Soldiers with ponytails

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As our town's touring group was leaving the Jordan River baptism site, these two soldiers asked if they could ask our guide (on the right) a question.
I think it was something about the big Christian significance of the Kasr al Yahud site.
Sorry I couldn't hang around and listen but I had to hurry and get some photos before 4 pm closing time.

These soldiers on guard there at the Jordanian border (the river is the border there) belong to the IDF's Nahal Brigade.
You can tell by the color of their beret, "glow stick green."

Such nice girls!

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(Linking to Our World Tuesday.)
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Hard and dry labaneh

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In Israel we love to eat the soft yogurt cheese called labaneh, scooping it off the plate with pita.
But Nissim, our excellent guide through the Bedouin part of the Beer Sheva market, explained that labaneh can also be made into these dried lumps.

  
Strained labaneh is pressed in its cheese cloth between two heavy stones and later sun dried.
The balls can be easily stored and for a long time. 
Arabs have been doing this for hundreds of years.
I guess when Bedouin were still largely nomadic, it was easy to transport the labaneh in such form; add water and it is easily reconstituted to soft yogurt cheese.

The labaneh made by Arabs in the southern Hebron Hills is slightly different in shape from that made by the Bedouin here in the Negev.
One version is round and the other is oval.

To see how women in the nearby village of Dirijat produce labaneh, please see my pictures from 2008, when I spent five days living there, learning Arabic.
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What is a Messerschmitt but doesn't fly?

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Ta-da!  It opens up!
Lihi, the nice guide of the Open Museum at Omer Industrial Park, is proud to show us this special microcar.

It's a 1960 Messerschmitt Isabela, with a 690 cc, 2 piston engine, made in Germany of course.

After the war, the Allies for a time did not allow  Messerschmitt to build aircraft.
In the early 1950s the company turned instead to small motor vehicle manufacture.

The collection of 32 antique cars exhibited at the Omer Open Museum is owned by Eitan Wertheimer, son of entrepreneur and industrialist Stef Wertheimer.
I'll show you some more in future posts. 
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Classical horsemanship in Vienna as a Cultural Heritage of Humanity!

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Ach, just a few weeks ago I was here in Vienna; how I miss that city!
It was raining that Sunday when I first saw the Hofburg Palace.

At its gates, Christmas market booths  were doing a brisk business with hot Gluhwein.

Inside the palace is the most beautiful riding hall in the world, a Baroque masterpiece outfitted  between 1729 and 1735.
It was originally built to give aristocratic youths an opportunity to take riding instruction.
The two men in my photo were installing a new sound system in this Winter Riding School for the international audiences who come to see the Lipizzaner stallions perform.

Emperor Charles VI commissioned the building of the arena.
You can faintly see a tall painting of a white horse.
The guide on this tour explained that the monarch later had his own image added so that it became a portrait of himself on horseback.

Guide Sophia was good at explaining everything in just one hour.
She was strict, though, that we should not take pictures of the horses or the stables. :(

Till today the tradition is for the riders to doff their hats to that same portrait of  the emperor when they enter his arena.
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I'll soon have another post or two about Vienna's wonderful Spanish Riding School. 
You can see my previous posts here and here, which have links to more information about the horses and the school. 
The BIG NEWS is that the Spanische Hofreitschule has just now been inscribed in UNESCO's 2015  Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity!!
Be sure to see what they tell about classical horsemanship and see the photos at the bottom of the page, plus a wonderful video! 
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(For ABC Wednesday, V is for Vienna!)
(Linking also to Camera Critters. )
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Night hike to a Byzantine-era cistern!

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A cistern from the Byzantine period, right in my town's backyard, near the Meitar Forest!
Some 1,500 years ago people (farmers? monks? villagers?) collected and stored rain water  down there in a big plastered cistern.

I edited the first photo lighter so you could see the nice handwork, how the folks carved out the stairs and entrance in the soft chalk.
But actually we were out there in  the dark, after 8:00 pm!

The group of about 20 was fortunate to have our neighbor, Dr. Zeev Zivan, as our gude.
The hike was part of the worldwide Jane's Walk  global festival of citizen-led free community walks.
Here Zeev was explaining the blaze for the Israel National Trail.

The whole walk to the wilderness was only an hour and a half but we were blessed to witness both sunset and moonrise.
I came home exhilarated, feeling lucky to live so near the desert and its ancient history!
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A steam locomotive comes home

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Here is the locomotive you've all been waiting for!
It has finally come to rest beside the 1915 Ottoman Turkish Beer Sheva train station.

Isn't it a beauty?!

Just outside the newly-restored but not yet officially opened train yard is Atatürk Plaza.
You can see the bust of Atatürk and the obelisk commemorating the 298 Turkish soldiers who were killed on the Beer Sheva front in World War I.
See more about this in my post about the annual Australian Light Horse Commemoration Day. 

