Israel Day 6 Sept 24

Sept 24
Today we we visited the Mt. Scopus, the Garden of Gethsemane, Mt Zion, the Western Wall, Old Jerusalem Via Dolorosa, Church of the Sepulcher. First Mt. Moriah Mt Zion, temple Mt. the original site of the Temple and now the dome of the rock. View of the Mt of Olives and the site of the assention of Christ.

We went to the the temple mount first since there was a long waiting line. Temple mount is the historic site of Abrahams sacrifice with Isaac and is also the site of Solomon's and Herrod's temples and is currently the site of the dome of the rock.

We were able to see across the Kiddron valley to a Mount of Olives and Garden of Gethsemane areas. There is also a large cemetary there where Jews have tradtionally burrried their dead.

Then we went to the Wailing Wall and a Synagogue with part of the wall in it.

Then we went to the other side of the Kindon Valley to the Mount of Olives for a view of Mt Moriah and an over view of Jerusalem.

Next we head back for lunch at another Kibbutz called Ramat Rachel. One thing I have learned here is that you have be very patient there are thousands of rule and thousands of rules in really tight quarters and there are hundreds of people with their hand out. No one here does anything for nothing.

After lunch we went to the Garden of Gethsemane and the church of the Agony where there is a rock on which it is believed Jesus did some pretty intense praying.

Then a German church that the catholic believe is where Mary ascended into heaven

Next the "upper room" room with two center columns with vaulted ceiling built by the crusaders, then the tomb of king David.

Then we saw four Judas trees that look like our red bud tree. This was the historic tree on which Judas hanged himself.

Then we saw a pepper tree. We went through the Zion gate.

Then we saw an ancient road with colonnades

Then thru blocks of bazaars to a point where the Via Dolorosa started an then we followed it to the Church of the Sepulcher. The "supposed burial site of Jesus is pretty well "owned" by the Cathelics and Greek Orthodox. No pictures allowed, and of course huge lines. We were able to take a picture of the "place where the Layed Him" to prepare the body for burial. I doubt that it looked anything like this stone slab but to the believers it was really important.

We got back to the hotel about 5:30 PM and headed back out to try to find our way back to the older city of Jerusalem. We got to the Damascus Gate which leads into the Arab quarter. Most of the shops were closed because of Ramadan. We found some of the same narrow bazaar streets where we had been earlier in the day. I took my GPS watch to record our route we did about 4 miles altogether. We might have gone farther but we got stop by a couple of soldiers. We bought some dried fruit and nuts to take on the plane tomorrow and then we ate dinner in a restaurant side walk cafe overlooking the city

The lessons of Jerusalem. Almost everywhere you go or stand there has been some ancient historical event and at the same time virtually everything you see in the built environment except a few old churches or ruins have been built in the past 50 years. The Jews take tremendous pride in what they have accomplished and they all take ownership in the country.

Trying fine places where Jesus walked is a little like trying to go back to you home town after being away for a long time. Things change people build things that they think honor or commemorate their impressions and other destroy things and places so after 2000 years there is the land the elevation the slope is still the same so you have to look broadly and not at the details to catch the impression of what the place might have looked like when Jesus passed through the places.

I have taken 1700 pictures so far. The camera seems to be doing just fine.