Dave and Judy Moss

Today, 10/11, we arrived in Haifa, Israel. We were met by retired Israeli police officers and members of the International Police Association (IPA) who took us on a tour of Haifa, Nazareth and other places including a Druid village. They brought us to another IPA member who owns a restaurant and fed us a meal fit for a king. Judy even drank an espresso after lunch.

In Nazareth we went to: the beautiful Basilica of the Annunciation where Mary went to cleanse herself; the Church of Joseph; and the Synagogue Church where Jesus went to pray. Jesus jumped out of the Synagogue and down a hill to get away from people who were going to kill him.

In Akka (sp) we saw where Napoleon left behind his sick and injured soldiers when he retreated to Turkey.

In Haifa we saw the San Francisco Observatory. San Francisco is Haifa’s sister city. We saw all the ports including one built by China. Up on a hill we could see where Lebanon and Syria.

Today, 10/9, we docked in Kusadasi, Turkey. We took an excursion to Ephesus. The house of Mary is here. We saw many partial excavations. Ephesus today is the 5th. St. John and St. Paul were here as well as Helen of Troy.

They teach girls weaving as a job. We went to a weaving shop. We saw weavers of silk and wool. We saw how silk is made from the cocoons of the silk worms.

We did a carriage ride on October 3rd and then took a cab to the other sites on October 4th. Many of the sites are currently being restored, which will take years.

We had a small breakfast in our hotel and then walked to near the Pantheon. We then took a horse and carriage ride around town. We saw a lot of huge churches, as well as the Trevi Fountain.

Tonight we ate at the same restaurant as last night. They gave us each a free Apple Spritz and a free Limoncello.

We will try to post pictures tomorrow.

We left Nashville on Saturday, 10/1, and flew to Atlanta. Unbeknownst to us, it was a 37 minute flight. We had about an hour layover before our direct flight to Rome. It was a really nice flight. We had plenty of legroom, food, and drinks as we flew Premium Select on Delta.

We arrived in Rome at 10:40 AM on Sunday, 10/2, went through Customs, and then got our luggage. We then got the car to the hotel. The hotel is actually a townhouse.

We then walked around by our hotel and had a wonderful dinner at one of the restaurants on the street. They made the chicken parm with baked chicken and it was excellent!

On August 12 we went to the Shedd Aquarium.

This is the largest railroad museum in the US. They have over 300 cars and receive more on a daily basis. It took us 2 days to see all the equipment. They also had a model railroad room which people in the area can work on and run the trains. We did get to go about 5 miles on the trolley car.