Over the past few days, Lukas and I have had the opportunity to do even more sight-seeing!
Yesterday we spent time at the Garden Tomb, which is where some Christians believe that Jesus was buried after his crucifixion. The other well-known location of where the burial might have taken places is located at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which we have been waiting for Pushpa to arrive for us to visit. The Garden Tomb was incredibly peaceful. Like the name suggests, is a very large garden on the outskirts of the Old City. They also offer free tours, which was great because most of the sightseeing Lukas and I have done has been on our own. It was nice for someone to tell us stories, rather than rely on our memories of our previous visit.
This morning, we decided to go on the Rampart Walk, which is a catwalk that goes around the perimeter of the Old City. There are technically two different sections of the Walk, but unfortunately one end was closed off, but we still enjoyed ourselves. We ended up making friends with 3 couples who were on a tour group together, and had some free time before the left to explore the Old City. After we finished the Walk, we showed them some other areas of the Old City they hadn’t seen before, like the overlook of the Western Wall. It’s really surprising how quickly Lukas and I have learned our way around the place. Okay, maybe I haven’t really gotten the directions sorted out, but I can always rely on Lukas to figure out the right way to go! Below is a picture of us on the Rampart Walk.
This evening, Pushpa arrived to visit us! After grabbing some falafel for dinner, we decided to give her a mini-tour of the Old City. Like we did with our friends before, we took her to see the overlook of the Western Wall. Shabbat, the Jewish holy day, began tonight at sundown, so there were so many people at the Western Wall praying. And while we were watching, the Muslim call to prayer began to play as well. I cannot begin to describe how amazing it was to experience both of these religious ceremonies occur at the same time. Israel has such a wide array of culture, but it’s often divided amongst religious sects. It was beautiful to see these two religious groups overlap one another.
Tomorrow we will be going to visit Bethlehem, where we will see the Church of the Nativity and walk along the Separation Wall and see all the graffiti. The graffiti is absolutely incredible, and I am sure we will have some good pictures and stories to share from that trip.
