After much delay, I will finish up my Holyland tour. Eventually, I plan to move these posts to the days that they actually happened and polish them up a bit. But for now, this is the final day of my trip, or the afternoon of the final day.
So, we left the Roman city of Garesa or Jeresh or Jaresh, Jordan. I was happy that I walked all around the city and kept up with everyone more or less. I was not the oldest, but I was the slowest on this trip.
The rest of the afternoon was on the bus. We went through regions that were mountainous rather than desert. Lots of rocks in the region.
We went up a mountain. All of my photos from the bus are a bit random. The guide was pointing out the river below.
The river is the one Jacob crossed to see about marrying Rachel and Leah, I think. Its name was something like Jabbok. Today it is dammed, so it looks wider than it looked in Biblical times.
The bus pulled over on a side road so that we could get pictures. I was interested in the farm near the road. There were sheep and goats and cattle, but they are hard to see.
Milk cows I believe.
The river again and maybe orchards.
See the farm in the distance? It wasn't that close, my camera has long eyes.
And the river in the dusky light.
This is the farm with the goats. Looks messy.
Sheep and goats if you look closely.
Pulling the camera's eyes back farther.
Sheep and goats.
Ram on the left above the door (table?) that is being used as a fence.
And as the sun was going down we arrived at Amman, Jordan, the capital city.
I would have liked to have seen more of the city.
We stayed at a fancy hotel with a beautiful bed. We had Mass there and ate supper. We had to be downstairs to catch the bus to the airport at 9pm. I never even crawled into that bed. I knew that I would never get up for the flight home if I did. The flight didn't leave until after 2am. The airport was an ordeal of security. I was selected in Frankfurt to be checked out for a complete, shoes off search. I guess fat slow old ladies are the new terror suspects. Ironically, one of our priests was selected as well. Then again at O'Hara I was patted down. Obviously, we are not profiling.
The Holyland trip was a pilgrimage of a lifetime. When I read the Bible it comes alive for me. At Mass, I have thoughts about places when places are mentioned. I feel so close to God's love when I think of the trip.
And I got the flu, slash sinus infection really bad for a month when I got home. I had eye surgery (schedule before i left and rescheduled because of the flu.)
And eventually I had a grandbaby a few days ago. He is named after Peter's brother, a fisherman. And he is love.
