Real sights

There's no end of churches in Jerusalem - most of which seem to claim be somewhere significant (down to where Mary's parents used to live...). The apparent competition between denominations gives you the feeling of a land grab. Everyone wants their piece of the Holy Land. You can't help feeling that less would have been more. The most poignant sites for us weren't the various churches but the undeveloped bits which gave you an insight into what things may have looked like. Places like the 2000 year old olive grove at the bottom of the Mount of Olives which may well have been Gethsemane (the Mount of Olives is otherwise fairly devoid of olive trees as it turns out and very full of graves of people lining up to be first to see the Messiah).

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He is not here

The gospel stories culminate with the resurrection of Jesus. Luke's gospel records the angel telling those visiting the tomb "he is not here". The Bible story then goes on to describe Jesus' disciples going out filled with the Holy Spirit doing all kinds of mind blowing stuff. They didn't seem all that concerned with commemorating the spots where Jesus died and rose again. Presumably they had more pressing things to do!

We visited a few sites in Jerusalem which seek to convince us that x, y or z happened there - with varying degrees of evidence for their claims. The next level are the claims which simply cannot be true. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre (which is said to stand over the place where Jesus was crucified and buried) has a slab which is venerated as the stone where Jesus' body was laid and we saw a number of people who seemed to be seeking some special intervention from this slab. Sadly I'm told the slab was only put in place in 1810 and there's nothing to suggest that it was put in place because it was in fact the slab where Jesus' body was placed. It seems to show that we like the tangible even though the message is more exciting: he's not here! The fact of his absence from the tomb demonstrates something much more significant.

Symbols can be helpful (as The Garden Tomb - the Protestant rival to the Holy Sepulchre - leaflet reminded us). Jerusalem is great - it brings some things to life, but the real message remains: he's not here!

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We're back

Our travels are starting again. At the end of May we'll hit the road (well rail) again

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The sun is setting on the Aussie part of our trip.  We got the sleeper train down to Brisbane and arrived this afternoon to torrential rains.  The experience could not have been more different to the Chinese sleeper trains we were on.  We had our own compartment for a start and it was air conditioned to a very pleasant temperature.  The places we passed were also a stark contrast - vast swathes of unpopulated landscape and the towns we did come across looked like they may have had one horse at some stage, but those years are now behind them.  The Lonely Planet (this version of which sounds like it has been written by the Aussie Tourist Board) describes towns of 10,000 as "major centres".  There was much of the stereotypical red Aussie soil on show.

Tomorrow it'll be time to fly to Singapore for the last couple of days before touching down very early on Sunday morning (4.50am) at Heathrow.  The good news is that I hear is unseasonably warm in London at the moment, so it should be a smooth transition, oh no, hold on...

The Whitsundays

After the first day of the Ashes, it was time to jump on a place up to Hamilton Island.  We stocked up on provisions in Airlie Beach and made our way out to Whitsunday Island to camp for a couple of nights.  The campsite, which was a couple of yards from a pristine beach, was made up of a bit of flat land and a composting toilet - felt like the edge of the world.  The campsite was only really accessible by boat and there was only one other couple there.  Along with some bushwalking, the highlights are the wildlife - wallabies, iguanas (good news I'm told because it means that there aren't any snakes in the near vicinity), various birds and the loudest insects I've come across.  Oh, and the turtles popped up for air near the beach.  We had a great time, but two nights was well judged - we were ready for a warm shower and fewer insects!

We returned to good news from the Gabba - despite the fact that it was a draw, the Aussie press have slaughtered their team.

The Gabba

Simon and I took in the first day of the Ashes at the Gabba (with a guest appearance from Ant who flew up from Wagga Wagga for the day).  It's not your typical cricket ground - looks a bit too uniform and ordered to have the character which other Test ghrounds have.  Sadly England showed a little of the old brittleness faced with average Aussie bowling, but we had a good day out all the same.  Finishing with beers by the river as the sun went down.  Tragically, we left the sombreros in the pub.

The Aussies from Brisbane whom I have met have been a little negative about Brisbane - I wouldn't be so down on the place myself.  It's not Sydney or Melbourne, but is wonderfully less pretentious than either place and has some fine eateries and a nice setting.