XXI
TRAVEL (To the East)
My friend and colleague at McMurry College, Dr. Norton Jones, was an inveterate traveler.
Where some men live for fishing, Norton Jones lived to travel. He had a saying of which every
traveler should remind himself when his baggage is lost or his reservations have been preempted,
"If you want all of the comforts of home, stay there!" We made a number of trips with Norton
and Roberta Jones. His dry humor and wide experience in meeting the exigencies of foreign
travel made each of the several trips that we made with the Jones' memorable experiences.
Until I was out of college I had scarcely been out of the state of Kansas. We had made two trips
to Colorado shortly after WWI to visit my grandparents who had moved there hoping to obtain
some relief for Grandmother's asthma. Once, before we were married, Thelma and I had
ventured to travel down US 77 through Winfield and Arkansas City to the Oklahoma border; a
trip of about 60 miles one way. This was as far as I dared to venture from home considering the
notorious unreliability of tires and Model T Fords. In the 1930's we had traveled to Michigan to
attend graduate school and made a few forays from Ann Arbor, especially one as far as Niagara
Falls with a side trip into Canada. After going to Friends University to teach in 1938 we made a
trip to Estes Park, Colorado where we stayed one week in a cabin at the YMCA Grounds. The
cabin was owned by Mr. A. A. Hyde, of Mentholatum fame, who made his cabin available to
members of the faculty who otherwise could never have afforded a Colorado vacation.
Limited by both money and time, we did no traveling until I went to the East Coast during
WWII. After 30 months in Virginia and New Jersey we returned to Colorado only to leave
again for another sojourn of 30 months in Indiana. From that time until we moved to Abilene in
1958, our travels were pretty much restricted to the route between Denver and Phoenix except
for business trips to Chicago, Fort Monmouth, or other domestic cities. Except for a few trips to
Mexico and Canada our foreign travel experiences were nil before 1963, our fifth year at
McMurry.
In 1963 we made our first trip with Norton and Roberta Jones. We drove to Mexico City in
their Chevrolet Sedan. We visited Taxco; the silver mining city some half a day's drive from
Mexico City. There Dr. Jones became quite ill and I was faced with the task of using my
limited knowledge of Spanish to find a doctor who treated him. We continued the trip crossing
the Sierra Madre mountains to the west coast of Mexico where we visited the lovely coastal
resort cities of Acapulco, Manzanillo and Mazatlan. Except for the time when the gear shift of
the Chevrolet got stuck in two gears simultaneously, we had no problems with automobile,
traffic, food or water. And the problem with the gear shift was easily solved by the judicious
application of a screw driver.
In May 1964 we went to Brazil where we remained for fifteen months. At the request of Dr.
Mascarenhas, we returned to Brazil in the summer of 1966 to continue work on a research
project which I had begun the previous year. We learned that, for about five dollars more we
could fly to Buenos Aires, Argentina so we flew there first, spending a week in that city. Our
first stop after flying out of Buenos Aires was in Porto Alegre, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
There I purchased a local paper in order to catch up on the news and learned that only a few
hours after we left Buenos Aires, a Revolution had broken out and a few shots had been fired at
the Casa Rosada (Pink House), home of the President of the country corresponding to our White
House.
Our reason for stopping in Porto Alegre was to deliver some books which I had agreed to deliver
to a Brazilian Methodist Pastor named Wilson Villanova. Unfortunately, he was out of the city
attending a meeting of the Brazilian Bible Society of which he was the Secretary. We left the
books with his maid and spent a few days visiting what is, probably, the most beautiful city in
Brazil. In the intervening years I have kept up a correspondence with Villanova but it was not
until the late 1980's that we met. He was in the United States on a speaking tour and Thelma
and I went to Fort Worth to meet him. We had the pleasure of spending an afternoon with him
and hearing him preach that night. He is truly a remarkable man; reading and speaking English,
Spanish, and Portuguese and being a student of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.
At the end of the summer we returned to the United States by way of Peru and Panama. In Peru
we contacted a Methodist Missionary whom we had met earlier in Mexico City and whose
parents we had known in Phoenix. He took a day to show us the sights of Lima which are both
interesting and sad. We saw the Inquisition Chamber in Lima where heretics were examined
during the period when Spain ruled most of South America. The chamber is a room about eight
feet square with a ceiling that is perhaps six feet high. It has no windows and only one door.
