Day 8

Today was a relatively uneventful day for us in Jerusalem. Today was a planned free day, intentionally left open for us to explore and do whatever we want. So... we slept in later today than we have the entire trip... sleeping in until 7 am. After a quick 8 o'clock breakfast, we were hoofing it to an open air market in the city called The Shook. Wow! Awesome! This was like pike place market on steroids! Tons of produce, fresh meats, and fish, candies, oils, drinks, desserts... everything.

From the Shook we headed to Ben Yahuda shopping district for some souvenir shopping. We found some good stuff, and the decided to venture down into the old city for lunch and to see some sights. We had lunch at a burger place... which actually had good burgers (kosher... no cheese) but took FOREVER to get our food. When we sat down in the plaza, an old man stumbled up and asked for change... Jason pulled some change out of his pocket and gave him a 5 shekel coin. Seeing the other coins in my pocket as he selected the one he would give him, the bum became emboldened and demanded more. After a thorough exchange, the man relented and left us to enjoy our lunch. That will teach us!

After lunch, we ventured into the old city markets hidden beneath the streets of the old city. After getting lost and wandering into the back alleys of the muslim quarter, we decided to throw in the towel and head back to the hotel. After some relaxing, we went to dinner and the wrapped up our evening with "The Night Tour"... an optional add-on adventure offered by our guide.

We walked the grounds of the kinneset and the supreme court. We visited ultra-orthodox areas of the city to see their way of life, and we drove around the old city walls which were all lit up and glowing. Very cool...

Next, we headed down to the border with Bethlehem where we were able to visit Rachel's Tomb (Rachel was Jacob's wife). The border area between Israel Proper (Jerusalem) and Bethlehem, is very strange. Very tall 30 foot walls divide the two cities and the tomb lies right in between two large walls. The walls were constructed to prevent terrorists from getting out of the west bank/Bethlehem into Jerusalem and has resulted in a 99% drop in suicide attacks.

We ended the night at a first century tomb in an area that could have been where Jesus was entombed. There is no real certainty as to where this took place, so during the trip, we'll see a few different places where this could have occurred.

Tomorrow could be one of the most exciting days of the trip thus far! Off to bed for a few hours.... then on the bus again for more sights!

We're having a great time. Our guide Eitan is AWESOME. He really knows his stuff and is a lot of fun. Unfortunately, in a couple days, we'll be leaving Eitan and a bunch of our group behind and heading into Jordan for the last few days of our trip. Looking forward to what God has in store!

We're starting to miss home and Rocky, but so glad to have this opportunity. More to come...