Jerusalem

The Dome of the Rock or Temple Mount, whichever you prefer. This is the where it all began. The rock beneath the dome is considered the foundation stone of the world - where Adam was formed by God. Sacrifices took place here, Abraham was here, Noah too and Solomon built the first temple here. As you can see it is now a mosque where it is believed that Mohammad ascended to heaven. Jewish people cannot go near it because they think it is too sacred for them.  Christians are not allowed to set foot inside the mosque because the Muslims won't let them. Only Muslims can pray anywhere near here and inside the mosque but if anyone else tries to pray or bring a religions object near the mosque they will be instantly ejected by security. The Dome of the Rock is in the Old City of Jerusalem and considered the most sacred place for Jews and Muslims.

Maria touching the locked door at the Dome of the Rock.

Captain Steve looking through a crack in the door to see the actual rock in the center of the mosque. A few Muslim women had a talk with Steve right after this picture was taken.

The tomb of the Virgin Mary is in the grotto. The air was filled with smoke from a Greek Orthodox mass was going on at the time as you can see from all the smoke.

This is the Greek Orthodox mass taking place in the tomb of the Virgin Mary. The priest in the black robe was impressive looking!

The sign at the entrance to the tomb of the Virgin Mary.  You just can't do anything these days :)

Touching the footprint of Jesus at the Church of the Ascention

The actual tomb of the Virgin Mary

The cave in the desert where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.  they were hidden for nearly 2,000 years before being found and preserved.

The eastern part of Jerusalem is in Palestine territory as you can see from the poster in our hotel. We didn't know that when we reserved the hotel but it was in a great location near the old city.

Damascus Gate with all of the vendors waiting to greet us every day. 

Maria has the light blue colored top on as she makes her way to the Western Wall (Wailing Wall). This is the woman's side of the wall that is separated from the men's side by another wall. The woman's side is much smaller than the men's side for some strange reason.

The Dead Sea scrolls were written by a religious sect who occupied this area in the desert. The temperature was well over 100 degrees at 8:00 am! 

Masada! There is a cable car that takes tourists to the top of Masada. Masada was the last battle site for the Jews before being defeated by the Romans. Instead of being captured, the 960 men, women and children committed mass suicide immediately before the final battle when the Romans finally breached the defensive wall. These Jews preferred death as opposed to slavery at the hands of the Romans. This site is revered by the Jewish population today.

The top of Masada in the extreme heat!

Some of the old fortifications atop Masada.

The cable car route down from Masada with the Dead Sea in the distance.

The warning sign stating that it was too dangerous to run down from the top of Masada to the base.

Captain Steve must have missed the sign?  It was a long way down the Snake Trail in the extreme heat!

The Dead Sea!

Mud bath in the Dead Sea. Even Maria floated and paddled around before getting coated in the invigorating mud!

Captain Steve needed to cool off after running down the Snake Trail.  The Dead Sea mud was a bonus!

Maria and the Camel.  They both have nice smiles!

The Dome of the Rock (Temple Mount) in Jerusalem.  Probably the most photographed place on Earth, or so they say.

As is the time honored tradition, Maria stuffs her note into the Western Wall.

Captain Steve putting the required yamaka on before approaching the Western Wall.

Captain Steve being closely watched by the person in the black hat as he stuffs his note into the Western Wall.

The tomb of Jesus is behind Maria in the Church of the Holy Sepluchre

Yes, we are in Israel!

Typical street inside the Old City of Jerusalem

 The Western Wall (Wailing Wall). The women's side is on the right and the men's side is on the left.

 The main entrance to the Dome on the Rock (Temple Mount). No, we can't go in there!

Another street in the Old City. As you can see, it is not handicapped accessible!

Solomon's quarry that was dug beneath the old city. This is where all of the building material came from to build the temples, churches and buildings in the old city.  These tunnels go everywhere beneath the city and they hold secrets that have not been uncovered as yet. Most of the tunnels have been sealed off for over 2,000 years so who knows what may lie beneath the city?