Peep holes are provided so that the accusers could see the accused but not vice versa. We were
told that no person ever left that chamber without being condemned to death for heresy. The
Cathedral of Lima held the mummified body of the Spanish conqueror Pizarro (which I have
read has since been returned to Spain).
It never rains in Lima; at least it has not done so the past four centuries. However the city is
very often bathed in fog caused by the cold Humboldt Current which flows northward along the
coast and which is responsible for the El Nino effect. In the poorer districts of the city the
houses have no roofs; simply four walls. The poverty there is similar to that of the slums of
Brazil. Down the coast below Lima may be seen many Inca ruins which have been partially
excavated and restored. The stone work in these structures is remarkable; the Inca workmen of
five to ten centuries ago fashioned huge blocks of limestone with such accuracy that even, today,
it is impossible to slip a razor blade between them. No mortar was used in the construction of
Inca buildings. We had planned to go to Macha Picchu but were unable to do so because of a
strike of the railroad workers who operate the narrow gauge railway from Cuzco to Macha
Picchu. The old Ford Tri-motor airplanes which carried passengers from Lima to Cuzco were
ready to go.
The oldest university in the Western Hemisphere is in Lima. One day I decided to visit it.
When I reached the campus, which is surrounded by a high wall, I noticed a small crowd of
young men around the gate and a contingent of armed police standing on the opposite side of the
street. The young men, apparently students, were yelling profanities at the police who stood
silently saying nothing. I do not know what the altercation was about but the students were
taking advantage of the medieval tradition that the campus of a university is a sanctuary where
anyone may go and be exempt from arrest. I started to take out my camera to make some
photographs and then I thought better of it and refrained. When I left the "students" were still
shouting obscenities at the police.
The most notable event of the summer of 1967 was the Six Day War between Israel and her Arab
neighbors. Although the exact facts will probably never be known, it appears that the Israelis
learned that their Arab neighbors were planning an attack on Israel. So the Israelis attacked
first. Within six days they had whipped the combined forces of Egypt, Jordan and Syria. As a
result Israel annexed the territory north and east of the Sea of Galilee known as the Golan
Heights from which the Syrian gunners had bombarded the Jewish settlers in the Jordan Valley.
The Israelis also annexed the territory on the west side of the Jordan River that had been
assigned to Jordan in the settlement of 1948. This included the eastern part of Jerusalem. And
they annexed the territory of the Negev Desert and the Gaza strip which had been assigned to
Egypt. At the time of writing, the Israelis still control all of this territory except the Negev
which was returned to Egypt in a diplomatic arrangement promoted by President Carter.
From our view point the most notable event of the summer of 1967 was a trip to Europe with our
friends, the Joneses. We flew to Germany where we went to the Volkswagen factory at
Wolfsburg to pick up the VW Fast back sedan that we had ordered. While we were there we
were given a tour of the VW Factory; doubtless one of the most modern automobile factories in
the world at the time. In this car we traveled over 5000 miles in Central Europe visiting
Germany, Austria, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and Lexembourg. While we were in
Germany the Six Day War occurred. It was quite evident that the sympathies of the German
people were with the Jews. I have wondered if the outpouring of support which we saw was the
result of a feeling of guilt on the part of the German people because of what they had done to the
Jews during the days of Adolph Hitler.
We spent three months in Central Europe, traveling the back roads and avoiding, as much as
possible, the Autobahns where there are no speed limits and the Germans drive at 100 miles per
hour (and kill a fair number of their countrymen doing so). We avoided the hotels and stayed in
the "pensions" or "gasthausen" which are so plentiful in that country. For the most part these
accommodations were comfortable although the plumbing facilities left a bit to be desired and
the covers of the beds, which were heavily padded quilts stuffed, I think, with feathers were
much too warm and for which no substitute was provided. We visited most of the larger cities
of West Germany and went to see the "iron curtain" between Germany and Czechslovokia.
At the point where we visited the Iron Curtain, it passed through a wooded countryside. The
Communists had cleared a strip about a hundred meters wide along the center of which ran a
woven wire fence about three meters high. Along the top ran a bare wire and the posts carried
signs with the inscription "2000 volts". About every 500 meters a guard house towered over the
fence and in it we could see armed guards watching us with glasses. We saw no people on the
east side of the fence but the Germans on the west side were holding a carnival just out of range,
but not out of sight, of people on the other side, had there been any. It was quite clear that the
Germans were trying to tease the Communist captives on the other side of the fence.
