Holy Land-Days 4-7

The photos aren't in order because it took a while for them to load but the descriptions are underneath.




Ramparts Walk looking east toward the Mt. of Olives



Preschool age boys heading to the Yeshiva



The Dome of the Rock and St. Mary Magdelene church/Mt. of Olives



Heat rash that I always get when I get hot.



Oskar Shindler's grave



The rebuilt Hurva Synagogue. Notice the arch.

Western Wall


Jewish man getting ready to pray at the Western Wall.



Dome of the Rock and Mt. of Olives



Dome of Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This was under construction when I was here last.



Christ's Tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre



Exterior-Church of Holy Sepulchre



Citadel excavations



The view from the Jerusalem Center. This is basically our view for church. Not bad, eh!



Jacket made out of Torah Scrolls.

Unfortunately, I've been having difficulty getting Blogspot to upload my images from here and BYU blocks Facebook so I can't upload photos there either. Sorry to those who I was going to keep in touch with via Facebook. I finally was able to upload some today so hopefully they'll upload to you over in the states too. One of the other struggles has been that the toolbar for Blogspot comes up in Hebrew and so I've been trying to remember what is where to post correctly. And those of you who follow my blog, know that I don't update it very often so it hasn't been easy to remember. Never thought I'd see that. :)

Many of you have asked what I did for my birthday. Well, we went and went and went. First, Sister Brown drove mom and I over to Jaffa Gate on the opposite side of the Old City from the JC. When we got there we got tickets to do the Ramparts Walk, which allows you to walk around the city walls on the ramparts. It was a GREAT aerial view of the city and I was very glad we did it. You can start at Jaffa and go counterclockwise to Dung Gate or clockwise to Damascus gate. One of the things I want to do while I'm here is get a picture of all of the major gates of the Old City. A lot of my photos are ones that I took from the Ramparts. You could even see the wall dividing the west bank over in Silwan. It's huge. Mom was amazing on the ramparts. She went up and down all the stairs and kept up with me, sore knee and all. I didn't know she was slightly afraid of heights until dad asked her about it when we got back. I love you Mom! Thanks for being willing to do it!

We decended from the Ramparts at Dung Gate and went over to the Western Wall, more commonly known as the Wailing Wall. There is a huge security gate there now and we had to have our bags put through a police scanner. While we were there a teacher came down with his preschool aged boys and headed to the yeshiva to the side of the wall. They all had crowns on their heads with what looked like the 10 commandment tablets. It reminded me of nursery/primary. They were so cute! After we left there we went over to the Hurva Synagogue, that is being rebuilt. Amy, Brett & Greg, you'll remember that it was just an arch. Not anymore! We ate lunch in the Jewish Quarter and found that there is a Bonkers Bagels in the Jewish quarter, although not as big as the one that was over on Ben Yehuda.

From the Jewish quarter we went over to Mt. Zion to Dormition Abbey, David's tomb and The Upper Room. We ended up getting a guide on accident (they're sneaky over here) and I ended up buying a bracelet from him too. I think it was worth it. He was able to tell us some things that we didn't know, so it paid off I guess. We also went to a Holocaust Memorial on Mt. Zion. One of the most interesting things that we saw there was a jacket that a SS guard had forced a jewish man to make out of Torah scrolls so that he could wear it in front of his prisoners. What he didn't know was that the pages he selected were the cursings and plague sections. He had a sense of humor still which is amazing.

From Mt. Zion we went down and went to Oskar Shindler's grave. It was in a graveyard that was locked and a little boy had the key and let us in. The grave is covered in rocks in the Jewish tradition.

It was a fun birthday. Mom and Dad gave me Sister Oaks book about being single so now I have something to read on the flight home. (Buffy, I read The Last Waltz on the way over and loved it.)

Thursday we went up to the Rockefeller museum and mom went grocery shopping with Sister Skinner and others. The Rockefeller Museum doesn't allow photos so I didn't take any that day.

Yesterday, Sisters Skinner and Brown took us over to the Alexander Nevsky church on the Via Dolorosa. I've walked past it many times and didn't even realize it was there because it's only open on Fridays. We also went to the Jerusalem Pottery shop and over to Shaabans, where I got some more olive wood ornaments. I was amazed that he actually remembered that I had been a student at the center. We also went to another jewelry shop and then home. I'm runnin out of battery so I've got to go.

Love to all.