Day 5

We awakened to another gorgeous day in Israel. Below is the view from our hotel window. I've never been to New York but I've always heard about the horns honking, etc. The intersection below the windows is crazy. People are continually honking at one another -- angry sounding honks! It is funny though because during the night, you con't hear a thing. We do travel with white noise.

I wanted to take a couple of pictures of the food. This was PART of the breakfast buffet. They serve salads and fish alongside eggs and yogurt. The second food picture shows some of their fresh fruit. Israel has developed these amazing methods of growing all kinds of produce. The folks who live there are very smart.

We started the day with a visit to the pool of Bethesda -- remember the Bible story where the man lay near the pool but couldn't get in? This is that place.

Located just a few steps from the pool is the Church of St. Anne, the mother of Mary. This is also considered the "church for grandparents" since Anne would have been the grandmother of Jesus.

That is a bird decoy hanging in the doorway to keep real birds out.

This church is also known for its acoustics and groups usually gather on the steps and sing a song!! We sang one which was a poor choice (can't remember what it was) and then we sang Amazing Grace.

We continued on and walked the Via Dolorosa stopping at each of the stations of the cross.

These photos are taken down below the current streets of the old city of Jerusalem. Those stones in the photo above are the original stones from the time period of Jesus. We walked down several flights of steps to get to this level. 

We continued on through the streets stopping at each location for a moment or two of talk and reflection.

We went to the traditional site of the Upper Room (my least favorite site) and we went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (the most accurate historic site of the location of the tomb where Jesus was laid ). It was SO CROWDED and people were shoving and pushing. We even walked back over there at night. In the past, if we went back at night we were able to get into the space. It didn't happen. There is something so powerful about laying your hands where the body of Jesus lay. (is that correct grammatically?) When we went back that night, we did walk around and go inside some of the tiny chapels inside the giant building. 

I think I have this picture on the correct day! We celebrated Valentine's Day while in Jerusalem. It looks like Mark had a lot of Valentine dates! The servers even handed out red roses.