One of the features of any European visit is seeing the beautiful Gothic Churches which were
built in a time when the church had a much stronger hold on the people than it does now. After
the Protestant Reformation, many of the churches which had been built by the Roman Catholic
Church were taken over by the Lutherans and today these buildings, less their gruesome statuary
and icons, are Lutheran Churches. Almost every small town in Germany is clustered around
one of these buildings and consequently some small towns are predominantly Catholic and
others are predominantly Lutheran. We learned that we could usually tell as we entered a
village, whether it was Catholic or Protestant. In those which were predominantly Protestant,
the children were better dressed and the towns were more orderly with cleaner street and more
flowers. The churches of Germany are state supported and every church, no matter how small,
had a new pipe organ, I suspect that the construction and installation of these instruments may
have been a sort of German WPA project. Attendance at the churches was close to nil.
Apparently the buildings served as places for marriages, christenings, and funerals; little more.
One of the most famous of Gothic Churches is that in the city of Cologne. The building stands
just across the street from the Central Railway Station which was, naturally, an important
military target in WWII. Recognizing the danger that the building was in, the Germans
removed the priceless stained glass. It was good that they did so because the Royal Air Force,
took out the Railway station by precision bombing while doing almost no damage to the
Cathedral. Unfortunately, not all the historic buildings of Germany were so lucky. The Gothic
buildings are, to my mine, the most beautiful architectural structures that have ever been built. I
could stand and gaze upward at one of them for an hour and still be discovering features that I
had not noticed before. Nevertheless, one can become saturated with church buildings and after
looking at them for a month or two, one bothers to visit only the most outstanding ones. And it
is hard to forget that these magnificent buildings were built with the sacrifices, sweat, and
doubtless the blood of many people who were very poor and probably hungry.
We found the food in Germany to be unpalatable and monotonous. The sausage was tasteless
and the cheese was worse. The menu in most eating places was the same; saurbraten, weiner
schnitzel and dark bread. Water to drink was difficult to obtain and waitresses looked at one
with disdain if he asked for it. They could do so because tipping is "verboten" in that country
where a service charge of 15% is added to the bill. I wondered if any of that money ever
reached the hand of the waitress; I doubt it. But even though the food in Germany was not very
tasty, the scenery is lovely, especially in the southern part. The Bavarian countryside is
especially beautiful and it is very common to run into a small town which is holding a festival
with an Oom-Pah band playing; the men dressed in leather breeches and the women wearing
their quaint but beautiful dresses.
The outstanding feature of Bavaria is the work of the crazy king Ludwig, who ruined his country
financially by his penchant for castle building. He built several castles; most of which he never
entered, but his crowning work is the one called Oberschwansgau which is best known as the
Disney logo. No one should ever visit Germany without seeing this castle. Although Ludwig's
hobby destroyed his nation financially in his day, it is a source of revenue for modern Bavaria
because of the millions of tourists who come to see this masterpiece of castle building.
The language of Austria is German but the Austrians are very unlike the Germans. The
Germans are cold and while never discourteous, they make no effort to be friends with
foreigners. One has the feeling that they are too busy to be bothered and would be just as happy
if tourists stayed away. The Austrians, on the other hand, were warm and friendly and seemed
to enjoy telling us of their places of interest. The Austrian Alps are especially beautiful, and the
roads make their scenery easily accessible. We visited Berchtesgarten where Hitler had his
"Eagle's Nest" which was reached by entering a tunnel at the base of a mountain and rising to the
top in an elevator. The view from the Eagle's Nest is breathtaking and one could see why
Adolph Hitler chose it as the place where he went to escape the rush of Germany and Berlin. It
is sad that such a beautiful place was preempted by such an evil man.
Switzerland is a beautiful country and it is too bad that the beauty of the country is not matched
by the character of the people. Two incidents will be enough to indicate why we developed a
distinct distaste of the Swiss people. We were preparing to drive over the Grimsel Pass and
stopped at a service station to buy gasoline (at about four dollars per gallon). The attendant
asked if we were equipped with tire chains, which he had for sale. We were further told that the
law required every car going over the pass to be equipped with such accessories. We had
already checked with the Travel Bureau and found nothing in their publications about the need
for tire chains. Clearly this attendant was trying to take advantage of foreigners whom, he
assumed, could not read the language. Of course, people in this country sometimes act
dishonestly too, but the arrogance of this Swiss 'gas monkey' is not often seen here. There was
no need for tire chains on Grimsel Pass which we crossed without incident.
The other occasion which left a bad taste about the Swiss occurred one evening when we
attended an outdoor concert. It was a beautiful evening and the park where the concert was held
was a lovely place. The admission charge was quite high; several dollars each. We paid our
admission and took our seats at a table as others were doing. Shortly a waiter came by with the
wine list, leaving it and saying that he would return. Shortly he came back and asked us to give
him our order. We returned the list saying that we did not care for anything. He then informed
us that we could not sit at the table. We showed him our ticket stubs to insure him that we had
not "crashed the gate" but he was adamant. Had he been somewhat more diplomatic, we might
have acceded to his demand but his arrogance made us resolve to stay at the table -- which we
did.
We had reserved no accommodations in Geneva and could find none when we arrived in the city.
However we were told that accommodations were available in a castle which was situated on a
hill overlooking the city. So, we spent a night in a four centuries old castle that had been
converted into a tourist hotel. The beds were hard, the rooms were cold, and the plumbing was
less than adequate but the view of Lake Geneva and the city was breathtaking and as Dr. Jones,
always the humorist, said, "It is an experience not to be missed or repeated."
In the city of Berne I purchased a cuckoo clock. In the center of the city there is a street where a
huge clock covers the side of a walkway across the street. A few doors from this point is the
building where Albert Einstein lived when he worked in the Swiss Patent Office during the day
and worked on his revolutionary Theory of Relativity at night. Below the apartment where
Einstein lived is a clock shop and this is where I obtained the Cuckoo clock which has been
keeping time on our walls for a quarter of a century. A bit of WD40 is all that it has ever asked
to keep running.
The nation of Luxembourg (if an area of 999 square miles can be called a nation) is mainly a
banking center. It is also the site of a large American Military Cemetery. Otherwise there is
little to see in this pocket size nation. In Luxembourg I went into a bank to cash some Travelers
Checks. I did not know what language the people of Luxembourg used but I thought that it
most likely would be German so I said to the young lady behind the bars, "Vas sprechen sie
hier?" (What do you speak here?) She came back in perfect English, "It doesn't matter, we
speak all of them."
Holland is a small country and we spent only a couple of weeks there but they were among the
most pleasant days of the trip. The Dutch are a most tolerant people; it is a tradition among the
Dutch people going back to our Pilgrim ancestors who went to Holland before coming to
Plymouth Rock. Today their tolerance has made Holland the drug capital of Europe. In front
of the palace of Queen Wilhemena in Amsterdam there is a large fountain, a bit like Buckingham
Fountain in Chicago. Over it were draped dozens of young people, all of them under the
influence of drugs to the extent that they were not aware of the terrible impression they were
giving of the nation that tolerated them.
The food in Holland was excellent, very much in contrast with that of Germany which was
mostly bland and tasteless. I think that what we call German food in this country is probably
actually Dutch food. The contributions to the culinary art usually attributed to Germany should
possibly be ascribed to the Dutch. Traffic in Amsterdam is mainly bicycles. There is almost
no danger of being run down by a car but crossing the street is hazardous because of the plethora
of bicycles. Visitors are cautioned that when crossing the street they should walk in a straight
line and at a constant speed; not to stop for or try to dodge the cyclists who are skilled riders and
will not strike you if you do not confuse them by changing your strategy. Some of the buildings
in Amsterdam are so narrow that furniture cannot be taken to the upper floors by stairs and has to
be hoisted up outside by arrangements not unlike that used for stowing hay in the barns in
Kansas.
Probably the world's greatest art museum is in Amsterdam. It is called the Reichsmuseum and
houses the works of the great Dutch Masters such as Reubens, van Gogh, and Rafael. Most of
the works in the Reichsmuseum are the works of the old Masters but in one room there was a
canvas, at least two meters by three meters; all white except for a circular orange spot about six
inches in diameter. In one of the parks we saw a piece of art work which consisted of parts of
old bicycles, washing machines and farm implements. It had a walking beam much like those
used when oil wells were drilled with cable tools. The device was mechanized and wheels
turned and the walking beam oscillated. A sign at the base announced the title of the work:
EUREKA; which is said to have been the remark of the Greek philosopher Archimedes when he
discovered the law of buoyancy. The word is translated "I have found it!" I suspect that the
artist (?) was making a statement about the futility of civilization but I do not know.
