We went to the Pool of Siloam this morning and the Old City. We saw the ruins of David's palace, and the tunnels of Hezekiah
bringing water into the city. It was very steep and slippery and some places were very narrow. Pat took a fall, but he seems to be okay. It is amazing to think that the men in Hezekiah's time dug the tunnel from each side of the city and actually met in the middle. Without the aid of modern technology, they were able to do what is an incredible miracle. In some of the tunnels, the Jews fled the Romans and tried to hide in the sewer tunnels but were speared there. Their blood ran into the pool of Siloam. I was able to put my hands into the water. Amazing. Half of the actual pool is on the Palestinian side, and the people refuse to allow any excavation so that they cannot find evidence that the Jews were there before them. 
At the Museum of Israel, we saw a scale model of the city of Jerusalem. It was a recreation of the city including the Temple. Beautiful.
Now we are heading to Bethlehem. Our guide, Shimon, will not go into Bethlehem because it is likely that he wouldn't make it out. Even the Arab Christians who have lived there for centuries have mostly left the city because of the lack of business/jobs and I'm sure out of fear for their lives. How sad! Monday afternoon Bethlehem
We have toured Bethlehem. It is a very tense city. Usually you have to show your passports to get in and out, but we didn't have to going in. I don't know about going out. We had a wonderful lunch at a Christian restaurant. The salads were delicious, and the meal was barbecue. Not barbecue like we think of barbecue. It was grilled shishkabobs. We had a choice of chicken, beef, lamb, or a mixture of the three. I had the mixed, and it was wonderful. It came with potatoes, grilled onion, and grilled tomato. MMMMMMMM MMMMMMMM! After lunch we headed to the Church of the Nativity where we viewed "the rock and the manger" where Jesus was born.
You cannot imagine the people who had to touch it for whatever reason. The church is a Greek Orthodox church, and it was extremely gawdy. From there we went to the shepherd's field 
where the angels came down to announce the birth of Jesus. It was definitely not what I expected -- covered with rocks and on top of the hills. And so now we are in line at the checkpoint going very slowly. Maybe we will make it back to the hotel in time for dinner. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment