Day 7 - Jerusalem

Our group grew by 5 more people this morning. Bob from South Africa, Judy and Laurie from Chicago, and Jeb and Duff from Portland, OR joined us. Almost everyone is in a different hotel and this takes extra time and effort. Today Avi picked up some in his personal van while driver As picked up the rest of us. The two arranged a meeting point and it saved a lot of time. It is also somewhat awkward with new people arriving (maybe just to me?) and no introductions, so I introduced John and I to each new arrival at some point then others joined in. 

After everyone was secure in our small bus we drove to the Israel Museum where we saw and heard an explanation about the scale model of ancient Jerusalem. It was captivating to hear this ancient history and reasons for the various gates and such. We will visit the only remaining wall from that time on our journey tomorrow. 

From there it was on to visit Shrine of the Book which houses the Dead Sea Scrolls. We were fortunate enough to see a small sampling of the Dead Sea Scrolls when it came to San Francisco some years ago. They have a replica of the entire Book of Isaiah on display, among other displays. The reason that book was so important is after the discovery it was basically word for word our book of Isaiah in the Bibles we read today. Of interest and amazement to me was also the Aleppo Codex. This is something I have never heard of before! If you are interested click on the link and read about this ancient text that includes parts of the Bible as well. We could have spent the whole day exploring this intriguing place and reading each display in full, but we had just an hour or so here. It is fitting that the structure itself is shaped like one of the jars the scrolls were found in and the roof like one of the lids. Such attention to detail adds to the whole experience. Photos were not allowed, I got a few off the internet.

The Jars

The Dome or Roof of the Building

Now we took the short drive to Ein Karem, a picturesque village on the outskirts of Jerusalem and the traditional birthplace of John the Baptist. We visited a church named for John the Baptist. This is where he was born and raised and where Elizabeth first felt the life of him within her when she met Mary. It was a lovely little church.

Our next stop could have been skipped as too depressing to me. We toured Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. John and I have both been to such memorials in Germany, and he was also at one in Poland. While it is to be remember as horror to hopefully never happen again...it is hard to see. After touring just a little bit of it we waited outside. It is very graphic, moving, and horrifying.

So now we have completed our time with Avi today. He will see us tomorrow but for now we head to Bethlehem, which is in Palestine and we will have a Palestinian guide because and Israeli guide is not allowed to work there. So Avi gets off our bus and the As the driver takes us to Bethlehem. Here we meet Navin (sp?) who took us to a place for lunch. It was a delicious lunch with many tapas on the table when we arrived. To that was added either chicken, lamb, or beef, whatever each person chose. I had the lamb, which was delicious.

Next we walked through Nativity Square to the Church of the Nativity. This church is build on the site where Jesus was born. Just how they know this is not known to me but surely it was here in Bethlehem somewhere, why not here? Even though the line was 1.5 to 2 hours long, our guide took us in the back way and we went down the narrow stairs into the sweltering small space filled with people! There are 2 key places; 1) where the star and two candles are is where Jesus was born and 2) where the cluster of candles are is where the manger stood. Navin gave us all sorts of information about the church itself. Several denominations worship in this church, of course at different times. It seems the entire church has been undergoing restitution and it is not done yet. If you think only Muslims live in Palestine, you are wrong. Navin is a Christian. So many places we have seen are just lovely and progressive. There is also poverty and dilapidated  buildings in most areas. Israel and apparently Palestine are countries with many contrasts for sure. 

Next we are taken to a respectable place to stop where only local products are made. Most of the "junk" you see other places is from China or somewhere. I believe this stop was made because there seems to be several people who are quite interested in shopping. We were told early on that we would need to shop on our own, not tour time other than actual sites we are stopping. Anyway, it was quick enough. I can't say that about our ride back to the hotel. We were the last ones dropped off and it was at least 1.5 hours in the bus with lots of traffic! Not a complaint, just a fact.

Tomorrow will be our last day of the tour while the "newer" part of the group will head toward Galilee to do the things we did several days ago. Today is election day in the USA. Even if I can't read the words, I decided to share the photo on the front page of the paper in our hotel lobby. Not terribly flattering of the USA.

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