One day we were touring the southern part of Holland when we came upon a town named
Aarle-Rixtel. This town is the home of the company of Petit and Fritsen, the world's oldest as
well as the world's largest manufacturer of bells. We decided to stop and see the place since we
knew that the bells which make up the Carillon in the tower of the Radford Building on the
campus at McMurry came from this factory. The bell which hangs in the belfry of the old Court
House in Albany, Texas also came from Aarle-Rixtel. We were fortunate to meet a young man
named Kollau who was the sales manager for the firm. Mr. Kollau had been an exchange
student in the United States, and in perfect English he explained the intricacies of the art and
science of bell making as it has been done at his company for more than three hundred years.
We were actually privileged to see the pouring of a bell which is, indeed, a most interesting
sight.
Such experiences as the visit to the bell factory in Aarle-Rixtel can never be planned and they are
frequently the most interesting and memorable events of a trip. We had another such experience
during the summer; this time in Austria. We checked in at a small inn one evening. I asked the
innkeeper if there was anything which we might do during the evening. He replied that the
Engel Family was giving a concert that very evening. I asked if we could find tickets and he
provided them. The concert was done by the members of one family; father, mother and seven
children. Among them they played a dozen different instruments. Their music was the typical
Bavarian folk music. We were so impressed with the performance that I bought a record of
their work and we have enjoyed it many times as have many of our friends. The secret of happy
traveling is to "hang loose" and be prepared to take advantage of opportunities as they arise.
Most of them cannot be planned and they are frequently the best of all.
The people of Holland are friendly, nearly all speak English and they eat well. The country is
frightfully overpopulated and would be much worse if they did not continually increase the size
of their country which they do by stealing it, not from their neighbors but from the North Sea, by
an elaborate system of dikes and pumps. However, the most famous symbol of Holland, the
great windmill, is hard to find. We finally succeeded in locating one but it was not in use, only
ornamental.
If the people of Holland are friendly; the people of Belgium are just the opposite. We did not
spend much time in Belgium. One evening we went into a nice restaurant in Brussels. After
some time we were shown to a table where we sat for a long time as waiters served other tables
while utterly ignoring us. Finally we were grudgingly served a meal but it was quite obvious
that we were less than fully welcome there. This occurred at a time when Charles de Gaulle was
trying to persuade the people of Quebec to secede from Canada and form a separate French
speaking country. It was probably not without reason that Winston Churchill said, during
WWII in speaking of de Gaulle, "The heaviest cross that I have to bear is the cross of Lorraine".
We have visited more than twenty different nations and in none of them have we ever been
treated rudely as we were in Belgium. Is it the French language?
In 1972 we made another trip with Norton and Roberta Jones; this time to Greece and Israel.
We spent four weeks in Greece and two weeks in Israel; neither period being long enough to do
justice to these countries to which Western civilization owes its existence. We landed at Athens
after a flight which took us across the Alps Mountains which are as beautiful from the air as from
the ground. On the bus into the city we were accosted by a Greek who spoke perfect English.
He offered his services in giving directions, finding accommodations, renting a car and anything
else that we might need. We were very suspicious; he seemed just too eager to please and we
(figuratively) kept our hands on our bill folds. He gave us his card and assured us that if we
needed anything while in the country we need only give him a call. We thanked him and went
our way. After finding our hotel and visiting Athens for a few days we were ready to rent a car
and see the rest of the country. Knowing nothing else to do we called our erstwhile friend of the
bus. He was glad to accommodate us with a rental car. We arranged to have it brought to the
hotel about mid-afternoon. It arrived at the appointed time; an Italian Fiat which appeared much
too small to accommodate Dr. Jones with his long legs and the baggage which we carried.
However, we were able to cram both into the vehicle and started out to see Greece. The first
problem was to get out of Athens where the traffic is as dense as that of Los Angeles and the
streets are narrow and crooked with Greek names written in the Greek alphabet.
Dr. Jones was an adequate but not an accomplished driver; but he was a skilled map reader.
Furthermore he could study the map of a city for a time and later recall every pertinent detail of
the streets. Consequently I served as driver and Dr. Jones as navigator. With him giving
directions such as, "At the next intersection we must turn left pass the fountain and stay in the
right lane...." we made our way out of Athens at the height of the afternoon traffic. In this way
we traveled the countries of Europe, never once getting lost or encountering a single traffic
problem.
