And on the sixth day...

Well, the sixth day was an optional trip to Masada and the Dead Sea and I didn't quite bring enough money to take this optional trip so I opted to stay back, sleep in, and spend the day exploring Jerusalem without a tour guide. Unfortunately, my roommate/travel buddy came down with the dreaded stomach virus so I spent the morning feeling very sorry for her. Around 11 a couple of ladies that were on the trip with us stopped by the room and asked if I'd like to go with them. I said sure and met them downstairs where we took a taxi down to the old city. It was kind of like a big market place, a walkway lined with shop after shop after shop all trying to get you to buy stuff from them.



This is how the market area looked.

Here are Joan and Jan trying to be hustled into buying something for too much. They finally caught on to the game and got him down to a very reasonable price by doing the walk out without buying it bit. That was fun to watch.

Look at the tray this guy is carrying on his head!

Here is a shop with lots of spices and scents and all that kind of thing. As you can see, they are just out there in the open in bowls.

This is a mosaic done where the Jewish Quarters begins. Lots of places and churches have tons of mosaics everywhere. Some places the walls and ceilings are all mosaics! It's incredible. I think I have pictures of it so you'll see some more later.

Here's a picture of some soldiers. They like posing for pictures. They were stopping for lunch and getting falafels, the traditional fast food in Israel. Falafels are a sandwich of fried chick peas and herbs, served with salad in pita bread.

Here's the cafe where Joan and Jan bought their first falafel and fell in love with it.

Can't you tell from their expressions that they were really enjoying it?!

Then we bought some bread from the guy pushing his bread cart around.

After that, we took a taxi back to the hotel and just hung out and relaxed until dinner time. It was a fun day. I really wish Lauren could have been there with me to enjoy it though rather than being stuck in the hotel sick.

The beginning of day 5...

Ok, day 5 continued. Our first stop was a shopping adventure in Bethlehem. We bought lots of things to bring home and give to friends. Lots of the things we bought were made from Olive trees. Lauren and I got to go downstairs and see them actually cutting and carving things out of the olive wood. It was very cool. This picture here is the stacks of olive wood outside the shop.





This church is located near the Shepherd's Field, where the good news was first heard.











This is Lauren and I just having fun and enjoying the sites.

This is a cave like church which was pretty cool that was still near the Shepherd's Field. They had these neat lighted stars carved into the cave ceiling so the next picture is of me reaching for the stars! :o)

These next pictures are of excavations being made near the Shepherd's Field of a Byzantine Church.

Here's Lauren and I hanging out on some of the remnants. We never pass up a picture moment!

And here we are exploring the caves that were there.

I thought this was interesting. How often do you pass a guy playing a home made guitar type thing with his foot?!

I thought at first that it was kind of weird that they still had Christmas decorations up, but then I remembered that they had only celebrated Christmas a few weeks before we got there.

This is the Church of the Nativity. It is the world's oldest functioning church. The site of the manger is said to be in a cave below.

The door is extra small so as to force a bow before entering.

And here is the site of the manger, the birthplace of Jesus. Isn't it fancy looking.

Here I am touching the site of Jesus' birth.

This is just another picture of the church itself.

I have now officially finished day 5. Tons and tons of pictures were taken this day so that's why I had to make two entries out of it. Day 6 will be coming soon. It was a free day so I have some random pictures of the market place I visited and such.

The end half of Day 5, February 2nd.

Ok, so, I'm starting in the middle of day 5. This blog includes all sites visited around lunch time and after. I will post another blog tomorrow with pictures and explanations from the morning. There were just so many pictures from this day that I just don't have enough time to go through and add all the ones I want to this blog. I'll give you a heads up on what to expect tomorrow though. You will see pictures from the Church of the Nativity and the cave where Jesus was said to be born as well as the Shepherd's Field and sites there. There are lots of pictures from those sites and I just ran out of time this evening to add them to this post. Enjoy this one and look forward to the next! Oh, and let me know if you like the bigger pictures over the smaller ones and I'll use them more often! :o)




This is what it looks like to wander the streets of Bethlehem.

















































This is the beautiful restuarant where we had lunch. It was very nice!














































Here is some of the beautiful snowy scenery we passed. It actually snowed in Jerusalem the day before we got there!


























As you can see, our next stop was Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.
























This site is identified with the biblical "City of Salt." (Josh. 15:62)
























The body of water in the distance is the Dead Sea.

This is the cave where the Dead Sea scrolls were found. These scrolls have all but one of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible on them.

Goofing off at Qumran.

As the sign says, this is Old Jericho. It was getting dark fast so we didn't get to explore much, but the picture below was the best one of Jericho remains.

And this concludes day 5 of the trip.

Day 4 continued...

After packing up, loading the bus, and stopping by the Jordan River for a baptism we left Tiberias and headed to Jerusalem. Our second site of the day was a church in Cana, where Jesus performed his first public miracle by turning water into wine at a wedding feast.














At all the churches, you always need to look up or you miss some beautiful stuff.













This was a beautiful church in Nazareth. Nazareth was the home of Joseph and Mary and where Jesus grew up.

Bathroom break, or as they call it, a wash closet break. This one was a little more expensive. They wanted 2 shekels!

Megiddo was fortified by King Solomon and was the site of a battle in which King Josiah was killed.

This is the beautiful view of the Jezreel Valley from Megiddo.

Going down, down, down to the hidden underground entrance/exit.

This is the exit.

This is Madge, Lauren, and Carlos getting ready to take a tour of Caesarea, a center of the early Christians. Here, Cornelius became the first Gentile convert and Paul was imprisoned for two years before being taken to Rome for Trial.

The following are pictures of more of Caesarea.

Here's Lauren and I being silly! :o)

This is a picture of the Mediterranean sea. I just really like this picture of the waves crashing on the rocks.

This is the Roman Theatre at Caesarea.

Lauren and I near the Mediterranean Sea.

The beautiful sunset at the aqueducts on the beach.

After leaving the aqueducts, we headed to our new hotel which was a lot nicer than our last one. It was called the Olive Tree Hotel.

This is the night view from my hotel room.

And here is our room.

And that's the end of day 4! Stay tuned for day 5! :o)