Rainy Day

Well as you may have guessed it rained today. And for any of you who know Israel's climate it is really really dry for most of the year but then it rains and rains and rains once it is the well named rainy season. We first went to a museum of old Jerusalem and the dead sea scrolls, really cool actually. Apparently the dead sea version of Isiah is as close a match to the Book of Mormon's as it is to the current Hebrew versions. Then after Lunch we went to the area that Samson and King David came from, and read their respective stories. When we got back to the hotel we had dinner and then celebrated the new year's coming (very very quietly).

Less-North Israel

Today was a historic day - as in we saw historic places. ;) So we kicked the day off by going to Nazareth. We went up on a hill (overlooking the valley of Armageddon actually) and read Luke 4 - the second part I believe. Either way from that lofty place we could see a church called the church of jumping on top of another hill. Now the name seems a little cynical at first but actually that impression isn't far from the truth (it has to do with throwing people off of cliffs before stoning them). But that tangent aside that church is probably the place where the Jews tried to stone (or cast him down headlong as it says) Jesus - in his own home town. Then we went to Caeserea and talked about Paul. Finally we went to Joppa (aka Tel Aviv) where we read about Jonah and Peter, both of whom were in Joppa (Jonah 1, Acts 10) and were told to preach the gospel to the gentiles. Then we bussed back to Jerusalem. And after dinner we went to a Christian olive wood carvings store. That was day 4 in the Holy Lands.

North Israel

Today was another great day! We begun our travels by going to a wildlife reserve. It was really quite beautiful, apparently though it was nearly burned to the ground in a terrorist forest fire about 10 months ago. Then we traveled up to the Golan Heights to get to Capernaum which was really cool. next we continued on to the Sea of Galilee where we read about Peter walking on Water and the huge storm. Then we had lunch at what was apparently the best fish restaurant in Israel. We ended our travels by going to the mount of Beatitudes and spending some time there. It's really interesting actually the whole environment of the tour seems like a10 hour a day seminary class! :) It's really fun actually.

The Holy Lands

some Today our touring of Israel began. We rose at 6:00 am, ate breakfast, and were on our way. The first place we saw was Qumran which is for those of you who - like me - don't know the names of every place of historical/religious significance in the world is where the dead sea scrolls were found. It was an intriguing place. So it sounded like Qumran was a area settled by Jews who felt that the mainstream Jewish culture had been corrupted and felt that they had the truth. So they moved in to lives of ascetic seclusion from the rest of the world. Then after nearly two millennia Bedouin boys found some pots with leather scrolls that have the oldest most complete version of what we now call the Old Testament. Our next stop, Masada, was quite a sight. It was originally the sight of one of king Herod's many "pleasure palaces". Then in around the seventh decade AD it was taken over by the Zealots (a group of militant Jews who decided to do all they could to free themselves from the grip of Rome) and, after the fall of Jerusalem (70 AD), was besieged by the Romans until 73 AD. I'll not go into a long history - just look it up on Wikipediaor something if you want to know more, but it was interesting to see one of Asia's most impregnable first century fortresses restored to much of its former look for lack of a better word. Then we swung by the dead sea for a short dip and the drove north to where we are now (north of Tiberius, just snuggled between Lebanon and Syria).

PS the time difference here is 9 hours if anyone was wondering (again based off of MST)

Shabbat

Shabbat - Sabbath Jewish style, more or less. The weirdest thing about it is that here in Israel it is on a Saturday. Just imagine, having Sunday on Saturdays. It really is very strange. Our flight arrived at the Tel Aviv airport at about 5:30 am. we got through customs in surprisingly good time and soon were on our way on a bus to Jerusalem. We were dropped off at a hotel, got our rooms, and soon were off to church at the (BYU) Jerusalem Center (For Near Eastern Studies), affectionately called 'The Mormon University" by the Locals. Apparently it isn't legal to proselyte here so all of the members were foreigners, in fact it didn't seem too different from wards back in the states (other than the fact that one can see the Dome of the Rock through the window behind the pulpit). Then we came back to the hotel and rested/napped for the rest of the day - no joke. Then we had a free hotel dinner and went (back for some) to bed.

