I chose for us to go to Israel for Easter and Passover, so that we might better understand where and how Christ lived, more about his Jewish history, and the history behind the scriptures. I hoped that by retracing his steps, we might have a better understanding of the scriptures and draw closer to our Savior Jesus Christ. The timing of Easter, made it the perfect trip for this time of year and a wonderful time to be in and around Jerusalem.
We arrived in the evening to the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, after an easy flight with no problems. Once we checked in, we realized they had not brought in my backpack. We had a humorous start to our trip with our guide Yossi, who now the girls call Yoshi, since he took off with my backpack in the car and without giving us his phone number. He was a bit of an overbearing man, slightly condescending and assuring us that he was looking after everything, although apparently not our bags. Trying to contact him was a little tricky since the agency did not have record of us or did not know our guide, who some thought was Norm!!! SO, Norm/Yossi we finally contacted and we were left not sure about our guide who, as he said was, "here for our every need and protection" since he chose not to return with my bag and was nearly impossible to find. But, the girls had a good laugh while I was trying to figure out if we had been scammed or not! Thankfully not, since he showed up on Saturday morning with my backpack. But, Yossi is no longer in the "circle of trust." We thankfully have a new guide on Sunday. With that behind us, we set off to dinner last night in the dining room, where most guests were Jewish and enjoying their Shabbat dinner. The food was light and delicious. We had a good 10 hours of sleep.
Friday, April 10, 2009
ReplyDeleteWe arrived in the evening to the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, after an easy flight with no problems. Once we checked in, we realized they had not brought in my backpack. We had a humorous start to our trip with our guide Yossi, who now the girls call Yoshi, since he took off with my backpack in the car and without giving us his phone number. He was a bit of an overbearing man, slightly condescending and assuring us that he was looking after everything, although apparently not our bags. Trying to contact him was a little tricky since the agency did not have record of us or did not know our guide, who some thought was Norm!!! SO, Norm/Yossi we finally contacted and we were left not sure about our guide who, as he said was, "here for our every need and protection" since he chose not to return with my bag and was nearly impossible to find. But, the girls had a good laugh while I was trying to figure out if we had been scammed or not! Thankfully not, since he showed up on Saturday morning with my backpack. But, Yossi is no longer in the "circle of trust." We thankfully have a new guide on Sunday. With that behind us, we set off to dinner last night in the dining room, where most guests were Jewish and enjoying their Shabbat dinner. The food was light and delicious. We had a good 10 hours of sleep.