Jerusalem - Day 2

We were all so tired this morning. Neither of the kids wanted to get up. But, I think it was worth it to have seen the sights at night. After breakfast, I went down to the mall for the free wifi to check and see if there were any prayer requests waiting for me. There were a couple, so I got everything written down and ready.

The first place we went was back to Gethsemane (we were there last night, but didn't go in). It's on the side of the Mount of Olives. Between the mount of Olives and Temple Mount is a valley. Down in the valley is the Christian cemetery. We got pictures of some Crusaders' tombs that we hadn't been able to see well the night before. 

We went into the church of Gethsemane, where Jesus is said to have wept all night the night before he was crucified. Well, he wept on a rock there when it was still a garden. The church was built much later, obviously. 

Gethsemane Church

 Inside is the rock, and many beautiful ceiling pieces. I must have taken a million pictures.

One of the many pretty vaulted bits

The rock where Jesus wept

Next, it was off to the lookout point we had been to last night. It was rather foggy, but the pictures still turned out pretty well. I really wish you could visit the dome of the rock. It looks so beautiful from a distance. I bet it's exquisite up close.

Then it was time for the old city. As we passed by the Wailing Wall, we saw and heard a bar mitzvah. The family was holding a canopy over the kid as they walked to the wall. He looked so happy. 

We parked and went inside. Orna told us not to bring anything but our cameras and just a few shekels. She said we would not be shopping in the old city, we simply didn't have time. It was a VERY full day. 

We first went to Dormition Abbey. 

Tradition says that Mary fell asleep there. Like, for good. Her tomb is downstairs. They say she fell asleep, though. 

There were some great mosaics in there. I love mosaics. And domes. Especially oniony ones. No more domes for a little while, though. 

Near it was to the room where people go to commemorate the Last Supper. There's no evidence at all that that room is the actual room (as a matter of fact, we know it wasn't, because it was built by Crusaders), but, as Orna a keeps telling us, we don't question tradition in Israel, even when there are conflicting stories. It's the right general area, at least. 

Below the Last Supper room is the tomb of King David. Again, just a symbolic place. Nobody knows where he's actually buried.

That divider on the right separates the men's and women's sections

It was also our first experience with men's and women's prayer areas.

Then we went through the Jewish Quarter. I loved it. The tiny, twisty streets appealed to me. 

So did the Hanukkah donuts, but we didn't have time to stop to get any. At the end, we came again to the Wailing Wall. 

The wall from a distance

I was armed with prayers this time, so we went up to the wall and put them in. 

We had watched the women last night back away from the wall, so that's what we did, to be respectful. In case you didn't know, the Wall is divided into men and women's sections. There was a bar mitzvah going on, and the women had to look over the wall from the women's side.

Women watching from over the wall

The Via Dolorosa was next, for the Stations of the Cross. 

In Jesus's time, is was a regular street. Now, it's pretty much a Souk. People discovered they could make money off pilgrims, so they set up shops along the route. We we offered everything from religious items to UCLA t-shirts. Of course, for some people *cough cough mom* those are the same thing. 

We took quite a while to go through the stations. Orna explained everything to us. I've been very impressed with her. At the end of the Via Dolorosa is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. 

The last few stations are actually inside the church. Golgotha, the rock on which he was crucified is in there, and you can touch it. 

The rock is under that altar

Well, what's left of it. It was mostly destroyed. Mom's and my luck held, and there was almost no line for his tomb. Orna told us from the beginning that we probably wouldn't get to go in there, but we did! One of the guys on our tour got yelled at by the Greek Orthodox priest in charge of line control, because he had his shirt untucked.You aren't supposed to take pictures inside, but you know me.

Jesus's Tomb

It was time to go to Bethlehem. The tour only takes people there if it has been safe recently, so we were lucky to be able to go. Tomorrow's Jericho trip is the same way, I think. Anyway, we got on the bus and headed towards the border. Israelis aren't allowed to go to Palestine without special permits, and Orna doesn't have one, so there was a Palestinian guide waiting for us on the other side. I had seen pictures of the wall between the West Bank and Israel proper, but it was still really surprising up close. It's huge. 

The wall

The wall up close, so you can see how tall it is. That's it on the right

It was a bit nervousing to go through the checkpoints, but I still felt safe. We just had to walk through, no actual checks. We were all starving. Luckily, Or a had called our guide ahead of time, and he had arranged for us to get lunch in a little shop just inside the border. They had made a bunch of sandwiches, and we could choose between chicken pita and felafel pita. I had the felafel. It was different than felafel I've had before. It had broccoli and anise in it. 

On our way up the hill, we saw several funny shops, but we drove by them too quickly for me to get pictures. I got a couple from online, though. 

Toast R Us, 

Stars and Bucks  

and a shop that had the same sign as Subway, until you noticed that it said 1st just above Subway, and a small apostrophe 's' afterwards.

After lunch, we went to the Church of the Nativity. It's the oldest continuously used church in the world, according to the guide. It was built by Justinian. On the right side of the altar are some steps down to a door. Inside that door is a room. Inside that room is the place where Jesus is said to have been born. We got to touch it. 

Then, we got to touch the manger.

We also saw St. Catherine's, where the Christmas Eve midnight mass is held. We couldn't go in, though, because they were having mass for the parishioners.

After that, the guide took us to a shop. Apparently, Palestine has some rule where all tour groups have to go through a shop. I'm not sure why. It was a very large shop, with many different people selling things inside it. They made sure to let us know it was a Christian shop. Bethlehem is famous for it's olive wood items. There were some really beautiful creche sets, but the nice ones were way too expensive. We got a few small things there.

Hand-carved olive wood

As we gathered outside to go back to the border, there was a hawker selling his wares. He had a bag I wanted. As we were walking up the street, I asked him how much for the bag. He said one for $5. I was only willing to pay $2, so I already had it out. I told him I only had two. He said, "since you are leaving, OK. Woo!

Going back though the border was harder, but still not impossible. We had to go through a metal detector and put our stuff through the x-ray. Orna and Gaby were waiting for us with the bus on the other side. Then it was back to the hotel so we could pack up. Tomorrow, we're going up north and staying in a kibbutz! 

Emma says - I had soo much fun haggling at the shop in Bethlehem. There was a set of little animals that I desperately wanted, because they were so cute. They were $10, but I had a coupon for 15% off , which made them $8.50. But, I diudn't feel like paying $8.50, so I batted my eyes, gave a puppy dog face, and asked if I could have it for $8. They said yes! I love my animals. I have a camel, a lamb, a donkey, and a cow.