Day 6--Jerusalem--the old city

Again the 6 am wakeup call, and on the bus by 7:30. Truly, this trip is not for the faint of heart and today we now focused on the old city. By the time we dragged ourselves back to the hotel around 5, I'd done about 15,000 steps on my Fitbit. Never mind that about a quarter of those were climbing stone steps. Whew! Have to say we visited so many holy sites and churches today that my mind's spinning and I'm not sure I'm getting all my facts and photos straight, but I'll try...

We began at the Mt. of Olives and a look across the Kidron Valley into the old city. The olive trees abounded in this restful area, and at the bottom of this mount lay the Garden of Gethsemane (translation: oil press). A massive Jewish cemetery lay before us--the limestone caskets decked with small stones, signs of loved ones' visits to the grave.

There within the Church of All Nations (or the Church of the Agony) we found a large fragment of the rock on which Jesus was supposed to have prayed the night before his crucifixion. Because it was pretty darn early (8:30 or 9) and because it's winter and the tourists were few, we had the church to ourselves and were able to touch the rock fragment, as is custom.

From there we crossed to the Dung Gate of the Old City and went through security--it wasn't lost on me that this area could become volatile at any time, yet our experience of visiting three of the four quarters showed a city remarkably calm. Not that any group connected with another--I found it interesting that each quarter had its distinct and clearly visible cultural identity.

We spent some moments at the wailing wall, men on one side, women on the other. Men were given yarmulkes to wear before they entered the western wall area. The bobbing shoulders and heads of the devout mingled with the tourists like us. We slipped special prayers or petitions we'd written on small pieces of paper into the cracks in the wall. These are not discarded, but gathered up and buried reverently in a Jewish cemetery each year. After one prays at the wall, the custom is not to turn your back, but rather to slowly back away from the wall for some distance.

At our assigned time to enter into the inner city, our first stop was underground--discovering the original 6th century walls, water system, etc. The size and heft of the stones used in building was mind boggling, and just how they were so precisely cut, transported and placed is remarkable to imagine.

Eventually we followed the Via Dolorosa (Way of Grief) and followed many of the 14 stations--some in the Jewish and some in the Muslim quarter.

A quick lunch in the midst of it all offered us pizza or schwarma or falafel, and a great lemonade drink with crushed mint mixed in. Again, delicious.

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is to have been built on the site where Christ was crucified and perhaps even buried. Again we were able to touch the actual rock fragment said to have been at the base of the cross.

The Pools of Bethesda (where the lame man was healed by Christ) is just outside the Church of St. Anne (mother of Mary). Acoustics inside were fabulous, and the a cappella singing we did rang not only through the church, but through our hearts as well.

As we walked the Jewish quarter, we noticed the ancient mingling again with the modern. New dwellings built within the old.

We made our way to the southern steps--original steps Christ must've actually used when going to Temple. The stone here alternates deeper steps with regular depth steps to create a seeming hestitation step--one of reverence--when approaching the temple.

Other pictures from the day: