Roman and ancient Jewish remains at Zippori near Nazareth, failed to get down to the sea at Ma'agan Michael, and came across Roman waterworks at Nachal Taninim.

I hope to put up some brief posts here about these latter visits, before too long.

Note: you can see the Jerusalem posts from last year's Merkavah 09 trip for fuller comments, and many more Israel photos from that trip.