A large volume would not be adequate to describe the wonders of Greece. Neither words nor
pictures can describe the emotions one feels when he visits Delphi where princes and widows
came to obtain advice from the oracle there. Of course, it was a fraud; a scam. The feature of
Delphi was a fissure in the earth from which came some gas, possibly nitrous oxide. An old
woman was caused to breathe this gas until she became semi-conscious. Then she would be
asked questions and her answers were assumed to have come from the gods. Of course they
actually came from the priests who profited from running the place. Not far away in Olympia
was where the first Olympic games were held. These games were not only athletic events, they
were religious celebrations. The business of the world came to a halt during the games. Even
wars were put on hold so that contestants could travel safely to and from the games.
Contestants, of course, were men who performed sans clothing. Women were not permitted to
see the games, a custom which prevailed in Brazil where as late as 1960 women were not
permitted to attend soccer games (although the players wore uniforms).
The southern part of Greece is an island known as the Peloponnesus which was the site of the
Mycenaen civilization and the source of the stories of the Iliad and the Odyssey, made famous by
the poet Homer. The island (really a peninsula) is connected to the mainland by a narrow strip
of land near the south end of which is the city of Corinth. This is the city where the Apostle
Paul lived and worked for several years establishing a Christian Church. It was to this church
that he later wrote two letters which have come to be included in the Bible. Of course, the city
as Paul knew it is no longer there but the ruins of the Greek Temple and the paved street leading
to it remain and it is humbling to walk on stones which are very probably the same ones trod by
the great Apostle in the year 50 A.D.
In the north of Greece, in what was then called Macedonia, we visited the palace of Philip, who
was the father of Alexander the Great; the man who conquered most of the known world and
then died in the city of Babylon at the age of thirty (something). In his short lifetime he had
spread Greek culture from Rome to Babylon and it is due to him that our New Testament came
to be written in Greek instead of possibly Aramaic or Hebrew. Also in Macedonia we visited
the city of Thessalonica which was then (and is now) an important sea port, standing as it does,
at the tip of the Aegean Sea. Paul established a church here and later wrote two letters to this
church which we call I and II Thessalonians. The Greeks pronounce the name of their city as
Thess-a-lo-NEE-ke which is somewhat easier to pronounce than the name we give it.
Unfortunately we did not have time to visit Philippi which is situated fifty miles or so to the east
of Thessalonica. This is one of the problems of travel; there is never enough time to see
everything. I especially wanted to visit Philippi because this is where Paul made the first
Christian convert outside the continent of Asia; a woman named Lydia, who had become
wealthy selling purple dye made from a shellfish found in the waters of that region. It is also
where Paul and Silas were thrown in jail and were released when an earthquake struck the city.
There are many sights in Greece which evoke memories but nothing can surpass that of the
Parthenon. This magnificent structure was completed about 600 B.C. and stood almost
unchanged for 2000 years until the Turks lobbed a shell into it during a war with the Greeks in
the 1400s. The munitions that the Greeks had stored in the building exploded and the structure
was largely destroyed. What is left today is being destroyed by the Athens smog which is as
bad as that of any city in the world. Today steps are being taken to try to protect the beautiful
marble of which the structure was built. When we were there, we were permitted to walk
among the columns that are still standing but the wear of millions of tourists was also causing
damage and so visiting the ruin is no longer permitted. The Parthenon stands on the Acropolis
(high place) of Athens. Just to the west is another hill known as Mars Hill where the Supreme
Court met in the days of Athens' glory. It was here that the Apostle Paul gave his famous
speech in which he told the judges that he had encountered a statue "to an unknown god" to
whom he wished to introduce them. One warm afternoon while the other three members of our
party were resting in the hotel, I walked up to Mars Hill and sat down to think about the fact that
I was in the exact spot where the Apostle Paul had been, 1921 years before. While I was sitting
there a man holding a camera in his hand rushed up to me, breathing hard from the climb. In the
parking lot below, I could hear the honking of the horn of a tourist bus. He handed me his
camera and between breaths, asked me to take his picture standing on Mars Hill. I took the
picture while he told me that he was a Baptist preacher from the town of Turkey, Texas; of
which I had never heard. His bus driver was still blowing the horn as he rushed down the hill.
I hope that the picture turned out good.
