· Morning:
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No specific plan.
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Roam the neighborhood our hotel
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Mehane Yehuda (open market)
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Lunch: Moshika’s
· Afternoon:
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Mount of Olives
§ Chapel of the Ascension
§ Pater Noster
§ Route of the Triumphal Entry
§ Jewish Cemetery
§ Church of All Nations
§ Gethsemane
§ Mary’s Tomb
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Kidron Valley
§ Christian Cemetery
§ Valley of the Kings
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Eastern Gate
§ Muslim Cemetery
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Lions Gate
§ Bethesda
§ Via Dolorosa (partial)
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Dinner: Rimon Pomegranate Restaurant just off Ben Yehuda
Another good day but also another hard-working day. We had no plan for the morning after breakfast and devotions (on the spiritual significance of the Kidron Valley between the Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives). Some folks roamed the neighborhood of our hotel. This included one man finding Narkis Street because of its significance in some spy novels he has read. Others found the open market and fabric stores. Three of us had to return the rental cars to Budget down by the King David Hotel. To each his own.
We had lunch at a place on the corner of Jaffa and King George streets. They had sandwiches, fruit cups, pizzas and other “bready” sorts of things. Then we hopped on the Light Rail from Jaffa Center to Damascus Gate. Then we caught a bus in the Arab bus station that is at the foot of Golgotha (Gordon’s Calvary), #275 for the Mount of Olives. We got off at the Church of the Ascension & read from Acts 1. Then across the street to the Pater Noster Church (Lord’s Prayer in many languages) except it was closed for lunch. Then on to the famous lookout on Olivette where we took a picture of the group with the Temple Mount in the background.
And then: we walked down the road of the Triumphal Entry, from the top of Olivette to Gethsemane. You ask, “Are these the exact places?” Not precisely but definitely in the vicinity. The road came from Bethphage on the back side of Olivette and brought the Lord to the area of today’s Lion Gate. The great grove of olive trees next to the Church of All Nations is not the exact spot but it is certainly reminiscent of what it looked like. We used it to remind ourselves of the crucial hours before the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus.
We then crossed the Kidron Valley, pointing out the lower area nearer to the City of David that is called the Kings Valley. By this time we had been walking out in the sun quite a bit so we made some alterations to the route: instead of going to the far end of the Temple Mount and coming back through the Muslim Cemetery we just made a beeline for the Lions Gate. Inside the gate you immediately come to Bethesda, where Jesus healed the paralyzed man. We sang our “hallelujah’s” in St. Anne’s while there. Then we made our way through the narrow streets of the Old City, stopping at “the Prison of Christ” in the area where the Via Dolorosa begins, and ending up at the Austrian Hospice (like a guest house) where we enjoyed their famous (Cindy and I have known about it for a long time; that’s famous enough for us) apple strudel.
Then it was the oh-so-familiar trek North to and out of the Damascus Gate to the Light Rail stop to catch the train for the neighborhood of our hotel. We got an hours rest before we made a trek to the nearby Rimon Bistro. That’s a very kosher restaurant with two sides to it: the meat and the dairy. So we sat on the meat side so those who wanted pasta couldn’t have it, or the guy who wanted a glass of milk. Still it was good. I (and a couple others) ordered the Sweet Potato Chicken Salad. Wow was that good.
Now it’s a relaxing evening before we again set out on adventures tomorrow. God was so good today, again. We have been at this for 12 days including our flight days and the resulting jetlag. It has been extremely hot (even for Israel, a bit of a heat wave to supplement the normal June heat). And we have walked a lot and ridden a lot in vehicles. Yet we are all so thrilled to be here and to see what we have seen.
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