In preparing for my trip, I decided to begin my journey in the city of Tel Aviv. One thing I must mention before the reader gets much further into this journal is that I travelled with my girlfriend, making the prices double what they normally would be. Also, my girlfriend and I, although we are college students, are very well off so the prices are inflated compared to a normal couple travelling. So, without much further ado: My Israel Travel Log.
10-14-10, The Flights: In looking up the available flights from our hometown of Austin, we decided that it was a necessity to ride first class. Also, we wanted to take the scenic route and see as many sights as we could, so we departed from Austin at 1:00 p.m. with layovers in Chicago and London and arrived at Tel Aviv Airport in Tel Aviv at 2:30 p.m. the next day. Needless to say we were exhausted and jet-lagged from all the flying, so we took the rest of the day off to sleep and watch the local TV.
10-15-10, Car Rental and Driving in Tel Aviv: We had reserved an Audi A6 from Avis car rental at the Tel Aviv airport. My girlfriend and I like to travel in style so it’s a good thing that we’re both really wealthy because the car ended up costing $1,724 for two weeks! Well, once we got the car, we decided to head to Caesarea National Park which is about 50 km north of Tel Aviv. Not too bad of a drive and we stopped to eat some local cuisine, falafel, along the way. The park was beautiful! We aren’t Bible history buffs or anything, but it was like you were walking in Biblical Israel! Amazing! We left the park at around 2 in the afternoon, and headed towards Haifa which is Israel’s 3rd largest city. I could’ve stayed in Haifa for a year; it was such a gorgeous city! It was built on the slopes of Mt. Carmel and is located right on the beach; it’s truly an awesome city. We decided that since we like Haifa so much that we’d stay there for at least another day so we ate dinner at Giraffe and stayed the night at the Dor Beach Country Lodging, in separate rooms of course.
10-16-10, Haifa Day 2: So much to do in Haifa! There are museums, malls, stores, theaters, a beach, and much more. We both were exhausted, and being from the Deep South, we like to sleep. We slept in a little late and ate breakfast at ten and were ready to go out for the day by 11. First stop: The mall! My girlfriend and I each share a love of spending money, and therefore we each enjoy the mall. We did a little research and found that the Grand Kanyon mall was the newest and largest mall in Haifa. Little did we know how extensive the mall really was, it carries such brands as Armani, Lacoste, and Zara and is home to a really nice food court. Long story short, we stayed way too long in the mall. Like 2 hours too long. It was 4 in the afternoon by the time we decided to go back to the hotel and then to the beach for the night. We ate dinner at the hotel and decided to then stay an extra night to see the museums the next day.
10-17-10, Haifa Day 3: I was determined to get out of Haifa today, although I love it and it’s awesome, we need to see the rest of Israel!! Well we woke up bright and early, 9 o’clock, and went to see the Haifa Museum of Art which has, of course, art, and the complete history of Haifa which includes the first mentions of Haifa in the Talmud as a fishing village. We also went to visit the Israel Museum of Science, Technology, and Space which is the most popular museum in Haifa. After the museums in Haifa, we hit the road on an all night drive to Tel Dan to visit the national park the next day. Haifa was important to visit for us because it was captured by the Crusaders in 1100 C.E. And we’d be bad UMHB students if we didn’t see a little bit of our history.
10-18-10, Tel Dan: The Tel Dan national park is gorgeous to say the least. But that’s not the reason we decided to visit Tel Dan. Tel Dan happens to be the site where the “Tel Dan Stele” was discovered. The stele mentions both the house of David and Israel which gives archaeologists reason to believe in the historical value of the Bible. We stayed a long time in Tel Dan looking around and imagining what life would’ve been like in the time of David. We left the park and Tel Dan later that evening to head to Mt. Hermon.
10-19-10, Car Troubles, Mt. Hermon: Well it happens to everyone I guess. Our Audi got a flat on the way to Mt. Hermon and we had to stop and change the tire. Neither I nor my girlfriend knows how to change a flat so we waited there the whole night for someone to come by. Finally a friendly man came by at around 2 in the morning so we drove to the nearest hotel. After a long night’s sleep, we decided to conquer Mt. Hermon. Mt. Hermon served as the northern boundary of the Promised Land which is mentioned in Deuteronomy 3:8 in the Old Testament of the Bible. It is also believed by some to be the location of the Transfiguration which really piqued my interest. We took it slow at Mount Hermon and by the time we left, it was time to find a hotel (two rooms) for the night.
10-20-10, Beer Sheva: We hit the road around 10 a.m. to head towards Beer Sheva or “Beersheba”. This was especially exciting for us because it was said to have been founded by the Israelites in the 10th century B.C.E! More than that, Abraham made a pact with Abimalech, Isaac built an altar, and Jacob had his dream about the stairway to heaven here! Beersheba is rich with Biblical history and is a very important site for biblical scholars today.
10-21-10, Ashkelon: Ashkelon! Ashkelon was one of my favorite cities to go to; can you tell that we like the coastal cities? Ashkelon also has a very rich history! So many different peoples called it home, yet the people group that is most important is the Philistines. It was the largest seaport in Canaan when the Philistines claimed it as one of their own. It was also believed to be one of the five cities that were constantly at war with the Kingdom of Judah. Ashkelon was gorgeous and a pretty decent sized city, so we decided to stay there for the night and do some more sightseeing along the coast.
10-(22-24)-10, Bethlehem: Bethlehem was so awesome that we had to stay for two days. It may have also had something to do with the fact that we were getting worn out from sightseeing so much, but still Bethlehem was really nice. Bethlehem is said to be the birthplace of our Savior Jesus Christ, so we decided that it would be a pretty good place to spend some time. We saw the Church of the Nativity, the Manger Square, and the Jacir Palace while we stayed in Bethlehem.
10-(25-26)-10, Jerusalem: Jerusalem was our main reason for coming to Israel on a visit. You really can’t imagine what Jerusalem will be like until you actually see it; it was truly an other-worldly experience that I will personally never forget. Jerusalem, also called the City of David, was and still is the capital of Israel. Established as the capital of Israel by King David during his reign, Jerusalem has remained the holy city of all Israel. While in Jerusalem, we went and saw the Temple Mount, the Western Wall, and the Dome of the Rock. Israel has been mention in such texts as the Amarna Letters, and many times in the Hebrew Bible. Jerusalem was also home to two magnificent temples, one built by Solomon and one built during the reign of King Darius.
10-27-10, Nazereth: Our final stop before we had to head back to Tel Aviv was Nazereth. I don’t know what I was expecting when I thought about visiting Nazereth, but I wasn’t expecting it to be the largest city in the northern kingdom! Nazereth is huge! Nazereth is known as the childhood home of Jesus Christ and is often a place of pilgrimage for Christians. Well after a good night’s rest in Nazereth, it was off to Tel Aviv.
10-28-10, The Journey Home: It was bittersweet leaving Nazereth, but we couldn’t waste much time because our flight left from Tel Aviv at 1 in the afternoon which meant we had to leave Nazereth at around 9 in the morning to make it on time for the plane! We took in the scenery one last time as we boarded the Airplane back to Texas and said our goodbyes to the Holy Land of Israel. Our total round trip plane tickets ended up costing 14,000 dollars for first class, add in the two weeks of hotel rooms, food, and a car rental, and we ended up spending around $20,000 on our trip to Israel! Thanks for reading and keep checking the site, our return trip travel log will be posted soon!
-Levi Seymour
