Pilgrimage day 7-9

Photos:

Typical Israeli breakfast

The Seat of the Universal House of Justice

Bahji gardens on the outskirts of Akka (x3)

The Shrine of the Bab

Pilgrimage day 6

Akka 

Pilgrimage day 5

Pilgrimage Day 3

Some more photos from Haifa.

Pilgrimage day 1-2

Words aren't enough; here are some photos. (Haven't even taken many photos yet in order to preserve the reverence of every moment)

Photos:
1. Predawn Tel Aviv
2. Pilgrim reception center
3. Pathway to the Shrine of the Báb
4. Simple path in one of the gardens

The Traveling Space Man is back!

I am currently en route to Haifa, Israel, where I will visit the Baha'i gardens and other sites which comprise a Baha'i pilgrimage. Current status: airport purgatory in Warsaw, Poland. (The animated gif that should be playing with this post a series of shots from my landing in Warsaw. Not sure if I was allowed to use my camera then...) It was interesting to land after 9 hours aboard a Boeing Dreamliner and see two big U.S. Air Force personnel/bomb carriers on the runway. I guess that's a result of Russia's recent moves (America is a strong ally of Poland's).

Although I considered getting out of the airport and checking out Warsaw's Old Town (completely destroyed by the Nazi's in WWII, and completely rebuilt afterwards), I decided against it after reading about many, many accounts of fraud, pick-pocketry, and other mal-intent that occcurs on the bus connecting the airport to the city's main tourist attraction. Also, leaving and re-entering the airport would involve about 4 hours of security and customs.

Madrid & heading home...

Well, I fly home tomorrow! It's been a great 3 weeks (feels like more), but there's something nice about the comforts of home. Even better, my flights start and end at reasonable times of day (Theoretically. I did some research a while back and found that all airlines are late about 20% of the time and none were better than 18%... how depressing.).

I missed blogging about Madrid, but I feel justified in doing it now since I'm back there briefly. The city itself didn't impress me much (every city I've ever been to pales in comparison to London), but it does have some cool stuff. The Prado Museum is one of the best of the world, and given that I've now been to several of the best museums in the world (MNAC in Barcelona, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and the Royal Gallery and British Museum in London), I can justifiably talk about it. The Prado was my personal favorite of all of them because I really love some of the Spanish paintings of the past few hundred years. I found that most of the super famous painters didn't seem that great to me, especially compared with the excellent but relatively unknown works sitting side-by-side the famous ones. The creativity involved with creating some of the Spanish landscape paintings and the emotion portrayed in some paintings of significant moments in history and fiction affected me a lot more than the endless rooms filled with various artists' interpretations of Christ's crucifixion. Honestly, I think there must have been at least 500 years where no one painted anything except for Jesus being born and Jesus dying. What about the rest of His life (and the rest of the world)? Isn't that what makes His birth and death so relevant? Alas...

Another interesting sight in Madrid is the old royal palace. Unfortunately, they don't allow you to take pictures of the inside, but the pics below are of the courtyard. The inside is possibly the most opulent space in the world (I haven't seen the Vatican, though -- that might put up a fight). It puts the phrase "living like a king" to shame. It's hard to find anything in that place that isn't covered in gold or silver. There's a whole room which is covered with uncracked porcelain. The king's bedroom is larger than most houses. And so are his dressing chambers. And every room in the place. There's a 400-year-old string quartet where each instrument is worth over $30 million. It's just crazy.