Day 7

Day 7 . . .only one more day to blog after this one. 

We headed over to the Old City -- I love seeing the bread carts every day.

We walked the ramparts the old city - way up high. This was also new to us on this trip. This was the day I had about 18,000 steps plus over 15 flights of steps.

We were up above the city walking where soldiers once patrolled.

My  timeline photos are slightly out of order but you can see all of the dates and who was in control.

It was a really interesting walk.

I don't think I've ever shown a picture inside the bus. The buses are nice and clean and comfy.

We headed to the Herodion.

Herod had this mountain built so that it would be taller than Jerusalem. Yes, you heard correctly. The Herodion was a fortress and palace of King Herod. Dirt was hauled and placed upon an already existing hill to make it more of a volcano shape. It was massive in size and overshadowed everything around it. Thousands of slaves worked on building this mountain.

Adam Hamilton and his tour group were there
at the same time -- He and Brian had a brief talk.
I don't have a photo but Mark went up to him and
introduced himself as did some of the others
in our group.

We headed to lunch and it was actually raining when we unloaded from the bus. This day was made extra special because it was Brian's birthday. He hates to be the center of attention but we couldn't let the day pass without doing something fun. Most everyone in the group brought a birthday card and many brought a small gift or gift card for Brian. I had packed birthday candles in my checked luggage and remembered to throw them in my day bag. I gave the candles to the bus driver who talked to the restaurant owner who prepared donut holes with honey for our celebration.

He may never forgive me.

After lunch, we had an indoor activity planned which was great since it was raining. We went to the Israel Museum which was also new to us on this trip. We spent about 30 minutes in the coffee and gift shop waiting on our time to enter. The first part of the tour is actually outside (in the rain that day) and it was to see a miniature replica of the whole ancient city of Jerusalem.

I had to borrow a picture from the internet - since I just told you it was raining when we were there, you can definitely tell this wasn't one of our photos.

We saw so much in the museum. It was fascinating. 

I also failed to take a picture of the Dead Sea Scrolls - I was just taking it all in and not worrying about pictures so I borrowed another picture from the internet. The scroll goes all the way around.