Guten Rutsch, Hogmanay, Happy New Year!

When we were in Germany last week I was reminded of their unique way of wishing a happy new year: "Guten Rutsch (ins neue Jahr)." Rutsch is the German word for slide, and it was fun to hear people going around saying "Guten Rutsch" all the time--"good slide."

And since we're in love with Scotland, their New Years celebration is also worth mentioning. Their word for it, Hogmanay, actually refers to the last day of the year (today!), and the traditional New Years song "Auld Lang Syne" originated as a Scottish poem. The Scottish have even added an extra national holiday to extend the party through January 2.

What ever way you celebrate it, we wish you all a Happy New Year!!

Oh deer

We have pygmy deer in our part of England--lots of them. This one was in our yard after last weekend's snowfall, and it was super-cute. When I see them from the corner of my eye I sometimes think they're dogs because of their size. This one was fun to watch as it wandered around in the snow.

Merry Christmas!

We hope you have a safe, happy holiday!

O du fröhliche

We just returned from the German Christmas markets, and we had a very festive time. We visited the original Christmas market, the Christkindles-markt in Nuremberg, several markets in Munich (above), plus markets in Ingolstadt, Augsburg and Memmingen.

We're always amazed at the variety of

items on sale. Our favorites are the stalls that sell accessories for nativity sets. We wonder how people know they're at a point in their lives when

they need to add to their nativity set a bale of hay, a few chickens or a lady baking bread.

In spite of the fun, festive atmosphere it was miserably cold. Only in Alaska have we felt that degree of cold--where the nasal hairs freeze when we breathe. When we got home tonight to a cold, snowy England it actually felt warm by comparison!

I love the next 2 photos of the Nuremberg Christkindlesmarkt, one in the daytime and the same shot at night. The photos are from above the stalls (you can see their striped tops).

Happy Hanukkah

Having just been in Israel we've learned a lot about Jewish culture and customs. We realize we probably don't have Jewish readers, but there's no reason we can't wish you a Happy Hanukkah. Here's to the festival of lights!

(The above photo is our Jerusalem tour guide Raphy next to the menorah built according to Torah instructions for the Old Testament tabernacle. This is the menorah the Jews believe will be used in the future temple in Jerusalem when the Messiah comes. It's solid gold and worth millions of dollars.)

Preface to trip posts

We just returned from a 10-day trip to Israel, Egypt and Jordan, and it was awesome! We hope to share as much of it as we can through several blog posts, and hopefully it doesn't get boring. We took 1,193 photos and had the time of our lives! We traveled with Jacob's coworker Shawn and his wife Kim, and they were super-fun to be with (there will be photos with them on the trip posts too).

I'll just preface the posts by saying that among the places we visited were some with deep religious significance to us. When we talk about them here, we don't intend to give a Sunday school lesson or to detail the personal feelings we have about these locations--it's not something we feel should be broadcast. We also can't cover everything here and hope you enjoy the brief summaries and photos.

Dead Sea and Massada

Our first day in Israel was spent touring Masada and taking a dip in the Dead Sea. Massada is an interesting place, a former palace and fortification overlooking the Dead Sea. In about 74 AD a group of Jewish Zealots expelled from Jerusalem carried out a mass suicide rather than be taken as slaves by the Romans. Masada is on top of a high rock plateau so we took a cable car to the top. Here we are next to the oldest working synagogue in Israel. (left) It's on top of the Masada plateau and therefore only accessible via the cable car. Apparently people still have bar mitzvahs there.

In the photo below you can sort of see the Dead Sea in the background while we were at Masada.

The Dead Sea was amazing! We had heard of the buoyancy properties but didn't think it would be too remarkable--we were wrong! Jacob said it best--not only can you float easily, it's impossible NOT to float. It made for a difficult time trying to wash all the mud off--we couldn't keep our shoulders underwater long enough! (Below: Jacob floating, whether he wanted to or not. Right: my feet.)

Apparently the water and the mud have curative properties. So we covered ourselves in the mud, and had a great time doing it. Who knows if it was salubrious--it was definitely fun!

During our trip to and from the Dead Sea the tour guide pointed out one of the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. Apparently the entrance to the cave had been covered up, so it wasn't until an actual search for the Scrolls was done that they were discovered.