Sadly the time came when we must turn in the car and leave Greece. I took the car to our friend
(of whom we had been so suspicious) and started to pay him with Travelers Checks. He asked
for a personal check instead. I reminded him that he did not know me and had no way of
knowing whether or not the check would be honored. He still wanted the check which he said
he would send to his agent in New York to use in purchasing another car. He could not get the
money represented by the American Express check out of the country without suffering
considerable loss. This little episode is characteristic of how people who live under repressive
regimes still find ways of surviving. The lesson, it seems to me, is that freedom is the right of
every one so long as it does not infringe on the freedom of another.
We made a side trip to the island of Crete which lies in the center of the Mediterranean Sea about
a hundred miles south of Greece. Crete was the site of the Minoan civilization which in turn
spawned the Phonecian civilization at the east end of the Mediterranean Sea and which
ultimately gave us the alphabet that we use today. We know Phonecia as Canaan; to the Jews, it
was "The Promised Land." Many of the Minoan ruins have been excavated and restored by the
great British Archaeologist, Sir Arthur Evans, and one can obtain a good idea of what life must
have been like in that Island country before a gigantic volcanic explosion destroyed life there
around 2000 B.C. Some think that the legends of the "Lost Atlantis" probably had their origin
in Crete. We flew on from Crete, via Olympic Airways (owned by Onassis, who married the
widow of President Kennedy), to the island of Rhodes.
When we entered the terminal building on arrival at Rhodes, the name of Dr. Jones was being
called on the public address system. We were informed that our hotel reservations had been
changed due to our hotel being overbooked. Our baggage did not arrive with us but we were
told to go ahead to an alternate hotel and the bags would be delivered later. Being suspicious
(as we seemed always to be), we acceded, since there was nothing else to do. Usually, we did
not reserve rooms in the multi-starred hotels and we expected that we would be taken to one
even less pretentious than the one we had reserved. Again we were surprised; we were taken to
the finest hotel on the island where we had rooms on a high floor from which we could see the
harbor, the city and much of the island. Our baggage was shortly delivered to our doors, just as
promised, and that evening we were treated to a first class dinner by the management of the
hotel. We were beginning to think that Greeks could be trusted-- after all.
Rhodes was the site of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: a gigantic bronze
statue of a man whose legs straddled the entrance to the harbor. The most distinguishing feature
of the island is the work of the Crusaders who, in the twelfth century, built many castles which
still exist on the island. I went swimming in the waters of the Sea at Rhodes. The water of the
Mediterranean Sea is so salty that one cannot sink. It would be a wonderful place to learn to
swim. In order to tour the island we rented a VW "bug" for one day. The Greek who rented
autos did not speak English but with the aid of the little German that we both knew, we
successfully negotiated the deal.
After returning to Athens we regrouped and flew to Israel, arriving there on Thursday, June 29,
1972 for our two week visit to that country. It was about four in the afternoon when the jet
landed at Lod Airport, outside the city of Tel Aviv. We were instructed to remain seated with
seat belts fastened and have our passports ready for inspection. One by one the passports were
scrutinized by guards carrying their little sub-machine guns. As the passengers were leaving the
plane no more than two persons were permitted on the steps at one time. We were marched
between two rows of "Tommy-gun" holding soldiers into the terminal building where the women
and men were directed to separate areas to be searched. The search was complete; even my
camera was opened, thereby destroying one picture. Only a few weeks before, in that terminal
building, some terrorists had opened fire killing a few people, so no one was objecting to the
security measures.
Once the preliminaries were complete we took the bus to Jerusalem arriving there about ten
o'clock at night. Our hotel reservation was in the Christmas Hotel on the Arab side. The
accommodations were not to our liking and the next day we moved to the YMCA building, still
in the Arab quarter where the accommodations were very good. It was a bit disconcerting,
however, to note the bullet holes in the elevator door each time we went up to our rooms. The
next day we rented a car and drove down to Jericho near the place where the Jordan River
empties into the Dead Sea. The altitude there is about 800 feet below sea level and the climate
is tropical; reminding me of El Centro, CA. The ancient city of Jericho, the one whose walls in
the song "came a tumblin' down", is perhaps a mile from the center of the present Jericho. This
spot has been inhabited for at least ten millennia according to the archaeologists who have
excavated the area pretty thoroughly. On the west side of the Dead Sea just below the point
where the Jordan empties into it is Qumram where the Dead Sea scrolls were found in 1946.
While we were looking at the ruins of Qumram, three Israeli soldiers came by, carrying, or
course, their Tommy guns. I asked if it would be all right if I took their picture to which they
replied, "Sure, and it won't cost you anything." When I was ready to take the picture they
insisted that Thelma should stand among them so the picture shows her surrounded by three
handsome Israeli soldier with their guns at the ready.