During Sukkot holiday the compound was open for just a few days.
Engine 70414 Compound guides were proud and excited to explain the history and also about the restoration work.
Site director Chen, in the photo, said their crew was stoked whenever a train-washing day came around, like after a muddy rain.   (Well, she didn't use the work stoked but I think it is appropriate for a coal-burning steam engine.)

In the coming posts I will try to explain how and why this steam engine had a circuitous route, from England to Palestine, through the Suez Canal to Turkey, to Great Britain, and finally back to Beer Sheva.
It is a long story and involves a secret operation.
But meanwhile I'd like you simply to feast your eyes on 70414 and enjoy!
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(Linking to Our World Tuesday.)
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That in-the-middle-of-nowhere feeling

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A dozen hikers gathered today to walk the Israel National Trail for three hours.
Our excellent guide, Dr. Zeev Zivan, showed us on a 1956 map what a difference half a century can make.
Our town, Meitar, did not exist back then. 
In fact, the northern Negev was quite an empty place.

Actually, even today we walked  over  vast expanses of uninhabited spaces.
It's a great feeling of wilderness!
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P.S. See more about our Trail at  http://jerusalemhillsdailyphoto.blogspot.co.il/2014/01/the-israel-trail-so-close-to-home.html

A map of the Trail:   http://www.natureisrael.org/cms_uploads/Israel%20National%20Trail%20Documents/IsraelNationalTrail_map.jpg

More info:  http://www.natureisrael.org/INT
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Kfar Kama, a Circassian village

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ABC Wednesday's K is for Kfar Kama, a village in the Lower Galilee.
What makes it special is that Kfar Kama and Rechania are the only Circassian villages in Israel.

Ibek (sorry if I guessed the wrong spelling) took our group on a tour of his village and also explained fascinating things in their heritage museum (which I'll post about in the coming days).

In the oldest part of town, from Ottoman times, were solid houses and walls of the local black basalt stone.

The newer part of this village of about 2,800 Circassian Israelis looks not much different from a village of Jewish Israelis.

It is a long story about the Circassians and I'll tell you more of it in future posts.

Their language is ancient.
The people arrived here in the 1860s after being forced out of their native Caucasus Mountains, the region where Europe and Asia meet.

From paganism they converted to Orthodox Christianity in the 5th century.
Influenced by the Tartars and Turks they encountered along the Silk Route through their region, they became Suni Muslims in the 17th century.

Circassian men are the only Muslim group to do compulsory service in the Israeli army (as per the request of their leaders in 1948).

Kfar Kama has the most unique mosque I have ever seen.
They have amazing customs and traditions which they keep alive, perhaps more than many others in the scattered Circassian diaspora.
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Trouble in Jerusalem

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Violence erupted yesterday on the eastern side of Jerusalem.

Riots took place in the Palestinian village of Silwan and on and around the Temple Mount.
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The picture above (taken on a quieter day) is from inside Silwan, looking toward the Temple Mount which is just behind the Old City wall.
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Some 40,000 Palestinians live in Silwan, on both sides of the valley.
This photo is taken from the City of David excavations.

Since the 1990s several hundred Jewish settlers have moved in, renovating or building new houses like the ones seen in the pictures above and below.

Over the last four years I have tried to educate myself by taking three tours in Silwan, guided by guides from opposing ends of the political spectrum, from Elad/Ir David to Emek Shaveh to Ir Amim.

The only tour where you actually talk to and listen to the Arab residents of Silwan, in this protest tent, is the one led by the Alternative-Archaeology archaelogists of Emek Shaveh.

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Unfortunately for this blog, but luckily for me, I was not in the fires and the blood of the riots yesterday.

I can only direct you to media reports with slideshows that you can click through:

Haaretz

Jerusalem Post

Ynet Yediot Aharonot
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Speak softly

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I took a tour myself yesterday and for That's My World I'll pass it on to you.
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The subject of the 3-hour tour was "The People of Jerusalem's Old City."
It was sponsored by the Interfaith Encounter Association.
Our guide, shown in the photo above, was educator Jared Goldfarb.
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A large group showed up for the English-speaking tour.
From Jaffa Gate we walked to the Armenian Quarter, then to the Jewish Quarter (pictured above).
The wooden hut you see is a sukkah for the coming holiday of Sukkot.

After hearing Jared's explanation of the situation of Muslims in the Muslim Quarter, we entered the Christian Quarter.
We ended up on the roof of the Holy Sepulchre for the final presentation, about the Christian minority.
Jared (here with hand in the air) lowered his teaching voice out of respect for the Ethiopian monks who live in tiny cells on the roof.
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See the dark figure above looking down on us?
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The monk seemed amused and curious.
I suspect he sees many many tour groups there every day but not many that sit on the ground and speak softly.
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Happy International Day of Peace!
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Books, bookstores, book people

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Jews are known as Am Hasefer, the People of the Book.
This originally meant the holy books like the Torah and the wider canon of written Jewish law.
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I think the definition has widened. This was proved to me when I joined a guided tour called "Sefarim rabbotai, sefarim!" given by the Yad Ben Zvi Institute.
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We love books. Otherwise why would dozens of Jews gather at a windy corner in central Jerusalem, pay 70 shekels each, and walk around for hours on a cold December evening, listening attentively to the Ph.D.-student guide as he led us to legendary old bookstores?
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He also explained where the good libraries used to be some 60 years ago.
It was a big history lesson.
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The one store I could get a photo of was Trionfo, a store full of treasures.
The owner invited our big group in and gave us a lecture about their labor of love.