Holy water

Our second day we took a trip to Nazareth (where Jesus grew up), the River Jordan (where Jesus was baptized), Capernaum (where Jesus lived during most of His ministry) and the Sea of Galilee. We also passed other cool places on the drive, like Armageddon, Mount of the Beatitudes and Cana, the place of Jesus' first miracle (water to wine). Most people think Jesus spent a lot of time in Jerusalem--He totally didn't. After his family returned from Egypt he spent the majority of his life in these places. It was a great day for us and really cool to have a visual image of these pivotal places. (Above: Jacob's unsuccessful attempt to walk on water at the Sea of Galilee)

In Nazareth there's a huge church built over the site believed to have been the house where Mary, Joseph and Jesus lived (above). It was interesting to see what centuries and churches have done to the place...The above ruins are from Capernaum, where Jesus lived during most of his ministry. The actual room where he lived in Peter's house has a huge church built over the top of it. The floor of the church is partially see-through so you can see down into the ruins of the room. (No, we're not fond of the practice of building churches over these sacred sites. We wish we could just visit the sites without having to do it through someone else's worship paradigm.)


Speaking of Peter, below Jacob is eating St. Peter's fish. It was yummy!


We visited the official--but not ACTUAL--site of Jesus' baptism on the River Jordan. The site is set up so pilgrims can be baptized in the River; a few people on our tour did so. Below Jacob thinks I need to be baptized. You can tell I don't agree.

Below, the sun setting over the Sea of Galilee. Beautiful.

'O, Jerusalem'

Jerusalem is such a fascinating city! We had some great experiences there, and we were grateful to be there. (Above is a view of the city from Mount Scopus.)

For both of us the Jerusalem highlights are the Garden Tomb and the Garden of Gethsemane. We really felt the holiness of those places. (Below: me coming out of the tomb and a photo of Gethsemane)

It was also really cool to see the wailing wall. The men and women were separated, and Kim and I decided to write our wishes and place them in the wall, as is customary. I'm not saying I believe my piece of paper in the wall is more likely to come to God's attention by being there than it would if I prayed for it, but it was a great experience and I'm glad I did it.

Jacob had to wear a yarmulke, and he opted not to make a wish. Our tour guide says people fax their wishes, and someone's job is to put them in the wall!

Below is the Mount of Olives. You can see that it's basically a huge cemetery because Jewish people believe those buried on the Mount will be the first to be resurrected. Our Jewish tour guide (Raphy) mentioned it was very expensive to be buried on the Mount of Olives and that he would be happy waiting a few more seconds to be resurrected.
The photo on the right shows Jacob eating an olive on the Mount of Olives (that he had just picked from the tree behind him). The olives were awful--way overripe. But it was fun to hike the Mount. We actually hiked most of the Mount in Orson Hyde Park, which covers a vast area of the Mount.

Jericho

Famous for its Old Testament connections (Joshua and the Israelites destroyed it on their way into the Promised Land in Joshua chapter 6), the town also has appearances in the New Testament. One of the cool stories features the below Tree of Zacchaeus, a short dude who wanted to see Jesus but had to climb a tree to do so. (For the full story see Luke 19:2-10)

We came across this amazing fruit stand where we found the people to be kind and welcoming. This guy introduced us to the pomelo fruit, which we all fell in love with--it's amazingly delicious!

From Jericho we also saw the Mount of Temptation, supposedly the site where Jesus was first tempted by Satan after finishing his 40-day fast.

"10,000 times more beautiful..." (Petra)

We took a short day trip into Jordan to see Petra, which was the Nabataean capital city built around 100 BC. Our tour guide (Samet) promised us on our drive to Petra from the Israeli border that it would be "10,000 times more beautiful than you imagine." It actually was extremely beautiful. The next photo is quite bromantic, isn't it? :)

The next photo is actually an amphitheatre--maybe it's hard to tell with the lighting, but you can see the seating if you know what you're looking for. It's huge. Very cool.

Grateful for Whiskey

Our first day in Egypt was unbelievable--we enjoyed amazing views on our way to the top of Mount Sinai. The experience was altogether incredible, but what made it even more fun was that our ascent to the summit was atop camels!! My camel's name was Whiskey, and Jacob named his Lady because the guide told us she was female. The views along the way were amazing, but especially from the top. It was also really cool to be there, where Moses received the 10 commandments. (well, probably--it's impossible to know absolutely for sure) I also really love the account in 1 Kings 19: 8-12 that took place at Sinai.

You can tell from the next photo that the mountain was really steep at times. We marveled at how the camels made the treacherous climb, knowing where to step and how to traverse the terrain.
The camels took us within a few hundred feet of the summit. But those last 700ish stairs to the top were pretty rough--the air was thin, and it was straight up. I was SO GRATEFUL to have ridden Whiskey! The hike down (no camels) was crazy--we took the steeper route. I'm still a little sore from the trek, but it was so worth it!