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MEDITERRANEAN ADVENTURE
Saskia Raevouri & Joy Brandt
Mediterranean Adventure Calendargo   
1. Los Angeles to Amsterdam
2. The Flight to Greece
3. Ancient Corinth
4. The Citadel
5. To Piraeus
6. Hania on Crete
7. A Day in Limbo
8. Back to Athens
9. From Athens to Cairo
10. Cairo
11. The Pyramids
12. The Bus to Israel
13. Jerusalem
14. Bethany and Bethpage
15. An Old Palestinian Hotel
16. The Drive to Galilee
17. Capernaum and Environs
18. The Ancient Boat and Nazareth
19. The Golan Heights and Mt. Hermon
20. The Eastern Shore and Scythiopolis
21. Mount of the Beatitudes
22. Ptolemais and Caesarea
23. A Day in Piraeus
24. Santorini
25. A Rainy Day
26. An Eventful Day in Athens
27. Return to Amsterdam
28. Going Home
 

Day 14: Bethany and Bethpage
Friday, November 2
7


1998 Sat Sun Mon  Tues Wed Thur Fri
NOV 13/14 15 16 17 18 19 20
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  28 29 30 1 2 3 4
DEC 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

WHILE HAVING COFFEE on our balcony we read from the Urantia Book about Jesus’ final days in Jerusalem so it would be fresh in our minds when locating the spots he frequented. After breakfast we asked the receptionist how we could walk to Bethany, and were told that this would be impossible, that the only way to get there was by sheirut, a large Mercedes- Benz limo-like taxi that holds up to eight people. Buses do not go there, she said. We were left with the impression that it had something to do with Bethany being an Arab town.

Large crowds of Moslems were out today. Joy stopped to buy underwear from a street vendor while I took pictures of the transaction. 

Outside the gate we found a sheirut, which we shared with a large Moslem family, to Bethany. It was a longer and hillier ride than we'd expected, and we wondered how Jesus could have walked this route so often.

Jesus and Jude walked over to Bethany for the night….[1416]

Jesus and John stopped overnight at Bethany with Lazarus and his sisters, going early the next morning to  Jerusalem. . . .  Many days John went into Jerusalem alone while Jesus walked about over the near-by hills and engaged in many seasons of spiritual communion with his Father in heaven. [1494]

Seeking again to avoid the crowds passing through the Kidron valley back and forth between Gethsemane Park and Jerusalem, Jesus and the twelve walked over the western brow of Mount Olivet to meet the road leading from Bethany down to the city. [1934]

In Bethany, which was smaller and quieter than we’d expected, we were dropped off near a church built on the supposed spot where Lazarus had lived. 

Nearby was his tomb and across the street was “The Oldest House in Bethany,” advertised as the authentic home of Martha and Mary.


The orange sign points to the entrance to Lazarus's tomb

We were skeptical but paid a few shekels to the owner for a little tour (the price included a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice). We agreed it was an obvious fraud created for tourists, but it was cooler inside and there were tables and chairs, so we decided to stay a while. Being the only patrons, we took turns reading “The Resurrection of Lazarus” paper aloud searching for more quotes relating to Bethany.

We asked the owner if he knew of an English-speaking driver to take us around, but he knew of no one on such short notice. Businesses all around were closing up and shutting down for the afternoon, people retreated indoors, and by the time we emerged from the Mary and Martha house, Bethany had become a ghost town except for one man, sitting on the corner of the street.

We approached him and found that he spoke English, so we asked, “If you were to walk to Jerusalem, which way would you go?” He pointed to the road we were standing on, telling us to follow it over the hill to Bethpage, and from there to the Mount of Olives, then across to Jerusalem. He told us that cars couldn’t use that road because there were too many obstacles. He even walked part of the way with us.

It was uphill all the way—a dirt road of perhaps two to three kilometers to Jerusalem. We also found the “fork of the road” in Bethpage where perhaps the “colt of an ass” had been tied:

"Go to Bethphage, and when you come to the junction of the roads, you will find the colt of an ass tied there. Loose the colt and bring it back with you. If any one asks you why you do this, merely say, ‘The Master has need of him.’”  And when the two apostles had gone into Bethphage as the Master had directed, they found the colt tied near his mother in the open street and close to a house on the corner.” [1881] 


The corner at the junction of the road leading from Bethany to Bethpage


Another view of Bethpage

The walk from Bethany to the Mount of Olives, seen in distance

* * *

At the Mount of Olives we stopped in again at the Seven Arches Hotel, after which we visited a few of the tourist sights and descended into the Garden of Gethsemane. Joy wanted to immerse herself in the atmosphere and pray by herself, so I left her there and headed back.

Walking around the wall outside the old city toward the Damascus Gate, I encountered swarms of Moslems and busy, noisy traffic. I was beginning to feel like a mountain goat with all the climbing I was doing.

After freshening up at our hotel I took off on foot again to find the Netcafé and got lost in a beautiful part of the new city. It was close to sundown, and hundreds of orthodox Jews in black frock coats and top hats, with a long ringlet of hair on each side of the head (obviously curled by curling iron), were streaming toward the Old City for their Sabbath ritual in the synagogue.

My Netcafé was closed, so I walked back to our hotel, stopping on the way to buy a bottle of wine for 15 shekels (the same brand we’d paid 44 shekels for in the hotel earlier). This time I came in through the Jaffa Gate, where I noticed an unusual hotel, the New Imperial. I went in and found it was a Palestinian hotel run by an American woman who had lived there for decades. She showed me an enormous room overlooking the entrance to the city, $44 for two, and on a whim I reserved it for the next night, hoping to convince Joy that this was something we needed to experience.  

I went back to our room and poured myself a glass of wine on the balcony. When Joy came in she had already eaten (she told me she couldn’t resist a street vendor who was selling incredible falafel plates!), so I went alone to yesterday’s restaurant where the same Japanese tourist and group of Americans were sitting at the same tables as the night before. It was a pleasant atmosphere and, like all the other lone diners, I propped up my books and notebooks and made myself look busy.

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Joy selecting underwear

Getting out her money . . .

Handing back the change

The church in Bethany

The "local" showing us the way to Bethpage

Up the hill . . .

To the top . . . 

Looking back at Bethany . . .

. . . and over the hill.

There are many ways to spell Bethpage!

The floor of a church near the Garden of Gethsemane

The Jaffa Gate from the outside

The New Imperial directly inside the Jaffa Gate