Moti picked us up at the hotel at 7:30 as we had a scheduled tour of the Western Wall tunnels at 9:30 and we wanted to go up on the Mount of Olives to get some pictures of the Old City area with the good light of early morning. Since Rodja has to leave us tomorrow morning we wanted to get a group shot. Doris hid a little behind Polly but she is there.
An Arab man and his donkey just happened to be in the area and Doris wanted a picture with him. He gladly obliged (for a fee of course).
Doris was on a spending spree and did some bargaining with this man for some of his goods.
Many of the streets in Jerusalem are like this one. They are two way streets with room for only one car in many places.
We got back to the Temple area for our 9:30 Tour of the tunnels below the Temple Mount. Rodja is standing beside a rock that goes all the way from the joint you can see between him and the camera and nearly all the way to the end wall in back of him. We were told that this stone weighs some 500 tons and is one of the 3 or 4 largest cut stones that have been found. The question arises as to how the First Century workers put in place stones of this magnitude. Nobody knows for sure.
Joe has just come through a tunnel and kidded me that he did not have to duck (but with not much room to spare) like I did.
Deep down in the tunnel we saw this egg that a bird had apparently deposited there. Interesting place for a nest, if that was what it was.
Another of our friends that we were glad to see.
One would assume that a lady is under this clothing and I think was begging for money.
A typical street in Old Town.
There a lot of steps in the Old Town streets as Jerusalem is built on hills. Polly had just taken a tumble when her foot caught a single step in the middle of an apparently level area. The locals around were quick to get a chair for her. We are thankful that she was ok and only had a couple of scratches. Someone told her that this was a good way to get on the blog.
We had another interesting lunch time when Moti treated us to a typical quick lunch. He bought some bread from one of the many bread sellers and we stopped at this 'restaurant' and had hot mint tea and bread dipped in Hyssop. Hyssop was used in Biblical times as a medicine. They found several chairs for us and we created a restaurant setting in the street. The entertainment was great. We could witness the local culture all around us. This was not a tourist area but one that the local Arabs used. Everyone was very friendly to us.
I'm not sure what all this is but the dish in the lower right corner looked interesting.
We visited the Wailing Wall which is the only part of the former Temple that is left that the Jews have access to. We had to go through security similar to what you go through at an airport, to get in. This area is where most of the tensions boil over into rioting but there was plenty of Israeli military presence.
These are the large stones that make up the wall. In between the cracks are small pieces of paper. People write prayers on them and stuff them in the cracks, possibly thinking that this will insure God hearing them.
This group of pilgrims were carrying a cross through the streets. You can see this a lot as they follow the Via Dolorosa, the traditional route that Jesus traveled to the place of the crucifixion. There are 14 stations on the Via Dolorosa, each a memorial to some event that involved Jesus on His way to the cross.
This area is a haven for bread lovers.
We made a visit to the City of David. You do not hear much about this area but this was the start of the Jews presence in what we now refer to as Jerusalem. One of the early actions of David after he became king was to move his capital to this area which is just south of the Temple Mount complex. Excavations are ongoing here. This area is mostly Arabic and there is a lot of tension in this general area. The town of Silwan is next to this area and one can google Silwan and read all about the ongoing struggle between the Jews and Arabs regarding the City of David.
Rodja had no idea Mike was behind him.
Joe and Polly, maybe wanting all of us to leave and give them some private time.
We ended the day with a visit to the Pool of Siloam, close to the City of David. This is a picture of the road that was used in the First Century. These are the original stones. This area was covered up for many years.
We got back to the hotel around 4 pm. Some walked down the street to see the Prime Minister's house and some walked a few blocks to a shopping area.
Tomorrow we will be going to Bethlehem, which is about 10 miles south of Jerusalem. We will be corssing over into the West Bank as Bethlehem is now located in that area. We will be going through or around the 30 foot wall that has been constructed around much of the West Bank. Many people criticize Israel for building this barrier, but when one is made aware of the fact that it has reduced human suicide bombers by 90% this knocks the props out of the argument against the barrier.
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