Boxing Day

Sorry this is waaay overdue I was having problems figuring out how to use Blogspot (and to some extent the Internet in Hebrew). Boxing day is the day after Christmas, celebrated mostly only in England it is nearly as much of a holiday as Christmas itself. That behind us it will now be no surprise to you that almost everything was closed for our final day in Great Brittan. We started off our day with a trip to King's cross station - both to get where we were going and to see a fabled platform 9 3/4 :). Sadly the train portion of the station had been closed down and wasn't scheduled to be opened until Saturday at 10. So one thing quickly off of our "to see" list we continued on our way. Then we went to the London Eye - one of the world's largest fariswheels. It's huge! it is on the banks of the Thames and goes up about 200 ft. into the air. The next thing we did was go to Hyde park and that neighborhood. "That neighborhood" includes the LDS church there and many museums. Sadly the museums too were closed, as was the church building, but at least we got some pictures there. the park was really cool, both figuratively and literally. It is a park of titanic proportions and was a pretty pretty place. Deb had been wanting to see a statue of Peter Pan they had there, so we went and looked at that and then ate lunch and left. After that all we did was go to the Airport. We has been told that people were supposed to check in three hours early for international flights, so we did - then we waited for two and a half hours.

Christmas Day

Christmas - the best day of the year. Today we got up early for once and found that Santa had found us - twice. Very interesting morning, eight stockings, and presents of course. We spent the rest of the day just playing games and resting for the most part. We played a scrabble like game called "Upwords" the one we bought from Harrods for my mother. Along with a card game called Set, aaaand of course Axis and Allies. While so doing we watched another version of the Christmas carol and some Christmas episodes of old sitcoms - thank you "Santa". Then my parents went out on a walk, and really that's about it, just a slow restful day.

'Twas the Day Before Christmas

Oh what a day! Sorry this post was late, but the past two days have been quite busy. So without further ado - yesterday we finished up our shopping and even swung by Harrods (the biggest mall here in London) though eveything was so expensive it is no wonder we didn't get much (just a $15ish present for my mom, just to say we shopped there - well and because we) didn't have a present for her. OH! so in the electrics section they had about 18 TVs all playing High School Musical, it's weird seeing your school being shown all over the place in the biggest mall in one of the largest urban centers on earth (if any of you have never had that experience). Then we went to our finallie play - Les Miserables. WOW it was amazing! I fully believe that it was the best play I've ever seen. Everything about it was just amazing! It was sooo well done. Anyway I'll stop raving, but it was really good. Then we tried to make it to the London Eye, but it was closed... so we came back and set up some sparce decorations, watched a Christmas carrol, and then had a family Christmas devotional thing.

Not London

So today (as might have been seen bye the - not so - clever title) we went and did some things out side of the real city of London. We rented a car in the morning then drove out to Stonehenge around twelve thirty ans we got there ... oooooh around three thirty. It was quite the traffic jam actually I think it had to do with a lot of people wanting to get out of the city. Anyway it was really cool, it was almost dark and pretty cloudy and humid, so it seemed fairly foreboding-like anyway the rocks were really cool, I need to see if my mom got any good shots of it on the USBing camera that reminds me I need to load yesterdays pictures onto the older posts. So everybody you should check those. As it turned out Stonehenge was closing early (at four) for the Christmas Break like time. That bearing in mind we hurried on our way around the area (There is a round walkway around Stonehenge so one can see it from all angles). Then we started our trying journey to the temple. We left Stonehenge at four tenish and were aiming to get to the temple at around six thirty seven, but due to traffic jamage we got there at eight twenty. London traffic is bad to begin with, but combine that with a closed part of the Freeway... yes it was troublesome... anyway we arrived at the temple about an hour and a half after our reserved time. There were worries among us that we wouldn't be able to do it at all, but they didn't want to let us down after traveling for more than 4 hours. Thus we were able to do baptisms. It was soooo cool. then we got some pictures of the temple (we tried to get one of the new Moroni on top, but it was pretty much covered in scaffolding. Sorry). Then we came back and I wrote this post :).

PS if you sign the comments then I think I could more accurately answer questions etc.

