Israel Trip Day 8
Saturday 3/10/18

WOW! What can I say? I know you have all been missing the blogs but once I tell you about what’s been going on here I think you will understand! Today was an extremely difficult day of walking! I think we walked over 7 miles during the day with no place to sit down for most of the tour! The terrain is very hilly - in fact I don’t believe there is a flat spot in all of Jerusalem. The uneven stone pavement added to the pain. If there were steps they were spaced oddly & many times were slick. I have even more respect for Jesus traveling in this place. It will flat wear you out! We started the day atop the mount of olives! Each bus had their picture taken here overlooking the old city of Jerusalem! We had a bit of a scare when James lost the camera when he inadvertently set it down on a seat of the bus when he was getting water for us! Luckily the bus was still here so after a close look we found it sitting on a seat!
We took lots of pictures from the mount of olives because it was such a great view of the old city of Jerusalem! From here we began our day of walking by following the path Jesus took on his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday! What a steep hill he came down! As we followed this path we stopped off to see the Garden of Gethsemane where he prayed before he was arrested! We stopped for a break at the Church of All Nations & we toured inside where the cross covers the dome of the rock!
We continued walking & started down the Via Delarosa! The pathway was so narrow & after about halfway we got caught in a human traffic jam of people! Everyone was pushing & shoving trying to go their own way! We discovered that the jam was all due to some Muslims who were praying & blocking the path & they refused to let people through! We actually lost one of the ladies in our group & had to wait while Ron, our guide, went back to look for her! (He finally heard from some authorities who had located her so we left the Via Delarosa to go pick her up by the Church of the Holy Sepulcher!). Since we were there we toured the main level but could not make it up the stairs due to the throngs of people!
We then toured the upper room where Jesus ate the last supper with his disciples! We toured the house they believed belonged to Caiaphas, the high priest, and saw the dungeon where Jesus may have been put before his mock trial. We saw the Antonio guard house built for the Roman soldiers. We toured the old Muslim quarters & the Jewish quarters in the old city! The Jewish quarters were very quiet as it was the sabbath!
We sang in an old cathedral where the acoustics were awesome!
Right after this we walked to the pool of Bethesda & the Temple Mount! By this time it was late afternoon & everyone was completely worn out! We picked up the picture of our bus family & headed back to meet the bus! Everyone was glad to see the bus and go back to the hotel for dinner. After dinner we drug ourself back to our room, said our prayers and immediately went to sleep. We knew 5:30 am the next morning would come way too early!