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Trains, metros and automobiles

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Transportation in Madrid is social and patterned. Passing through turnstiles you commit to a way of being together: elderly priority seating, stroller and mom, squeeze but respect space, make room for oncomers, commuters in their own Kindle world and young teenagers in packs without supervision. Although public transportation can be confining, there is also freedom and adventure. We are on the metro to the Chamartin station to catch a train to Segovia. Twenty euro round trip ticket on the high speed Ave , and we arrive in thirty minutes. Thirty years ago I remember getting to the station with my backpack, looking up to the salidas board and deciding where to go. Today we bought tickets at a kiosk with a card and selected our return tonight at 9:30. Then I wrote in my journal and fotos with my camera, saving three months of film rolls in an X-ray bag; today I blog and sacar fotos on my phone. I love the time on the train for reflecting, talking, eating without worrying about renti...
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Holy Land: In the Galilee

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We've been at the Sea of Galilee (or Lake TIberias) since we arrived on Tuesday. It's a very peaceful, relaxing place to begin our journey. A highlight is getting up in the morning, as Jesus did, while it is still dark and waiting for the sun to rise. As it comes up above the Golan Heights to the east, and the half moon is still bright, I'm reminded this is the same sunrise and the same lake Jesus awoke to. This was the setting for his early ministry where he called the disciples to follow him, where he taught and healed and walked. On Wednesday we visited Caesarea where Herod built a magnificent harbor on the Mediterranean and Peter met Cornelius in Acts 10, Megiddo the sight of 25 civilizations and the reference in Revelation to Armageddon, Mount Carmel where Elijah faced the 450 prophets of Baal. Yesterday we read the stories of Jesus calling the fishermen, calming the storm and walking on water from a boat on the Sea of Galilee, and we read Psalm 93 that speaks of God...
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Cappadocia

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Amy and I have traveled to Turkey twice before, but this is our first time leading a group into Cappadocia.  What an amazing way to start our 14 day pilgrimage on the footsteps of Paul. It feels like we're in a different world. The landscape is more like the moon or a scene in Star Wars.  Hittites, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Turks all passed through and conquered. First century believers returned here after Pentecost and Peter wrote his first letter to encourage them in their persecution and suffering. In the fourth century, Simon devoted 42 years of his life in isolation on top of a fairy castle, seeking time alone with God. People brought him food and were drawn to his way of life and stayed. The soft tufa volcanic stone allowed for monks and whole communities to create monasteries and homes hidden inside whole mountains.  We visited a handful of those 365 churches (one for every day of the year) that once existed in t...
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