#6 – Jerusalem and the surroundings - Part 2

The last half of our Jerusalem trip was spent back in Jerusalem and its environs, including the City of David, and the Dead Sea and Masada
​
Highlights:

1. Returning, and remembering, and relearning, and learning anew
2. Gaining an appreciation of the church of the Holy Sepulchre
3. Meeting and travelling with a busload of people who we could relate to and share in life experiences
4. Lots of empty space on flights to and from Israel

Highlights:

1. Returning, and remembering, and relearning, and learning anew - Jerusalem has a wonderful affect on one's spiritual psyche.  Even though this was the 3rd time I had been there, there was so much to remember, and reconsider, and reevaluate and relearn.  I recalled much from our previous visits, but even going back to the same churches and monuments was a new a nuanced experience.  I won't avoid a 4th visit.
2. Gaining an appreciation of the church of the Holy Sepulchre - In the past visits, the Church the Holy Sepulchre had been something of a turn off.  It was so dark and gaudy and busy and loud.  But this time, I encountered such a sense of deep worship of the people who were there.  True, it is nothing like the peaceful atmosphere of the garden tomb, but there is a spiritual energy there that I felt for the first time, with the place of the cross, and the oiled stone of anointing, and the cave of the tomb, and the thousands upon thousands of pilgrims who came there to worship.  The place literally pulsed with holy energy, and I saw it and appreciated it.
3. Meeting and travelling with a busload of people who we could relate to and share in life experiences - Since all of our fellow travelers were from Tera's semester at the center, we were surrounded by people in our same time of life, with married children, and decades in a career, and similar life experiences.  It was fun to meet them and get to know them, and share experiences with them.
4. Lots of empty space on flights to and from Israel - We were very lucky to have extra seats next to us for both the flight to Tel-aviv and returning.  It allowed for some stretching and better sleeping.

Itinerary:

Friday May 5: We drove south east into the wilderness of Judea, and descended into the depths of the dead sea valley.  We stopped first at Ein Gedi, and marvelous spring in the desert, with waterfalls and running streams to walk through.  We took the tram up to Masada to tour the ruins and learn the story of the Roman Army and the suicide-pact Jews.  We stopped at a public beach to float in the Dead Sea.  It was a very well-kept spot, but it lacked the mud smearing of the other places we had been in the past.  After returning to the Jerusalem Center, we entered into the city again for the sabbath celebrations at the Western Wall, a cacauphony of prayer and song and dance and worhip that was quite the sight and experience.
 
Saturday May 6: We attended church in the Jerusalem Center, then went south of the Old city to see the St Peter in Gallicantu church, which encompassed Caiphas’s palace where Christ may have been held as prisoner, and where Peter would have denied Christ.  Then we went to the Canticle, the traditional site of the Last Supper, and also the site of the Tomb of King David.
 
Sunday May 7: We went onto the Muslim Temple Mount to walk around (enormous space), and toured the southern wall excavations, which are extensive and ongoing.  We visited the City of David site, and walked through Hezekiah’s Tunnel, which is much lower and requires much more stooping than I remember.  We walked back of the City of David entrance by walking through the sewer tunnel of the ancient Jerusalem road, which also required even more stooping.  We visited the Hurza synagogue, and did some shopping along the Old Cardo, and attended an organ recital in the Augusta Victoria Chapel  that evening.
 
Monday May 8: Tera and I had a free day, and we took the self-guided walking tour given to the students and decided to follow it.  We walked down into the Kidron Valley, searching for the “Green Door” pita place.  We found the door, but no pita place.  We spent some time alone in the Garden tomb during quieter hours, and went to the Austrian Hospice rooftop balcony and had some apfelstrudel and sacher torte. We found the St. Helena Coptic church and ancient cistern (awesome place) and went to the Bethesda pools and St Anne’s church, and listened to an outstanding choir take full advantage of the acoustics of the hall.  We also visited the Kairite Jew museum, and the Temple Mount museum and the Burnt house museum, and did the VR tour of the temple at the Western Wall.  We also spent some free time on either side of the curtain at the Western wall.  I took a book of Psalms written by an old Jewish scholar, which was fascinating.  Then we walked back of the hill to the Jerusalem Center.
 
Tuesday May 9: We walked the traditional walk of Christ from Bethany to the old city during his last week, visiting the following churches, Peter Noster church (Christ’s ascension), The Ascencion church/Mosque (wherein lies a footprint of Christ, but the line was too long), Dominus Flevit church, the Russian Orthodox Church of Mary Magdelene on the mount of Olives, the Church of all Nations, The Church of Mary across the street and the Gethsemane betrayal cave, then the Orson Hyde Garden, then the Church of the Imposition, and the church of the condemnation, and the Sanctuary of the Flagellation and the church of the Holy Sepulchre  and finally the Garden Tomb, 

Wednesday May 10th: We said goodbye to Jerusalem and journeyed home to Utah.