Wow!

We are in Germany waiting for the bus to take us to the airport.

I had a difficult time with the internet service at Jerusalem. It is $17 a day there and after five days that ads up. I will have to post pictures and comments when I get back to America.

It is very expensive in Germany. The American dollar is worth fifty cents. Where in Israel it is worth three times the amount of the shekel. Breakfast at the hotel we stayed in at 5:30 this morning was $26.00. Now three and a half hours later it is $32.00.

When they know you are Americans, there are dollar signs in their eyes.

Two days ago we went to the upper room for a brief church service. Well. . . the Holy Ghost fell and we worshiped for an hour. It only seemed like about twenty minutes. I found out later that PBS was in Jerusalem doing a documentary and that when we started worshiping they hurried up to the top to catch all the action. Well the military beat them there. In all there were 47 soldiers that responded to a all the noise. Israel is such a war torn country that when they hear people screaming the military has an immediate response.

Brother Walls the main tour guide said that he went out side to talk to PBS to answer questions. He also authorized them to take as much footage as they wanted. They took their liberty. I was oblivious to all that was happening. I remember feeling watched and peeked out one eye and thought I saw Brother Baumiester taking a picture of me with a very big camera. I just ignored him and went on getting the blessing of my life. I was surprised to hear that it was a PBS camera in my face.

They just called for us to load the bus

BYE

blogging before my time runs out

What a blast we are having. I was re baptized today in the Jordan River. There are so many people from all over the world here. It is really amazing.

We went to the wailing and saw the students come down to the court yard and dance. It was like a mosh pit service except some of the men had guns.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vie/Caesarea.html
We got to see Caesarea by the sea. It was absolutely magnificent. I wish my camera wasn't having issues. Here is a link to information about it.

We also went to Beit She'an,
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Archaeology/Beitshean.html It was too huge to go through. We were there for about 45 minutes when it takes about four hours to walk through it.

We also went to Mt. Carmen where Elijah and the prophet's Baal duked it out. http://www.bibleplaces.com/mtcarmel.htm

Yesterday we went to see the Jesus Boat. It was really nice. http://jesusboat.com/nopen.asp

We also had church on the Sea of Galilee. http://www.bibleplaces.com/seagalilee.htm It was a real party.

We went to Gadera too. I couldn't walk up the hill so just looked up at the ruins.

It cost me $17 for 24 hours of wifi service and my time is almost up. I didn't know that the little poetic prayer about the internet coming through was going to be such a deal. I guess money talks while on vacation.

Street vendors and shops

Well my dear readers, good things must end.

Like this great poem because it's too expensive to send.

I've learned that a skekel is one third of an American dollar. The tourist industry knows this and charges us tripple the prices. A small soda costs three dollars or more. At the tourist places, they try not to give you change back when ever possible or try cheating you out in the process of making change. For example on march 13th, Leona purchased a small scoop of icecream for $1.50. The next night I paid $1.75 and the guy tried cheating me out of two dollars. The vendors are like vultures. they stand by the door of the place we are at and even at the door of the bus, making it hard for us to get in the door.

We went to a really nice shop in Bethlehem. It was an exclusive appoint for our tour group. They had very good quality stuff for reasonable prices. Not cheap by any means. The owner of the store's father is the man who found the dead sea scrolls.
The owner has one of the clay pots on display in his store. I asked of they have a web site and they said that they will have one in two months.

All their stuff is made by people of Bethlehem and they also have truely Biblical antiques for sale like coins and archeological findings that back three thousand years.

The bathrooms

Limo arrived, plane's in the air,

the trial of the bathrooms started when we got there.

We were not sure how to interpret the signs. I figured if the guy was running he must be running to the bathroom. Then the arrows really got us confused. Then we saw a sign right over the door of a bathroom. . . . Yes!!!

We found an American looking sign on the inside of the bathroom in Germany as we were leaving. Out of all the public restrooms they were the cleanest and the smelliest. Quite a conundrum, but true.

Since then it has been rather adventurous experiencing foreign restrooms.

T'was the night before Israel

T'was the night before Israel and all through my condo
piles and piles made me feel gonzo.
My suit case was waiting by the front door with care
In hopes that my limo would soon be there.
I set my alarm for half past one
jumped into my jammies and dreamt of the fun.
So now my dear reader, now wait you must do
for updates to come, pray the internet comes through.