Jerusalem Day 1

On Sunday, December 15, we left the Rio Grande Valley for a 17 day trip to Jerusalem and Egypt. Seeing the Holy Land and the Egyptian antiquities has been long on our bucket list. We booked a pre-cruise land tour in Jerusalem and Cairo along with a Viking River Cruise down the Nile River from Luxor to Aswan and back.

After a short flight from McAllen to Houston, we boarded our Lufthansa 747-800 flight to Frankfort then on to Tel Aviv arriving on Monday afternoon.

Our accommodations were at the King David, a five star hotel in downtown Jerusalem.

The view of the hotel property behind the King David.

This branch of the Y.M.C.A., erected in 1926, is directly across from the King David Hotel.

 

MT. SCOPUS, aka MT. OF OLIVES

After a good nights sleep and an eight hour time change, and a Kosher buffet breakfast with a plethora of food choices, we started out for a full day of touring with our tour guide Jo along with fourteen others in our tour group.

 

The Mount of Olives provided a vantage point with a broad overview of Jerusalem, the Old City and its famous Wall.

View of Jerusalem with the Dome of the Rock in the foreground.

Jo Lane led our tours around Jerusalem.

 

THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE

The Church of All Nations, also know as the church of Basilica of the Agony, is a Roman Catholic church location on the Mt. of Olives, next to the Garden of Gethsemane. This is where Jesus prayed before his arrest.

The altar inside the Church of all Nations.

We could walk among the olive trees which are decedents of the grove which was here 2,000 years ago.

 

WESTERN WALL aka WAILING WALL

 

Our next stop was the Western Wall. We entered the Old city via Dung Gate and walked to the Western Wall.

This wall is a remnant of the base of Solomon's Temple. This is the most holy site for the Jewish people.

Many of these stones were installed during King Herod's rein.

Excavation site adjacent to the Wailing Wall, near the temple site. This was the main entrance into the city of Jerusalem.

It is believed that Jesus overturned the money changers tables here along the main street.

A view of the Old City Wall outside Dung Gate.

 

BETHLEHEM AND PALESTINE

We boarded our bus and drove through the border wall to Palestine which is where Bethlehem is located. This secure, heavily guarded, closed border required us to carry our passports into this area. Our Jewish tour guide, Jo, was not allowed a license to work in Bethlehem, so we added a Palestinian guide to our group.

 

OLIVE WOOD FACTORY

Olive wood waiting to be carved.

Spraying completed pieces.

Beautiful hand carved work.

 

CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY

Built in 540 A.D. over the sight where Jesus was born.

This is said to be the site where Jesus was born.

In the courtyard of the church was a statue of Hieronymus, who translated the Bible from Greek to Latin.

The sun sets early (4:30) in Bethlehem in December.