 The Palestinian flag.

The site of the crucifixion with Maria at the spot.

Maria placing her crosses on the anointing rock where Jesus was laid after he was crucified and anointed with oil.

The ancient City of David and the thousands of tombs waiting for the judgement day.

The third Station of the Cross with a group carrying a replica cross in their travels around the old city. Many groups do this which causes even more confusion in the Old City.

At the city of David!

Kind David's Tomb in Jerusalem.  David was the first king of Israel and highly revered.

The tree marks the place of the Last Supper in Jerusalem. This site is another very sacred place.

This is Zion Gate, another entrance into the Old City. The holes in the rocks are bullet holes from the Israeli troops attacking through here to gain entrance to the Old City in 1948.  Besides the bullet holes the Israeli troops tried to blow up a section of the Ottoman wall but of course that failed.  The walls are impenetrable! The fighting outside this gate was described as fierce.

Hezekiah's tunnel that we had to squeeze through. This mystical tunnel is thought to have carried water to the City of David but others don't believe that story and think it actually runs under the Old City to provide access to something hidden there.

The Garden Tomb. This is another place that some think is where Jesus may have been buried. We wanted to make sure we had both possibilities covered so we came here too.

 

This is the door to the Garden Tomb, right around the corner from our hotel. There is a beautiful garden outside the cave that is away from the noise and confusion of Jerusalem.

The inside of the Garden Tomb.

The stench of urine hung like a shroud in the stifling August heat as we stood before the massive Gate of Damascus, the entrance into Jerusalem’s Old City, the holiest city on Earth for all Christians and Jews. 

Muslim merchants shouted and entertained everyone with their antics as we tried to squeeze past their many overflowing souvenir and food carts nearly blocking the entrance into the city.  Throngs of people surged into and out of the city through this gate from sunrise to sunset and beyond every day of the year.

Struggling to find a clear pathway into the city we finally stood inside the massive Ottoman limestone walls, face to face with the ancient holy past.  Behold, and what did we see?  Piles and piles of trash lining the narrow pathways that snaked in all directions past the myriad of Christian churches, Greek Orthodox churches, Armenian churches, Russian Orthodox churches, Synagogues and Mosques.  They need more street sweepers in this place!

Before us, on the side of a hand hewed church wall was a chiseled Roman numeral, faded by the ravages of time.  This was a station of the cross where Jesus actually walked. 
We were now walking in the footsteps of Jesus!  Chills ran down my spine, as I finally comprehended that we were walking in the exact footsteps and path that Jesus walked over 2,000 years ago.  This was why we had sailed so far - to see the Old City of Jerusalem.

Maria and I began our own pilgrimage at the first Station of the Cross, where Jesus was condemned to death by Pontius Pilate, and followed the path to every subsequent Station until we found ourselves facing the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, looking for station number 10.

Heathen Steve took a deep breath and entered through the massive wooden doors that guard the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  Inside the doors we found peace.  Peace from the yelling throngs of Muslim merchants selling their wares, peace from the wandering crowds among the pathways throughout the old city, peace from the stench and mounds of trash strewn about the pathways and peace that comes from reverence for the holiest place on Earth for Christians.

We found stations 10, 11, and then station 12, the exact place where Jesus was crucified and died upon the cross.  Calvary, the site of the crucifixion.  There was a heavy silence from those who were gathered there, some kneeling in prayer, others with heads bowed and everyone with a profound sense of sorrow.

With heavy hearts we continued our search for station 13 and finally the last station, Station 14 – the place where Jesus was laid to rest in the cave.

Deep inside the ramparts of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and in the exact center of the Church is the rock, the remains of the tomb, where Jesus was placed after his crucifixion.  Touching the rock is a centuries old tradition among pilgrims to the holy land and we were no exception.  The line to get into the grotto was long but worth the endless wait as we squeezed inside and laid our hands upon the rock.  We were kneeling at the holiest place on Earth for Christians. 