The distance from Jerusalem to Jericho is about twenty miles. In this distance the road descends
from an altitude of about 2500 feet above to 800 feet below sea level. In his most famous
parable, Jesus said, "And a certain man went DOWN from Jerusalem to Jericho...." While we
were in Israel I noted a number of things such as this which indicated that the writers of the Bible
were familiar with the territory about which they were writing. In speaking of Jerusalem, the
Bible always talks about going UP to Jerusalem. Indeed, one does go UP to Jerusalem; the city
stands on the highest area in all of south Palestine.
We drove all over the country, quite literally from "Dan to Beersheba." Traveling down the sea
coast from Lebanon to the Gaza Strip we passed through the ancient cities of Ashdod, where
Samson met his fate, and Ashkelon from which we get the word "scallion," because of the onions
that were grown there. When we reached the north end of the Gaza strip we were advised that
we would not be prevented from visiting the city of Gaza but that they strongly recommended
that we not do so. We took the advice and turned east across the Negev Desert toward the city
of Beersheba. The city of Beersheba gets its name from a story in the book of Genesis. It was
there that Abraham cut a deal with an Arab over a certain well. To seal the agreement,
Abraham gave Abimelech seven ewe lambs (bier sheva) as the story is told in Genesis, Chap. 21.
Today Beersheba is a "bed room city." The workmen who operate the chemical factories at the
south end of the Dead Sea live in Beersheba and commute to work from there by bus. Living
conditions at the level of the Dead Sea are not pleasant, especially in summer when the
temperature reaches 145 degrees F. We had planned to drive down to Masada, near the end of
the Dead Sea but, although it was only early July, it was very warm and we thought better of it
and did not make this side trip. To anyone planning to visit Israel, be advised that the best time
of the year to do so is April and allow more than two weeks for the visit.
We had been in Israel for two weeks and the time was at hand when we must return the car to
Jerusalem and leave. We had driven over all of the country, had visited Galilee, and the
uppermost tip of the country where Israel, Syria and Lebanon touch at a town called Metulla.
We had visited Hazor with its tunnel reaching under the walls of the city to a supply of water
which could sustain the people during a siege. We had visited Tel Aviv on Friday afternoon
when just at sunset, all traffic stopped, all restaurants closed (except a few operated by Arabs).
We had visited Bethlehem and the church of the Nativity with its four foot high door which
served the dual purpose of forcing people to bow as they entered and preventing Arab horsemen
from entering to slaughter the worshipers at prayer. At no time had we ever been stopped, asked
to show papers or impeded in any way. The country appeared to be at peace although the
burned out hulks of tanks, left from the Six Day War, were sometimes seen along the highway
and Israeli war planes created sonic booms as they flew patrols over the country. On our way
from Beersheba to Jerusalem to turn in the car, we encountered a road block near the city of
Hebron. We thought, "At last we are going to be stopped and questioned; possibly searched."
But it was only a group of Israeli soldiers trying to hitch rides back to Jerusalem and when they
saw the four of us cramped into the little Italian Fiat, they waved us through without a word.
The Holy Land, as the country of Israel is known, has been anything but holy in its past.
Probably more blood has been shed per square mile in Palestine than in any other place on earth.
The land is considered to be sacred by all three of the only monotheistic religions of the world,
each of which derives from the Hebrews who invaded the area around 1200 B.C. The invading
Hebrews were an uncultured people who had no knowledge of writing or of metal working. The
Canaanites who lived in the area were descendants of the people who had migrated there from
Crete hundreds of years before. They knew how to write, had an extensive literature, and made
implements of iron. They were an agricultural people who worshipped an agricultural god
called Baal. For several centuries the Hebrew held the high lands in the interior where they
raised sheep and goats while the Canaanites raised fruit and vegetables along the coast. Stories
of the battles between the Hebrews and the coastal dwellers occupy a good bit of the Old
Testament. One of the groups of people living along the southern coastal region were known as
the Philistines and the modern cities of Gaza, Ashdod, and Ashkelon were Philistine cities. The
name Philistine was corrupted to Palestine and the name applied to the whole area which is today
called Israel.
But the invading Hebrews had one thing; a knowledge of the one God and this understanding
which they gave to the world is doubtless, the greatest gift that any group of people has ever
contributed to the slow upward climb of mankind.