First day in Jerusalem

We spent our first day in Jerusalem visiting several, what our tour director called, "A sites." These are places where historians are sure it is the actual location mentioned in the Bible. First, was this one, the Garden of Gethsemane. A beautiful and peaceful place. 

 We also visited the Orson Hyde Memorial park, which is just up the street from the Garden. It's a beautiful park that climbs right up the hillside. Look at the view.

 

One of the gates in the wall around the Old City of Jerusalem. It had three names but I can only remember one of them. Lamb's gate. 



 

 This is not an A place. This is what Muslims do to their homes or businesses when they've accomplished the "hajj," the pilgrimage to Mecca. We saw these kinds of decorations all over as we walked through the Muslim quarter of the Old City.

 

 Here is one place where you can walk, literally, where Christ walked. In fact, they ask that you take off your shoes to do it. This is in the remains of the Roman Fortress, the Antonia, where Christ would have first taken up the cross to carry.

These are the remains of the pool of Bethesda, where Christ healed the man who was sitting by the water, waiting for someone to put him in.

 

After visiting a few other churches and such in the Old City, our last stop of the day was here.

 

Golgotha. Can you see the skulls?

 The tomb.

Some say it's an A place. Others say it's not. I don't know. It felt a lot more like the real thing than the place we visited the next day, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Maybe because it was peaceful and beautiful. Like the Garden.