A Catholic mass had just ended with the priest doing exactly what we were doing, touching the rock as billows of smoke from burning incense swirled around his head.  The moment was truly mystical and magical, all at the same time.

The priest who guarded the grotto softly urged us to leave so that others may enter in our place.  Our visit to the grotto and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre seemed to have ended so quickly but will remain in our hearts forever.

Sail on, sail on and sail safe Aspen…

Gunboats and Another Culture

Admiral Maria cooking onboard Aspen at sea

Leaving Crete in 30 knots of wind and some nasty seas.  Maria has the windblown look it seems.

"Israeli Navy this is the sailing vessel Aspen".  "ASPEN from Pine, Colorado in the USA!  We are not armed..."    

Israeli Navy gunboat who just wanted to ask us a few important questions before we got any closer!

Our marina in Israel.  We can't read the flag either.

Captain Steve bringing Aspen into Israel

Admiral Maria on watch, sailing from Crete to Israel

Welcome to Israel!

 A typical beach next to our marina in Israel.  Tel Aviv is about 6 miles down the coast from here.  Maria is happy to be here!

A heavily armed Israeli gunboat circled Aspen, 6 miles off the coast of Israel, as Captain Steve worked the VHF radio answering their questions:

Where did you come from?

Where are you going?

Do you have weapons onboard?

Why are you coming to Israel?

Israel???  What is that, you might ask?

Well, our EU visa was about to expire and we had to leave Crete and the rest of the EU.  We could not return to Turkey because they won’t let us into the country just yet either.  Another visa problem.  These visa issues are really nasty in this part of the world!

We had to go to a non-EU country so that eliminated nearly every country that borders the Mediterranean Sea, except those in northern Africa and the Middle East. 

Our options were limited to Egypt where they are rioting in the streets and fighting for control of the government, Syria but that is a no-brainer with the revolution, Lebanon but they don’t like sailboats in their country and then there is Israel where we heard they have a McDonalds and air conditioning. 

When I mentioned to Maria that we could sail to Israel, Admiral Maria said, “but isn’t it dangerous in Israel and aren’t they shooting missiles and isn’t there talk about Iran doing something bad to Israel?”

These thoughts flashed through my mind as Maria took pictures of the metal gray military gunboat with the big guns motoring just off Aspen’s stern.

How bad could it be, I told Maria when we were sitting in our comfortable slip in Crete.  We have to go somewhere and can’t just hide among the Greek islands until Turkey lets us back in.

With Maria kind of convinced, it took us 4 days to sail from Crete to our position 6 miles off the town of Herzliya, Israel, answering these questions just after sunrise.  We were very tired and running low on fuel besides just wanting to get into the marina and have a Big Mac in an air conditioned restaurant.

The gunboat probably didn’t want to hear Captain Steve’s reasoning but they eventually said that “they are letting us go” and powered away out to sea.  They advised us to check in with Border Control when we got to the marina.

No problem, SIR, Captain Steve calmly replied.

An hour later we found the entrance to Herzliya Marina, the largest marina in Israel.  An Israel gunboat was tied up to the dock and we were told to tie up opposite them.

As soon as we flung our lines to the waiting people on the dock a security person from the gunboat asked Maria to please get off the boat and for Captain Steve to accompany him as he thoroughly searched Aspen.  He found things we forgot we even had in some of the lockers but eventually he gave up trying to find whatever he was searching for and said we were ok and now needed to answer some questions from another security person standing on the dock as he took our passports away for a “routine check”, he said.

The security person on the dock asked general questions like why did we come to Israel?  Did we plan to come to Israel?  What do we want to do in Israel?  Do we know anyone in Israel?

It seems we answered the questions to his satisfaction and then our passports reappeared.  The security man took the passports and looked at all the stamps, that was a big problem.

“Oman?”, he questioned us.  Why were you in Oman?  Did you make any friends in Oman?  What other Arab countries did you visit?  Were you in Indonesia?

