Old City

Kent and I spent a half-day in the Old City today. We decided to take the bus instead of driving. We walked out of the lower entrance at the Center and down a short ways to a bus stop. Bus 75. This is where we got off - close to Herod's Gate.

This is looking back towards Herod's Gate. This is a really nice area of the Muslim quarter - and we haven't ever been able to use this gate until now. It was fun to go a new way.

These 2 houses are sharing the fact that someone in the family has made the Haj to Mecca. They are across the street from each other.

 

This bread is really yummy, but only if you dip it in a powdery spice called Zatar! :)

Kent's favorite buildings in the Old City are from the Mamaluke period - Turkish. They really are lovely.

The colors are soft pinks and grays.

 There is usually a Fleur de lis in the entry way somewhere. We really liked the hanging lamp too!

 Me looking up at the arch/dome over the door.

 Here's what I'm looking at:

 Look at the guy carrying his pita board on his head!

 Street scenes:

There are little chapels and monasteries and convents throughout the Old City. This is the Sisters of Zion convent. The arch below the gold dome is a roman arch/gate from a previous wall.

Somewhere we stopped for lunch - falafels, of course!

 We went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre - I'm really coming to love that place! We actually got to go inside the sepulchre itself!! Usually the line is SO long we don't want to wait. We hit it right at the right time. This is the dome over the sepulchre:

These surround the entrance into the sepulchre:

Main entrance

This is the first room inside the sepulchre:

The stone inside the case is believed to be a piece of the rolling stone that sealed Christ's tomb

 This is a close up the the entrance to the tomb itself:

 The marble slab is covering the tomb

The next 2 pictures are what surrounds the tomb:

 I think I've told you before that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre isn't owned buy just 1 church. There are chapels of various sizes throughout the entire building. The pictures below are from the biggest one - a Greek Orthodox cathedral:

These crosses were carved by Armenian pilgrims. They are all along the walls going down the stair to the Armenian chapel in the basement

This is the Armenian chapel

This is in the lowest basement, below the Armenian chapel. It is a Catholic chapel honoring the place where Queen Helena found pieces of the cross

 This is looking back up the stairs

 This is the square and entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

 We did some shopping before we came home.

Fruit

 

A WELCOME mat - yes it says Welcome

Valentine's decorations - on the mirror in the entryway

At our front door

Tomorrow - more Jordan :)

Jordan - at least in part

Yes, I am still here! I've had a busy week. I taught Relief Society today and you know me - overkill the prep [and it wasn't very good either!] but it's over. We've also been partying this week as one of our service couples gets ready to return to the States. I'll post another blog on that later. So, Jordan. We left the Center at Monday the 23rd.

Yes, we had to go to the Dead Sea again.

 

It is a short drive to the border - and you can't take pictures at the border. So I can only tell you what took place. The first border crossing doesn't open until 8:00 am so we sat for 20 minutes or so along with LOTS of big trucks. They all got to go first so we waited some more. The guards at the gate had a big mirror that they walked around the vehicles with, to check for bombs underneath.
The second crossing was where they checked the stamped pass that we got at the first crossing.
Then we arrived at the building where we all disembarked.
Kent and I went first and paid the tax for the group so we could leave Israel and got tags for each person to put in their passport. Then everyone went through and had their passports checked - actually at 2 different places. Then we walked out another door, back into the parking lot, where our Jordan buses were waiting for us and they transferred all of our luggage from the Jerusalem buses to the Jordan buses.
THEN we had to drive through "no-man's land" and go to another building in Jordan. Here we were met by our guides and they took care of all of our passports while we waited, and waited, and waited, on the buses. :) Kent, of course, was with the guides helping with whatever.

At last we got through the borders and were on our way. Our first stop was Mount Nebo - where Moses got to look down into the promised land he would never enter. There are the remains of a church there - this floor being part of it.

This is what Moses would have seen

 This is NOT what Moses would have seen! :)



This is also where the students learn that we really mean it when we tell them to bring their own toilet paper. Using the restroom once without any means it won't happen again! :)
  Sorry - more tomorrow!

New apartment

The day before we left for Jordan, we moved. Not the best timing, perhaps, but we managed. There is a bigger apartment available until August and so we took it. When the new faculty families come in August they will need the apartment so then we will move back to 501. Apartment 514 is across the stairway from 501 and further down that hallway. I'm enjoying the bigger kitchen, but I miss the closeness to the laundry room, office, garbage, and vacuum. [I'm talking here about a little longer walk] :)

This is the entry way -- towards the door

and from the door looking in

 Kitchen/dining

 Living room

Our bedroom - with door to patio

Half bath

Bathroom

Connecting door that they can remove to make 2 apartments into 1 big apartment

Kent's office/spare bedroom if needed

I am SO behind! It will take me many blogs to try and catch up! But here goes. A couple of Sundays ago we had a branch activity in Banana Land, Jericho. [Remember our Sabbath is on Saturday, here]

It was a lot of fun and the weather was perfect! Jericho is below sea level - lowest city on earth.

 

 Instead of deer crossing signs we have these:

Some things are the same anywhere!

This is inside Banana Land - kiddy rides. The bumper cars were the most popular with our branch members - especially Doc Chapman! [a big kid at heart]

 There are these nice picnic areas throughout the park.

Hair update