Jerusalem 1

It's been hard deciding how to break up all these photos! Between all 3 famillies we probably took around 2000 pictures so you can imagine how difficult it is to actually sit down and work on this project! And if I were to just make a post entitled "Jordan Trip" I'm not sure the blogger website would be able to handle it! Plus, we've been dealing with a very sick little boy the past few days so my attention has been diverted a bit.

We were in Jordan for about a week just spending time with family, seeing a few sites there (which I've already posted about) and celebrating Christmas. On the 26th, we left Jordan and headed to Israel. This is literally about 50 miles away but it took us 5 hours to make the trip. This is because of all the security of exiting one country and entering another. We headed to Old City Jerusalem first where we stayed on Via Delarosa St. in an old convent that was turned into a dormitory-style hotel many years ago called Notre Dame de Sion Ecce Homo Convent.

Our first stop in Jerusalem was Anwar's. This is a friend of Matthew's who owns a little pizza restaurant in the Old City. While the food was very yummy, my favorite part was the lemon-mint slushies!

Paying in shekels...

 The streets of the Old City are amazing! There are people everywhere and vendors are lined up all over the street. There were times where I almost felt like I walked onto the set of a movie.

I know this is hard to see, but basically down below these grates (maybe 4-5 feet) are supposedly part of the actual streets that were present when Jesus walked around Jerusalem. When renovations are made, it's basically just on top of the old streets.

 Jersusalem: The view from where we stayed

  Le Ecce Homo Convent is like a huge maze of buildings and rooms! One could get lost very easily around the place....and some of us did! Unfortunately, all of our rooms were no where near each other so that made it more challenging!

  The Dome of The Rock at night. This is also a view from where we stayed.

 The Western Wall. The Jews believe that God still inhabits parts of the wall and the temple behind the wall. You will see some pretty interesting things taking place at this site.

People will write prayers on pieces of paper and put them in the wall.

Men and women have to go to seperate sides of the wall and men are required to cover their heads.

A bomb detonation pod...

This is another view from our roof. On the very left is the Dome of the Rock. The sun is peaking over the Mt. of Olives and the taller building is a Mosque. You could hear the call to prayer 5 times each day no matter where you were.

We took several video clips and while I won't bore you with a lot of them, a few of them might be helpful in painting a picture of some of the things we experienced. This one will give you a small glimpse of what it's like to walk around in Jerusalem. It can be a little unnerving especially with your little ones in tow but it was surprisingly fairly easy to get used to! :)

Stay tuned...this is only the beginning! :)