Hi again.
Well we flew into London Thursday night from Israel via Copenhagen on 2 low cost carriers which we hadn't realized when we booked , so no food or drink( had to use Danish kroners or a credit card to pay) and a big fee for our bags!!! Then 1 minute from takeoff we were unloaded and 90 mins later put on another plane due to a fuel leak! However we got here and then spent a near sleepless night in Heathrow and Courtney flew home yesterday AM.
Still flying now actually.

The rest of our Israel trip was great.
More Biblical related sites of course, plus where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found and info about who wrote them. A trip up the Mt at Masada where 100's of people committed suicide after 3 yrs of defending the site rather than let the Romans capture them (1900 yrs ago)
Fabulous ruins left there.
We swam( well bobbed about) in the Dead Sea which was fun.
We then had 3 days in Jerusalem to see amazing things. We walked the 12 Stations of the Cross from where Jesus was condemned to His death. It was a much shorter distance than I had expected, maybe 500 meters.
The churches were very old , many of them of course. There is a large Armenian population there with their influences.
The shopping markets were similar to Turkey and Eygpt - great! But more Christian themed with every imaginable souvenir possible- and many you would never imagine anyone buying!!!
We went to the Wailing Wall twice, interesting historical but to busy and commercial now to really feel it's significance. Same as at the Church where Jesus was crucified and then his Tomb.
We did a tour of the underground length of the western city wall which was good.
The new city is modern, has a Mall and a new controversial tram line installed. The trams are running - empty- to test the service .apparently this has been happening for months.
So overall I liked Israel but wasn't sad to go and probably wouldn't go back.
There is a large ultra orthodox Jewish presence there( well where else would they be!!!) which is causing internal scrapping. The men do not work, just study the Bible ( and Torah?) all day, they have large families( one lady has 17 kids) they don't serve in the army and the state has to support them. Many secular Jews think all of this is unfair ( esp when THEIR kids have to go to war) plus the Orthodox Jews are ridden with their own faction infights.
So all very interesting.
Many army people including girls walk around seemingly off duty carrying their rifle, weird. Not sure why as not all do.
There are many "Birthright" tours now as it is Europe's and USA's holidays. It is the belief that every Jewish person should go to Israel in their lifetime and their is sponsorship for these trips. So 1000's of probably end of high school age kids come and are on tours by the bus load. 2 of our hotels had them staying. Each group has an armed guard with them who is also a paramedic . This is a law in Israel after a school group was attacked years ago. Interesting.
Ok that is it for now.
London is awaiting me!
Absolutely packed with tourists/ and it's warm and sunny !!
Carol