Saturday, December 1, 2012

Before Galilee Catch Up

Hey all,

So I had a great time in Galilee, and I will post some pictures from the last part of the trip later today, but first, I skipped a few weeks before Galilee, so I am going to post pictures from that first.

We went to Bethlehem on November 5th, It was really fun. We visited a ton of churches, including the Church of Nativity, but my favorite was the Mormon Shepherd's fields as it was just a shepherd's field that they let us come and sit for a while. It was nice to have a place to think, and not worry about interrupting services, and think about what actually happened instead of looking at the church. It was long enough ago, that I don't remember the exact order, but I am going to just pot the pictures and tell you where they were.

We started at the Herodian, I know that. The Herodian was Herod the Great's fortress in Jerusalem. It looks like a Volcano because they took dirt from the area's around it to build up the Herodian itself.


This is the view from the bottom looking up.


Standing at the top, this is the view looking down into the palace. Right below, where you can see the steps going down leads to a tunnel that comes out closer to the bottom.


This is not in the tunnel, but by the dinning hall that was turned into a Synagogue during the First Jewish revolt in 67 AD


This is in the tunnels, My friends Kala (in white) and Rachel (in green)



2 different views from the top of the Herodian


Next we went to a Greek Orthodox Church for the Shepherds fields. The Greek Orthodox Churches are always very colorful, this one the main color is a pink.


This is the painting depicting the Shepherd's visit


You can see that there are a lot more paintings in the Church.


Next we went to a tent restaurant  I don't have any pictures of the restaurant  but this was on our walk there. I think it is for Ruth, as she came to Bethlehem when she followed Naomi home.

Next we went to the Church of Nativity, I am just going to put a whole bunch of pictures here, they are all in that Church






This is just a few pics, it was fun, but really busy, and a very tight crowded place.


After we got out of the Church of the nativity, we got some free time to walk around and shop on Manger Square. I didn't take many pictures, but there was this cool fountain. 


There was also this mosque (I think it is a Mosque) with pretty clouds behind. 


Our last stop was this Shepherd field. We call it the Mormon Shepherd fields, and we got to sit and talk about what happened in Bethlehem and the Surrounding area's, then we had a testimony meeting. It was a great night.

So Now I am going to post a few random pictures, later that week we went to the Kotel Tunnel, which runs through the tunnels that the Crusaders built when they had control of Jerusalem. They built up the city, so that it wasn't such a high hike to the temple. Another day, I went on a tour of the City with Eliesha, even though I had been to a lot of the places, it was fun to go back to some, and visit for the first time others. It was a really fun day.


Kotel tunnel right next to the Temple Mount walls


Another view of the Temple Mount wall. There were huge pieces of stone, that are from Herod. It is really crazy. you can't see the seam in this picture, it is as long as a school bus.



This is the Dome of the Rock. Located on Temple Mount. It is really the only colored building in the city. Everything else is the white limestone of the arches. It is also only open certain times, and only for an hour, so you have to get there early to get far enough up in line to get in.


This is the Temple Mount. I think they said that it is 5 football fields big. You can see the Dome of the Rock just off the right, and the dome behind that is the Al Asqua Mosque.


We went to the Shuuk (open air market, mostly fruit, but other things as well) in West Jerusalem. We were looking for a place to eat our lunches and came across this courtyard and all the trees had pacifiers hanging from the trees. Not a sight you see every day.... 


This is a pic of the Shuuk. you can't really see what they are selling, but you get the idea.


This is the Israeli flag. These are on top of the Tower of David, and you can see West Jerusalem in the background. 


View of the Old City from the top of the Tower of David


An arch in the Tower of David Museum


This is by the Pacifier trees. Kind of cool.


We had new flowers bloom, this is outside of Damascus Gate, they were everywhere.


It was olive picking time! There are a lot of olives, everywhere. And everyone counts.


there are arrow holes everywhere, this is just one.


This is the last pic for this post. The Western Wall in the Dark. We only got to see it because we were there to do the Kotel Tunnel. Usually we aren't allowed in the Old City after Dark, and the few times that we are, we are welcoming in the Sabbath with the Jews here, but no pictures are allowed.

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