Today, the first thing we visited was the Western Wall (known more commonly as the Wailing Wall). Next we visited the Temple mount and saw the Dome of the Rock (the Islamic shrine at the centre of the Al-Aqsa mosque compound). We also stopped in at the church of the holy sepulcher. I didn’t really like that place with all its gold and jewelry ornaments everywhere.
On our way through the old city where walked into a wide area, that seemed a lot to resemble a parkade, but instead of parking spaces it had very large rocks for the flooring, and there was a Russian immigrant playing her violin. It was probably the most beautiful sounding violin that I have ever heard. I asked her to play “Jerusalem of Gold” and she did. The sound of her violin echoed of the old rocks of the area, while a bright stream of sunlight flooded in. I really enjoyed it.
The city of Bethlehem has been closed for the last week due to civil unrest, but it was opened to tourists this morning so hopefully we will be able to go there this afternoon.
We stopped at the mall for lunch. After I finished eating, I took a look at some of the computer stores. The prices seemed either the same, or slightly higher.
The next place we visited was the city of Bethlehem. We visited the Church of the Nativity, (where Jesus was born).
We went to a wood carving shop in Bethlehem and saw how they make some of the olive wood carvings. I wanted to take a piece of olive wood for my dad, so I asked how much it would cost. When he told me $25 dollars, I told him that for a piece of wood that was too much. He said, “well, I could make a $100 item out of that wood, but I will give it to you.”
Next, we went to some shepherds fields and saw the very place where the construction of new Jewish homes had caused so much protesting by Arabs. There were military check-points, but no one was there protesting.
Ruth Tollestrup read from the book of Ruth in the bible, and I enjoyed the time I spent there. Someone found a turtle and I thought that it was cool.
Later that night, we stopped in David and Goliath country. We stopped at the same river where David picked up his five smooth stones. Ami set a rock up on a tree and asked us to see who could throw another rock and knock it down. I was the first person to knock it down (and with my first throw).Some U.N. observers stopped and came over and talked with us.
On our way back we passed the place called Bet Shamesh, the place where Delilah had men cut off Samson’s hair.
We went back to the hotel and after supper some people went to Ben Yahuda street for shopping. I was sick of shopping so I just went to sleep early.