Precis: Morning walk with 12 people took us onto the Temple Mount, to the Roman Cardo, and then to St. Mark's Church, the Syrian Coptic church which claims to be among other things: the first church; to be built over the home of St. Mark's mother (Acts 12); the Upper Room, the place of the Last Supper, The place where the Holy Spirit descended; it also had a painting of Mary and Jesus reputed to be done by St. Luke (it is ancient, but not before 350 A.D.). We returned to the Hotel going through the Christian Quarter and eventually through the Damascus Gate.
Sites today: Bethany, the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus; lunch at the only kibbutz in the Jerusalem city area; now to Abu Ghosh (see Satruday's post for some early info on it). We will have Mass there. Then to a farewell dinner and to the airport and home. We are scheduled to arrive at 10:47 Friday morning.
Detail: We are getting pretty good at finding our way to the Old City and to places within it. Today the bus was not leaving until 11:00. We decided to have breakfast at 6:30 and leave right after 7:00 a.m. We walked to the city, entered the Damascus gates and headed across the city. We went through security to get into the Western Wall area, not to go to the wall this morning - we had done that on Tuesday - but to save steps by cutting through to the exit on the south side of the city. The only way onto the Temple Mount is from the south. After entering through the wrong line, we found ourselves again in the Western Wall area, and exiting again, got into the leftmost line and through security and up the ramp to the Temple Mount - the big flat area everyone sees in pictures of Jerusalem. Access is controlled by Israeli army and police. In general Jews are not allowed (and told not to go by the chief Rabbi of Jerusalem.) You cannot wear any Christian items -- crosses, medals, etc. Dress is even more strict than most places. One of our women was wearing a t-shirt and was told to cover her arms.
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