Their website says they specialize in Chanukah menorahs, yads, torah finials, charity boxes, plates (seder and others), manuscripts, art, ephemera, postcards, documents, and anti-semitica.
(Anti-semitica?? Is that a real word?!)
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They also offer old, antique, and vintage Jewish-related books including 19th century travel books to Palestine; Israeliana (KKL pushkes, posters); Palestine and Jerusalem 19th and 20th
century original photography; and antique maps.
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Trionfo even has an eBay store. Take a look at their photos of Jerusalem in the 1800s.
Quite amazing--like there was almost nothing here, outside the Old City.
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Books and book people--that's my B contribution for ABC Wednesday.
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Guides for groups

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GOOD GUIDES--that's my topic for ABC Wednesday today.
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If I were a Rothschild (as Tevye the Milkman's song goes), I would go on a guided tour of Jerusalem every day. The best way to learn!
The guided tours are not cheap, but then, neither is the course of study to become a licensed tourist guide. The 18-24-month courses cost over 20,000 shekels (~$5,270).
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A guide studies hard and works hard. I know, having been married to one for 22 years.

Let's look at a sample of my guides over the last three years.
This was the tiyul (trip/hike) to see the Burma Road and learn about the convoys which carried water and food to Jerusalem when it was under siege in 1948.

This one tour of the Old City tried a new twist: no registration fee but tip the guide as the spirit moves you.

Subject: Jerusalem pilgrim hostels in recent centuries.

A day's walk in the Old City focusing on Christian art.

Here, the courtyard of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

About the "Jerusalem Envelope," i.e. the security barrier/separation fence.

A behind-the-walls Jerusalem monasteries tour.

Remember the post on the Dead Sea Scrolls and Fr. Jean-Michel de Tarragon? This is the man. The Dominican monk/scholar/teacher/photographer/etc. was nice to lecture to our group in the church of Saint Etienne Monastery.

A bus tour to Mt. Carmel and the Muhraka convent of the Discalced Carmelite Order.

Lots of readings from the Bible, a whole day of learning about the Prophet Elijah.

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The guide is the young lady with her hand in the air.

Have you noticed how almost all of the guides pictured here are talking with their hands? :)

Moving guided groups usually don't stop at the shops in the bazaars of the Old City, but studying the T-shirts can be instructive.

Overlooking the Old City and on the horizon the Mount of Olives.
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Enlarge the photo to see the nice nun in gray. She is not a professional guide (even though her hand is raised); the Sister is a nurse. But she gave us an in-depth look at the old French St. Louis Hospital where she works and lives.
This was part of a Yad Yitzhak Ben-Zvi study day about the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem.
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The Hebrew word for guide is moreh derech, literally, a "teacher of the way." God bless these good guides of Israel.
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Old City people

Something new in the Old City: a free tour! Sandeman does free tours in seven European cities and now in Jerusalem too. After a guided walk of over 3.5 hours you tip the guide as much or as little as you want. They start at the Jaffa Gate Tourism Office every day at 11:00.

The walled Old City is less than one square kilometer but everything is in it!
We walked through all four quarters: Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and Armenian.
You might enjoy seeing some of the people we saw on Tuesday.
Greek Orthodox priests near the Jaffa Gate.

Meir was our Israeli guide. He spoke good English and knew his stuff.

This group of girl soldiers must have been visiting the sites as part of their training. Education about the country is given to all young soldiers.

Yes, they have to carry their gun everywhere.

Indian tourists, with women in the lovely sari.

Jewish kindergarten kids were running after their teachers in the Jewish Quarter.

All kinds of folks at the Western Wall Plaza. The ramp leads up to the Mughrabi Gate into the Temple Mount.

The narrow bazaar streets were packed with tourists. Sandeman guides wear red so you don't lose them in the press of the crowd.

Must be hard to take this lady in a wheelchair up and down the steps of the crowded streets.

A game of sheshbesh on the street.

School must have just let out.

Arab girls in their school uniform.

Ladies doing lunch in the Muslim Quarter.

Mothers out shopping.

Sometimes I wonder how the residents of the densely packed Old City feel about sharing their narrow streets with all these tourists all during the year. I wonder how it is to live there in the old stone houses, in all that intense religious history, to be at the very center of the world.

How would you feel about writing your address as, say, #10 Via Dolorosa, Jerusalem?