After a long journey, we have arrived, tired but happy, at our hostel in Jerusalem.  We already got a glimpse of some of the history we will be exploring in the next few days as we drove up to Jerusalem from the airport along a route that dates to the time of the Maccabees in the first centuries BCE.

Starting bright and early tomorrow morning, we will head up to the Mount of Olives overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem to begin our journey. The weather should be pleasant and sunny for us as we spend the day visiting religious sites, the Israel Museum, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

See you tomorrow!

We are excited and ready to leave for Jerusalem tomorrow. In case you would like to follow us as we make our way around Jerusalem, you can click on the link below to access our itinerary.

Itinerary Jan 2015

While in Jerusalem, we will try to post photos and descriptions of our daily excursions here, so visit us often. In case you need to reach us by phone, these are our numbers:

Matthias Henze, cell in Israel: 011 972 52 5167464; and
Melissa Weininger, cell in Israel: 011 972 52 6029257.

The time difference: Israel is 8 hours ahead of Houston. Please only call in case of an emergency. For anything else, you can reach us via email:

Matthias Henze: mhenze@rice.edu;

Melissa Weininger: mirele@rice.edu.

We hope you will follow us on our trip through this blog and share in our adventure.

Greetings, and welcome to the official instructors’ blog for RELI 392: Jerusalem: Holy City in Time and Imagination. As part of this course, we plan to travel to Jerusalem from February 27 to March 8, 2015, visiting locations that we have studied in class and experiencing them for ourselves.

We plan to use this space to document our travels and to keep you informed about where we are and what we are doing. When we are in Jerusalem, we will post updates as frequently as our packed schedule allows so that you can follow our progress and share in our trip.

Please continue to regularly visit our blog to participate in our adventure!