Skip to main content

The Final Day

We started our last day by packing up our stuff and leaving our bags to collect later in the day. We then finished our Rampart Walk by going in the other direction. As we got near the end, which is right by the Western Wall, we heard what sounded like a parade. Then we saw a boy being lead to the wall under a hupa. We surmised that he was having his bar mitzvah. A few minutes later another boy came through. Then another. Apparently it was bar mitvah day at the wall. But it only seemed to be non-orthodox Sephardic Jews. I wonder if different sects have their own days?  The wall plaza was full of families and boys on their special day. People were setting up tables and covering them with sweets for their families. Everytime we come to the Wall we seem to see something new and exciting. It is a very busy place and obviously a dynamic center for Jewish life.

After we left the Wall we started up Mt. Olive to do the stations of the cross. Talk about a diverse religious education for the kids!  We, big surprise, got lost and ended up in the middle of the school day change for the part of town we were in. Traffic everywhere. We walked alongside a slow moving schoolbus full of kids and got lots of waves and hellos. It was fun. 

When we finally got on the right track we learned we had a very poor map and thus got frustrated and lost again. I swear, following the stations and getting to the Church of the Holy Seplechur was one of the most difficult things we have done on this trip. 

We did make it there eventually and it was very beautiful. The rock where the cross stood is there, along with the stone Jesus was laid on after being take down, and his tomb as well. There was a long like to enter the tomb. It is the most holy place in Christianity. 

After leaving there it was time to eat, grab a few last souvenirs, and now here we are back at the hostel cleaning up a bit and grabbing our bags for the airport. The long trek home begins now.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In Costa Rica

Again, this computer will not take an SD card. However, I am drinking the best coffee I've ever had while writing this so it's mas-o-menos. (good and bad) We were only able to spend the one night in Bocas del Toro because we made reservations at a specific hotel in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica and they only let you cancel if the can rebook. Thus, for the third day in a row we were on the move. That is really exhausting so I'm glad we are in one place for at least three days now. It took us about five hours to get here from Bocas. We first had to get a water taxi to get back to mainland. They were very busy that day so we had to wait an hour for that. Then I splurged and paid for us to get a direct minibus to the border. Otherwise that would have been a taxi then two different busses to get there. Then we spent 30 minutes getting visas and stamped out of Panama. After that we walked across a rickety, rusted bridge into Costa Rica. From there another office for cus...
10 comments
Read more

The real first post

O.k. That last post was really just a test as I was setting things up. Now the real, good stuff begins. Where to next? My kids and I are on our way to Ecuador for a month of Spanish language school. Steve will be joining us the middle two weeks of our adventure. I will answer each question in turn. Why spanish school? We don't know any spanish. Actually hablo Espaniol en poco. Muy poco. (The people who know spanish and are reading this are probably laughing.) Tate and I went to Honduras two years ago and I figured we would be able to get by because lots of people speak English. It is pretty much a universal language, right? Wrong! I could not function and felt very detached from the people and culture I was learning about. (The same thing happened in France but that was o.k. The French did not want to talk to me anyway.) We got separated from the fluent Spanish speaker we were with and I nearly had a meltdown. I coped by going into a Wendy's (yes, they have Wendy...
8 comments
Read more

Arrival in Jerusalem

We took the early bus from Ein Gedi and arrived in Jerusalem around 11. I don't know if we are getting better at this or we just got lucky, but we had no problems getting out of the bus station, finding our city bus, getting off at the right stop, or finding our hotel. In fact, when we went out to find the market later we also got there without getting lost once. Weird!  I say it is because Israel is so easy to travel in. The buses are marked, the stops are labeled, there are schedules, and the roads have signs. There are also a lot of tourists here so I guess they have to make it easy. Lots of American tourists too. That is something strange for us.  The market was packed with people getting ready for shabbat. Many of the Jewish shops will be closed tomorrow. Some sights too. I did pretty good getting fruit and bread and nuts. Our room has a fridge and the hostel has a kitchen so we ate challah and hummos, tomatoes, almonds, olives, and strawberries for dinner.  We wandered into t...
3 comments
Read more