We were truthful and said yes, we had been to several Arab countries but that we are really ok and had not made any friends but only were tourists sailing around. 

The toughest question was “why were we in Oman for over 3 months and never made any friends there?”  We told him about our Indian Ocean crossing and attack story and their tone changed instantly.  We are certain they knew of the piracy incident and why we were stuck in Oman afterwards.

The interview ended abruptly and the security man said that we were free to go to passport control, fill out some forms and check into the marina.  Welcome to Israel and enjoy our stay!!!

Sail on, sail on and sail safe Aspen…

Tales from Euro Land

German WWII cemetery on Crete.  Not many German cemeteries exist but this is a big one

 Another view of the German WWII cemetery looking out into the Aegean Sea

Agios Nikolaos, Crete, Greece - where Aspen is

These are the ruins of a Minoan Palace on Crete.  It was very hot out too!

The ruins are in pretty bad condition for being over 2,000 years old!

Minoan vase at the palace.  That held a lot of wine!

The countryside behind the Minoan Palace on Crete

 This is our dock where Aspen lives on Crete.  The water is cool but the air temperature is over 100 degrees every day!

We are still getting used to the culture here in Euro Land.  It is so different than what we are used to.

We had talked before about siesta time in the afternoons here in Greece.  The stores close from 1 pm until 6 pm so if you need anything you have to wait for them to re-open after 6 pm.  That is unless you want to eat at a café or bar because those are always open.  However, if you want to eat lunch you will be one of the few people who actually EAT lunch.  Most Euros just snack all day and drink.  Their big meal starts at about 9 or 10 pm, when we are ready for bed.

Smoking is very common here.  There is a law in Greece that enclosed places must be smoke free (No Smoking) but they get around the law by making sure all of the doors and windows are open all the time at every restaurant, bar and café.  That way there are no enclosed places and everyone can smoke everywhere.

That is also part of the reason the use of air conditioning is very limited in the EU.  They all want to smoke and they seem to like the heat too.  It can be 100 degrees outside and we can’t find an air-conditioned place to have lunch!  We are dying while the Euros sit and drink, smoke, visit with friends and sweat outside all day long.

Here in the marina we have a lot of interesting things happening as well.  The shower, one of our necessities in this heat, is a curious thing.  We have a dedicated building with shower rooms that are secured with a combination lock on the entry door so that only we boating people are allowed inside.  Once we are inside the building there is one door that leads to a set of 4 shower rooms for the women while another door leads to a set of 4 shower rooms for the guys.  Yesterday a man and woman entered the shower building right in front of me.  The guy turned left to go through the women’s shower door with the woman following him.  Thinking that this guy didn’t see the obvious picture of a woman on the door I said excuse me and pointed to the women’s sign on the door.  The guy looked at the sign, shrugged his shoulders and acted like he didn’t care.  I used my best expression of ‘what can’t you understand?’ while gesturing to the sign.  The guy didn’t say anything, turned and proceeded into the women’s shower.  Come to find out, he was French, so I guess they don’t understand signs?

Then there are the Dutch.  As I just explained we have showers in the marina but the Dutch like to shower off the back of their boats in the marina, in full view of everyone, instead of going to the shower building.  Luckily they prefer to wear their underwear while they shower so that is a good thing.

Finally we have the British.  We have had several British boats tied on either side of Aspen as well as on the other side of the dock behind us.  They usually tell us good morning each day and then we become invisible for the rest of the time.  Yes, we are flying our USA flag prominently on the stern of Aspen so maybe that is an issue for them? 

We think the Brits don’t want to associated too much with us because #1, we are Americans and there was that war thing in 1776 where we defeated them and still celebrate the momentous occasion every 4^th of July and #2, Captain Steve is related to Oliver Cromwell who abolished (I’m using a kind word here) the British royal family in the 1600’s in jolly old England.

There are a lot of British x-pats living here on Crete and they have their own grocery stores (called British Food Shops), full English breakfast at every restaurant (this includes bangers, pork and beans, poached eggs, corned beef hash and tea) with prices in British pounds!  Remember the Brits don’t use the Euro currency because the Queen didn’t want to lose half of her money by converting to another currency so they still use the Pound even though they are part of the EU, well at least kinda part of the EU.

So every day something unique and exciting happens.  That is what is so amazing about sailing among different cultures and peoples!

Sail on, sail on and sail safe Aspen…

Farmer’s Almanac

Captain Steve needs something to keep him cool!

GALE heading our way, just as the Coptic Calendar predicted!!!

Keith Richards rocking out (or maybe just someone who looks like him!)

Painted streets in Matala

The Lion Fountain (from the Romans) in Heraklion, Crete

Greek church

Lots of Greek churches are here for some reason!

The ruins at Knossos with the famous horns in the center

This is the throne room at Knossos.  The bench on the right against the wall is where the king sat.

More of the Knossos ruins with the countryside in the background.

Riding an ATV with sandals is not always good.  They can fall off!

A nice saying at the Bohemian beach at Matala

The carved remains of a tree in Matala near the beach.

Port, fort and harbor in Crete

We live by the weather on Aspen.  Calms, gentle breezes and big storms guide our lives.  If only there was a Farmer’s Almanac to predict our weather here in the Mediterranean like it predicts the weather back home.

But wait.  We have what is called the Coptic Calendar, handed down thru the ages since 451 AD by a group known as the Copts who are descendants from the ancient Egyptians.  This weather calendar, written in stone, predicts gales, storms and other nasty weather for the Med.  Sure, these weather predictions were chiseled over 1500 years ago but maybe, just maybe they are accurate?

This coming Monday, the ancient calendar predicts, there will be a mid-summer gale all around us.  A gale with over 35 knots of wind will blow for 2 days, say the Copts.  The storm is called the Black Wind.

So I look at my high-tech weather charts: Monday, July 16^th, nothing, nothing at all is forecast.  Ah ha!  So much for the ancients Captain Steve foolishly laughs.

Tuesday morning at 2 AM my intellectually advanced weather chart suddenly changes color to red and then a deep dark foreboding red color.  Gale!!!

A gale will hit us in this part of the Mediterranean just as the Coptic Calendar predicted, only 12 hours late.  That is pretty good for a calendar that was made in 451 AD!  And the weather forecasters in the US can’t even predict the weather for tomorrow.  When in doubt, look to the ancients!

We have been busy here in Crete, or so it seems.  Summer is here with 106 degree days and constant dry, cloudless skies.  We are baking!

There is everything from Keith Richards (with his back to the camera in the black t-shirt, or maybe his look-alike) and the hippie beach at Matala where Joni Mitchell hung out in the 70’s and wrote the song Carey.  The place and beach is still very laid back and has a nice hippie feel to it with the streets painted with colorful peace signs and things like that.

Another town called Malia is jam packed with young tourists who just don’t seem to sleep.  It is one enormous party town and the town has a McDonalds – that is the reason we decided to go there, of course.  One trip to the McDonalds was enough for us though since we haven’t seen the age of 18-25 for quite a few years!

Touring around the island we have seen more ancient ruins.  Knossos, the ancient Minoan palace, is the main attraction on Crete.  Thousands of people visit the partially restored site every day to ogle at the crumbling walls and what used to be palace.  But the Minoan civilization was a pinnacle in Greek history and its’ time was cut short by the evil volcanic eruption on neighboring Santorini.  As we said before, the power of Santorini’s eruption in 1600 BC caused the demise of an entire civilization.  That’s pretty impressive!

We’ve traveled to the south coast of Crete too (we are on the north coast with Aspen).  Desolate, arid and stark are good words for this southern coast.  Cresting the central mountain range that divides Crete into north and south we saw in the distance the deep blue Mediterranean Sea.  Only 5,000 feet nearly straight down the road switch-backed below us.  It was quite a ride down with occasional castles and deep gorges on either side of us.

At the base of the steep mountains are the beaches, small pieces of paradise for those who make the trip.  The climate is wonderful – no clouds, a gentle breeze every day and warm/hot temperatures with low humidity.  Perfect sun baking weather!

This south side of Crete was also where the major battles of WWII took place with the Germans fighting the Greeks, Brits, Australians and New Zealand forces for control of the island.  Germany easily won and took possession of Crete, the most important strategic island in the Mediterranean.  There are monuments all over Crete marking the valiant yet unsuccessful effort to defend Crete and defeat the Germans during the war.  One poignant monument was filled with the sun-bleached skulls of soldiers who became symbols for those pitched battles.

On a related note, it seems that Turkey is about ready to send a strong message (!) to Syria at the exact place we visited in April, Sanliurfa.  You might remember the nice picture of me pointing to the Syrian flag – that won’t be possible any more!

Sail on, sail on and sail safe Aspen…

Crete!

Welcome to Crete!

Captain Steve standing on the rim of a small caldera in Agios, Nikolaos, Crete that is supposed to be where Athena would bathe in the deep waters (213 feet deep!).

Maria high above the town and caldera of Agios Nikolaos, Crete

Yes, we found one!  It is in a town about 30 minutes from where we are.  

The local geology (nice conglomerate!)

Agios Nikolaos Marina where Aspen is.

A nice beach on Crete!

Another nice beach with some limestone outcrop in the distance.

The caves behind the beach are where the Romans once lived in about 500 AD.

Admiral Maria making the leap from the dock to Aspen.  She hasn't missed yet!

The setting for the town of Agios Nikolaos and Athena's bath

We are tied up in the marina at Agios Nikolaos Marina in Crete, enjoying the cloudless, warm and breezy days.  The temperature climbs into the high 80’s to low 90’s every day and then cools down to around 77 degrees at night with no humidity.  This is a really arid and stark place but very enjoyable. 

We are lucky to have the cool nights because our air conditioning doesn’t work here because of the difference in power that we can get.  In Euro Land they use 220 volts and 50 Hz which is a LOT different than what we use back in the USA.  Because of that difference we still have power for our battery charger because it can use Euro power so everything else on Aspen works just fine.  Whew!

Greece is a land of so many contrasts.  As you know, they had the recent elections and 51% of the people decided to stay in Euro Land.  A lot of people decided not to vote because they knew the election was corrupt anyway, that is what they told us.  But at least there are no riots here in Crete and the people seem to like the tourist revenue.  We feel very welcome.

Crete became part of Greece only recently, in 1917 after Turkey lost control of it during WWI.  Yet this is purely Greek here with very little remaining of the Ottoman Empire.

The working hours in Greece are a mystery to us.  It seems that a worker might work 3 days a week, if that much.  They close all businesses at 1:30 pm and might re-open at 6 pm most days.  Some businesses just decide not to open in the evening at all.  Then everyone takes Wednesday afternoons off and Sunday all day of course.  So maybe 3 days of work is a stretch but it sounds good.  This work schedule doesn’t include all of the holidays and the fact that the country closes down for the entire month of August.  No wonder the country has financial problems!

The beaches are really nice and very busy.  We heard that in the US they were showing empty Greek beaches on the TV news lately.  Maybe the beaches are empty at 5 am but Steve sees people sunning themselves and even swimming at 6:00 am when he is running!  Everyone loves a good beach day here, even the locals it seems.

Greece doesn’t celebrate my birthday on the 4^th of July for some strange reason.  But at least 1 hotel remembered and had a small fireworks display that we could see from Aspen.  That was nice of them!

This morning at 2:48 AM we had a nice 4.8 earthquake that was just to the southeast of Crete.  We didn’t feel a thing onboard Aspen and nothing seemed out of place in the town when we walked around today.  They are used to earthquakes here – if you remember the giant earthquake and eruption on the nearby island of Santorini?  That big one wiped out the Minoan civilization that existed on Crete in about 1600 BC.  That must have been a memorable event!

Sail on, sail on and sail safe Aspen…