The Packer Cousins Tour – Getting Dirty

Today we were going to get dirty. Our destination was an archeological site at Bet Guvrin National Park.



We would be participating in a “Dig for a Day”. Archaeological Seminars is digging at Tel Maresha, the ancestral home of King Herod.

We met with our guide, Ian and headed down into a cave that is currently being excavated.



We were given tools (hand picks were in demand), and went to work searching for artifact.












So we dug, and we sifted and found some treasures (mostly pottery shards). Ian found the partially intact jaw and teeth of an animal.
















We carried the earth filled buckets out of the cave and finished fine sifting above ground.


I found a perfectly intact shell in the screen when we were sifting.

We had an opportunity to go “spelunking” – walking like a crab in combination with slithering through small openings - in a cave that hasn’t been excavated. The underground labyrinths were lighted with candles so that we could the rooms. We saw the remains of cubbyholes where doves nested, olive oil production, weaving installations, and water cisterns and baths. There is a wealth of discoveries to be found and we were happy with our small contribution to the cause.



Next stop was Abu Gosh, an Israeli Arab town located about 5 miles west of Jerusalem. We were going for lunch; the house specialty is lamb, and it became a feast for the carnivore cousins. It was goood! The little salad plates were seemingly endless. A picture is worth a thousand words.











The Kotel was the next stop – I had spent a fair amount of time at the wall in the past few weeks: sometimes sleeping and sometimes awake. I had a special prayer to leave at the wall for my friend Doris Cochran-Fikes, who would be having major surgery in the middle of April. Gail had to reach high to find a crevice for family pictures of Marj and Hank and our grandparents.









We spent some time at the southern wall and the serenity of it enveloped me. Julian particularly likes this vantage point for a few reasons.









One is that the steps to the top are not even and when you climb them, you are cognizant of your footing. You can’t take it fir granted. The second is the view of an Arab neighborhood, which is a constant reminder that Jerusalem is very much a shared city.

Gail and I went off on our own in the afternoon exploring other parts of the city. I wanted to get back to Machane Yehuda to make my spice purchases before leaving the country. Since Gail had never been, I was her personal tour guide and personal shopper. It was Thursday and the market was crowded in anticipation of Shabbat.









We sampled halvah, ate a date (Gail swears it was her very first), bought some spices and generally checked out everything and anything the market had to offer. These “granny pants” caught my eye.












My niece Jessie and I have a joke about them – these were blue ribbon winners! We took our time going back to the hotel experiencing retail therapy on Ben Yehuda and Jaffa streets along the way. Zionism is alive and well in the Packer family. I made Gail try on this Celtics kippah.



Although she cloaks herself in green when the Celtics play, she deferred on this purchase!

Still full from the feast at lunch, we did site inspections of potential places where we could get a “bite to eat” if needed and headed back to Beit Shmuel. We hung out at the guest house with Louise, Lynda and Buddy. We drank wine and had a "show and tell" with our purchases. Buddy took to modeling the pashminas in some new Packer ritual!










And, of course, the adventure continues...