Jerusalem Day 2

Today we got up and headed out to the Mount of Olives. I will have to say that our friends are much braver drivers than we are! We went up and down some very steep, narrow roads! LG slept through the Mount of Olives, but she woke up in time to see the Garden of Gethsemane. (You can see her being happily carried around by our friend.) It was here in the Garden that my camera's memory card filled up, so the rest of the day is not well documented since the spare memory card only held 11 pictures, and then I had to borrow our friend's camera. :(

When we got back to the old city, our friends took LG, and B and I went to see the city's archeological dig. My absolute favorite thing we saw here. It's the actual temple steps that Jesus would have walked on! We got to walk on them, too! I don't know why this was more impactful than the other things in Israel, but it just seemed the most real because it wasn't a pilgrimage site.

Then, we went to the Garden Tomb and Protestant Golgotha. This was a very pretty, clean idea of where Jesus might have died and been buried. The pretty and clean part didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the city, but most disturbing of all is that the Golgotha is a wall behind a bus station that you have to peer at through a fence. I'm glad we saw this spot, but I think I like the Orthodox spot better. :)

We went back there (to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher) next. I stood in a forever long line to touch Golgotha and then another forever long line to touch the remains of the tomb. I was pushed and smashed by people from France, Brazil, and who knows where else, but I loved every minute of it. It was just neat to be surrounded by Christians from all over the world! (By the way, B kept LG outside while I did all this. She is not found of this place as much as I am, apparently.)

Our final thing to see today was Caiaphas's house. The coolest thing about this place was the sculpture of Peter denying Christ while the cock crowed. (By this time we are taking pictures with our video camera, so the pictures aren't that good.)

Sadly, when we got back to our car, the window had been broken, but thankfully, nothing was stolen. We think we may still be able to drive south tomorrow! :)