The Dan Panorama Hotel certainly sets a good breakfast spread. Lots of fruit, yogurts, cheeses, eggs, and breads. My favorite part was fresh squeezed orange juice.
After breakfast on Monday, we went to Yaffo near Tel Aviv. Yaffo (also known as Yaffa, Jaffa, and Joppa) is one of the world’s oldest ports. We visited the museum there and saw a cool presentation about the history of Yaffo. And, yes, this is the same Yaffo (Joppa) that Jonah, of whale fame, was from. Rabbi re-told the story while we looked out over the Mediterranean.
Later we saw Simon the Tanner’s house, but we couldn’t go inside because it’s owned by Muslims. We also saw an ancient map of the world with Jerusalem at its center, as it says in Ezekiel 5:5 (CJB), Here is what Adonai Elohim says: “This is Yerushalayim! I have placed her in the middle of the nations; countries can be found all around her.”
Simon the Tanner’s house
Map of the World – Jerusalem is at the center
The Eretz Israel Museum had tons of cool artifacts including a Byzantine wine press (replica), numerous pagan statues (which were kinda creepy), death masks (also creepy), ossuary (strangely, not creepy), and glass bottles. Many of the glass jars and bottles were in remarkably good shape and gorgeous.
Ennion’s Blue Jug 1st Century C.E.
Group of ointment bottles typical of finds from a necropolis near Akko. 1st century C.E. (So the ointments used to anoint Jesus’ body may have been in bottles like these. Wow!
The Palmach Museum is dedicated to Israel’s war for independence. An interactive movie tells of the war by following a small band of fighters, men and women, who fought, were injured, and some died for freedom.
Carmel Market
We took a walk through Carmel Market on the way back to the hotel. During our walk, we witnessed a fight breaking out in the middle of the aisle. Bill’s hand gripped my arm and he went from condition yellow (a moderate level of situational awareness) to condition red. I noticed several other men doing the same thing. He later explained that a fight made a good cover for theft or other criminal activity. A few days after we got home, a terrorist attack occurred not far from that market. It was rather eerie to realize just how close we were. We had the afternoon free for swimming on the beach, but we couldn’t because of red flag warnings. That didn’t stop us from walking on the beach though.
