Trip of a Lifetime - Day 5

Some Review, and Some New

Good morning from Jerusalem! (I just love that I can say that!!!) I started writing this post at the end of our day last night, about 8:00pm. I fell asleep at the hotel desk while I was downloading photos. I'll try again. 

Yesterday our tour group spent the morning walking to the sites that mom and I had visited the day before. We knew we'd be visiting these sites our first day with the tour, but these sites can be so different from day to day that I wanted to double our trip to the Western Wall, Temple Mount, and Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  We were glad we did both days!

We discovered that the day we were at the Holy Sepulcher, being denied entry by what was indeed a Greek Orthodox Sunday service, was because it was a super significant service. If you're interested, you can read about it here. 

Our guide took us to the stops on the Via Dolorosa, telling us about each as we went. Here are some highlights.

Church of the Flagellation

Church of the Condemnation

Photo re-enactment of Station 5, where Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus with his cross, and Jesus reaches for the wall for support. The spot on the wall is where Jesus's hand touched, and it's really deep with the erosion of centuries of pilgrims.

When we got to the church it was much less crowded, so we were able to get in line and visit Jesus's tomb! (We were told in all our pre-trip reading that we wouldn't see it on the tour, because lines are super long and there's no time, so our failure to see it the day before was a real let-down. We had given up visiting the tomb. What a surprise!) No photos are allowed. We entered the rotunda through a normal size door, and in the first "room" was a piece of the rolling stone (yes, we all think of Mick Jagger) that was used to seal the tomb. Then you have to duck real low to get through the entry to the tomb. The entry is about hip height. Inside the tomb is a slab, where Jesus was lain after his death, surrounded by lots of items of adornment. Candles and lamps hanging above, Orthodox-style painting, flowers, and so on.

During the rest of the review part of the tour I got to take photos I'm really happy about.

A female soldier who entered near the Western Wall - part of the Israeili Defense Forces.

Close-up of the Dome of the Rock

A Muslim woman enjoying lunch at the Dome of the Rock.

A Muslim man at prayer at the Dome of the Rock.

Next we boarded our bus and headed to the West Jerusalem for a cooking class and a trip through the market with a professional chef. 

Our chef's name was Kobe. I'm not sure that's how it's spelled, but we all said/thought "Like Kobe Bryant!" when our guide told us the name, so I'll spell it that way. As he took us from one stop to another through the market -- giving us samples of Tahini, halva, and other things I've never heard of -- he radiated joy and happiness. He was clearly born to be a chef. 

That's Kobe on the right. The guy on the left made us a dessert I've never heard of and forgot the name of. It was amazing.

Some of the spices at one shop.

At one shop we enjoyed something else that was fantastic, covered with cheese, hard-boiled egg, spinach, and other goodies. I took this photo of the guy tossing our... I'll call it a pizza crust for lack of better vocabulary, and showed it to him. He immediately wrote down his phone number and asked me to send it to him. I'm pretty pleased with this photo, too!

Then it was back to the restaurant to cook our own meal. We made baked Moroccan fish, fresh bread, tabbouleh, and more. I don't remember it all. By the time we made dinner we had just consumed so many samples in the market that I didn't think I could eat another bite. But it all looked so good! When we left I think I had new stretch marks.

Gotta go. Time to eat breakfast! 😋🤣 

(No time to edit. It's really time for breakfast. Forgive any errors in spelling. Thanks,)