London

okay soooo today was our first full day out and about in the City (of London). After breakfast we all we came out to this bus tour place and went on a two hour tour of the big main sights to see, but only in passing because we never actually got off of the bus to see them more in depth. yeah so after that we got off on the last stop and went to a wax museum (Madam Traussads - or something near to this) yeah it was really cool and we got some really cool pictures on a camera that we can plug straight into to computer (oh the wonders of USB ports!) so expect an update soon (eventually) with those. Alright after the museums we went and finally started getting our Christmas shopping done, which was nice to finally do because it is "hard" *wink* to get stuff here without the others knowing. Then we finished up the day by going to Subway for dinner (haha it was really funny to me - sorry if no one shares my sense of humor, but - that everything was still in feet and inches rather than in the metric system, which is what they use in UK) then we split up to attend our second play, my dad and Deborah went to Wicked and my mom and I to Joseph and the Amazing Technocolo(u)r dream coat. I can't speak for the others - and as they never seem to use this blog I doubt they'll speak for themselves - but I really Loved Joseph, I thought it was one of if not the best play I've seen in a long time (if ever). Now Mom and I are "home" and waiting for the others. Until tomorrow, MikeR PS I'm proud of all who got the "(u)" joke



This is us on the tour bus in front of big Ben and Parliament note the earphones - these were how we heard the prerecorded comentary about the sights(Jane Ricks)

Here we have St. Paul's cathedral (Mike Ricks)

My two favorite wax museum photos. Dan and Tiger Woods, and Deb and Daniel Radcliffe (Mike Ricks)

A Day of Rest

Alright after my posting yesterday we went out to dinner and then went to the Lion King! It was soooo cool. The costumes were amazing! andandand, yeah so apparently West End is the British equivalent of Broadway (just cheaper). Yeah and the environment was really different too, much more casual here too. Very good play, but I was just a little disappointed, because the English accents didn't quite fit the characters (except for ZaZu, and I guess Pumba) haha yeah well that is enough reviewing, but do know it was indeed amazing, and it really is too bad photographing them is illegal (and we still don't have a cord - hopefully when we go shopping tomorrow). Then we came back at 10:00ish
So Today being Sunday was a nice quiet day. We all slept in (through church even! :( ) until about one. Then after Lunch we went to a park and around to many sights of family significance (our old house, the park, the school where my dad went etc.). We spent about an hour at the park, just walking around while my parents reminisced about our spending so much time there. The college of tropical medicine was really a cool building, instead of having figureheads and gargoyles they had disease transmitting animals (ticks, fleas, rats, mosquitoes, cobras, and more) on the sides of the buildings ans on the window rails. Now we're back and planning the rest of the week.
Also if you want to know the London times for the posts just add 7 hours to it, and subtract the 7 from London time to know it for Utah.

MikeR


This is Deb in a tree at the park we spent some time in (Jane Ricks)

Then this is my Dad in front of his old school - literally (Jane Ricks... or possibly Mike Ricks, we are not sure

We're here (London)

So we made it here after many hours of plane flights. First we left Salt Lake at 6 (an hour late becasue of the snow) to Pheonix. Then at 9 we flew out to London and we got here at 7am Utah time (4am-2pm London time, which is actually Greenwich time, becuase the prime merridian goes through there, and the latitudial lines start at the Prime merridian AND that is what time zones are based off of those) ... Either way then we took the subway - called the "tube" here - to the place where we're staying. Soon we'll be going to the Lion King, but I'm posting now so we all can sleep after it.

MikeR

PS I forgot to mention - we forgot to bring a camera cord to upload pictures onto the computer, so you may notice a certain lack of Photos until we can find an alternative way to get them up

First Post

So I finally set up the blog for our winter vacation trip, and this is it! Alright so basic overview - we are going to London, to Israel, and then back home. Yup quite simple actually. It sounds like I will be the main person doing postings, so without further adieu my I present the Ricks' rovings (I thought it was clever and my dad was pushing for "London and Israel blog" So I think we did very well). I'll try to update it every day... but who knows how that will go, ah well, we'll see.

MikeR (sorry it is a seriously ingrained habit to sign anything I ever write, and if anyone else posts it will be distinguishable that way too)