On Holiday with Carly's Grandparents

I love vacations... but my new British Friends that work with Carly's grandparents in Jerusalem don't say that they are "going on vacation"  ... they go "On Holiday!"  ... Carly's Grandparents went "on holiday" in November and let me go with them!!!  They took a Mediterranean cruise ... it was SO MUCH FUN!!!

Our Cruise ship

NCCL's Voyager of the Seas

We visited Pompeii and drove along the Amalfi Coast

The volcano Vesuvius erupted in the first century and buried Pompeii

We walked through the ruins of Pompeii

The whole town was buried under tons of ash and lava

 

many of the buildings were pretty big

The next day, we took a train to Rome

We visited the Vatican

St. Peter's Bascilica is the biggest church in the world

This is the Vatican Square where the Pope speaks to the people

We visited Pisa where we saw the leaning tower

I did not push it over!

My favorite part of the cruise!

Our cabin steward left us a "Towel Critter"

every night that he had made out of our towels.

 

It has been a busy week in Jerusalem!

Israel has been celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot.  They build booths and for one week eat meals in them and some sleep in them.  This is to remember when they lived in the wilderness.  It is a joyful time with singing and many group activities are planned.

This is a really big fancy Sukkot at the Western Wall in Jerusalem

This Sukkot had very fancy carvings on the outside.

It even had nice pictures on the wall inside.

Somebody really important got out of this car and went down to the Western Wall to pray.

I prayed at the wall too!

The Jewish men go to the Western Wall and wave 3 kinds of trees tied together. 

These men have their three types of tree branches in their hands to wave while they are praying.

This is the other really big fancy Sukkot near the Western Wall.

This Sukkot is on the roof of a house and is smaller.  But it is not the smallest Sukkot that I saw.

There are even booths at restaurants.  

Like this one

Another one on the roof of a house.

 

We had a great sandwich for lunch called a Shwarma.  Yummmmy!!!

We also went to a really cool parade.  This is one of the really big celebrations during the Feast of Tabernacles.  There were over 75,000 people marching in the parade. 

 

People come from all over the world to march in this parade and say to Israel; "We Love You!"

 

 

Blowing the Shofar in the parade.

 

I really liked this group!  Do you see the American Flag?

These guys were really cool.  They were on stilts like at Disney World and they were doing flips!  The crowd really screamed when they did that!

 

I really liked the flags and banners and there were hundreds of them!

 

I really enjoyed the parade

I love Israel and I hope that we will always be their friend!

Netanya Beach Day

OK this was a much better day than the Botanical Gardens.

Carly's grandparents and their friends drove North from Jerusalem to a wonderful beach at Netanya.  We spent the day walking on the beach.  I was allowed to play in the water.  And I picked up shells - enough for each kid in Carly's class to have one.  I will bring them home with me on the 29th of October.

The beach was beautiful.  It went for miles and miles and miles.

 

Let's go swimming!

 

This shell is for Carly!  But everyone in her class get's one too!!

 

This man had a lot of fun with his kite!

 

The kite pulled him and his surfboard through the surf.

 

He even did a huge jump and did a flip.

I wanted to try it but he wouldn't let me!

We ate lunch in a Chinese Restaurant and it was delicious.  I really liked the egg rolls!

I wanted to apply for a job delivering Pizza's for Pizza Hut.

But my arms and legs were too short to drive the motor  bike!

We saw some people setting up their Sukkoth to celebrate the Jewish holiday of booths.  They are remembering the time the Jews spent wandering in the wilderness way back in Old Testament times.

They will live in this little tent in their yard for a week while they celebrate.

I had a lot of fun at the beach and I hope Carly and Ben will take me to Israel with them when they go visit their grandparents in Israel!  I know they will love the beach...

 

Until next time, Shalom from Israel...
Stanley

Can You Spell Borrrrrriiiinnng?

Dear Carly and Friends!

Carly's grandparents took me on a very boring trip to the Israel Botanical Gardens in Jerusalem.  I mean how much fun would you have walking through a huge garden looking at flowers?

Well, it was OK...

 

 

I am standing on a Papyrus plant.

In ancient Egypt they used a plant like this to make paper! 

We saw lots of flowers and a really cool waterfall.

 

 

I hope you enjoyed the Botanical Garden more than I did!

 After wards we went to the Bible Lands Museum and that was really cool.  We saw lots of artifacts from Israel during the times of the Bible.  Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures so you will have to take my word for it.

Carly's grandparents promised me that our next outing would be more fun... we shall see!

Shalom from Israel, Stanley