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In those days, the stable was attached to the house, it was separated into 2 parts. There is 4th, 6th and 12th C AD constructions layered on top of the other, there are icons and very amazing old stuff and hanging lights, and below is the entrance to the area where the manger and the birth spot is believed to have happened. We take it all in, the wonder of this place, and we line up to walk downstairs to see the 14 pointed silver star, representing the 14 generations btn David and Jesus, also representing the 14 stations of the cross. This is also sthg we have seen so many times on TV- I will look fwd to Xmas just so I can see all these things, and remember. There are a lot of people descending so it gets crowded down there, tourists who make all this noise and can't give you any peace (I must remember what people felt like trying to see Jesus in the crowd, and we are trying to see his sites only!) We go a short distance to the right of the star and see the spot where the manger was. Actually, St. Jerome's remains are also in this church, he translated the bible into Latin which was called the Vulgate Bible, in the common language, so all could read it. He was the ultimate hermit, he never did anything to distract his time, he even castrated himself so he wouldn't be tempted, now that is dedication... When the crowd thins out we go back downstairs, and sing carols, others come and join us, first in Silent Night then O Come All Ye Faithful. It is incredibly intense, I can feel it in my heart, being in this place that all the songs are about, now when we do the church play or sing Away in A Manger and Little Town of Bethlehem, all of it is right here and we are here too! It is very hard to grasp it all. We were all feeling it, we sat together and held hands and soaked it up and prayed and tried to experience it. We know these days in Jerusalem will be the crowning point of the trip, to experience the places of Jesus on a personal level. I wrote in the diary "we prayed, we held hands, we sat, we felt it, after awhile we went back down, we cried, we went and sat and prayed together, it was extremely intense, Ellen had the perfect prayers for us." This is one of the highlights of our entire trip, Bethlehem is just incredible.

We went to the Holyland Hotel to see the scale model of Jerusalem 2000 years ago and Michael could explain everything to us, it was very, very interesting and we will refer to it in our minds through our remaining days in Jerusalem. We continue to the Garden of Gethsemane and it is wonderful-there are so many places to see here, the Church of All Nations is beautiful inside, and there are trees here that are 2000 years old or the roots are old and new branches have been attached. We believe it is here where Jesus was imprisoned on Maundy Thursday. David also wept over the death of Absalom in this area of the Mt. Of Olives (II Samuel 15:30). The garden is incredibly beautiful and peaceful, and it is tranquil and soothing. Palm Sunday will never be the same for me. I wrote in my diary, "As I sit here in the church with the rock in the middle where Jesus was arrested, as Ellen prays with us, I cannot quite grasp that I am here-let this feeling stay with me and not be a dream. I saw a daughter with a father praying together in the church, and later I saw them in the garden praying, and found that the father was blind...it is so heavy!!" So we get to the Sheraton, we are all very tired and have done a lot today, and I hear a voice, "oh Cristy" and I look around and the surprise of all surprises, it is Anita!! My very, very good friend from South Africa, I have visited her, I know several of her relatives, her mom has visited with me, I have been to South Africa twice, I am really shocked!! I was going to e-mail her tonight!! Anita decided to visit her cousin and they all fixed it up as a surprise for me and it really was, it is not easy to shock me but she did it!! We visited for awhile, I felt badly as my time is so limited and we are on a strict schedule, which is different for me but good to keep all of us on schedule so we can see everything. Anita went to visit a friend, which coincidentally was near my DAR friend Suzanne, who lives in Jerusalem, so we went in a taxi together which is the only way to get around after sundown, as it is Friday after dark it is now Shabbat, which is observed quite strictly in Jerusalem, more liberal in Tel Aviv. You can tell the difference between the two towns, the religious versus the secular, in Jerusalem you see many women in conservative clothing and many men in long dark suits and very traditional. I really enjoyed visiting Suzanne and having a traditional Shabbat dinner, it was wonderful, and visiting with her, seeing her apartment and most importantly, doing laundry as I have been on the road for 3 weeks now and I need to get clean clothes!! I wish I could have stayed longer, I feel I couldn't be fair to anyone, it is too bad, but there is only so much time. I would like to go back at Thanksgiving, also to spend more time at some of the holy sites I couldn't really see as I wanted to, like to walk the wall around the Old City, to spend time at the different gates, there is so much to absorb and on a trip like this you just get a taste, though an extremely emotional one. I got to learn about actual daily life from Suzanne, how much things cost, she has lived in Jerusalem for 18 years and is from North Carolina so is well aware of the similarities and differences-I really find Israel to be a modern First World country that I could live in, they have really built the country successfully. We also talked about the elections, it is an exciting time as they are ten days away and everyone is campaigning and it's on TV all the time etc.!!

MASADA: We get ready and go about 1 ¸ hours south to Masada , they have a new cable car, We go up 3000 ft. in 3 mins. at 8m/second. It is a really cool trip up, to the top of the mountain and we are glad we didn't walk. It is all bedrock, and no excavation, just restoration of what they found there. It is 1800 ft. at the longest point and 900 ft. at the widest, and was a military installation built by Herod. When we see a black line on the buildings, that is where the restoration began from the original stones found there, below the black line is original. Amazing...There are frescoes on the walls that are still bright colors from 2000 years ago, they didn't fade due to the dryness, and as they are peeled off they are the original colors of bright red and green, I saw it, incredible. The King's quarters were separate from the barracks as he is supposed to be aloof, and no matter how hot it is here, there were saunas and everything for Herod to be comfy. They always saved 10% of their harvests etc. to live on in the lean times as they felt you couldn't live off charity. Herod thought of this as his retreat, he had reservoirs built to capture water so they could live for years in time of siege, he made it all comfy like home where he could sit atop the mountain that no one else could get to and just chill out! They found 3 skeletons here that still had hair because of the dry climate, tho Michael joked that they were better off as his didn't last 20 years before it started falling out! They had tiny passageways so big invaders couldn't get through even if they got to the top (reminded me of the Cu Chi tunnels in Vietnam!), Today we should be careful of religious people as it is a violation to take photos on Shabbat. When we see the colors change this is the attack point, as the wind changed and burned the Jewish wall, so the Romans got this idea that God wanted them to invade for this reason, which was not true, but fate stepped in and all the jews died here rather than surrender, one killed the other and the last committed suicide, surprising since that is a strict violation of Jewish law. This was found by the story written by Josephus Flavius and we learned a lot from his book. We then went to the beach so we can float in the Dead Sea, I put my feet in, it is hot through my shoes to walk on the sand but the water is cool, but salty, it gets salt on my hands and my sandals and sticky everywhere. I check out the sulphur pool at 100 degrees, I didn't know what it would be like, and I see the people spraying mud on themselves out of a tap. We have seen amazing ensembles, lots of women in their bras and underwear which is astonishing, we think Russian immigrants coz they sure don't care how they look, guys in their undies or speedos , some tiny thin girls which are intimidating, a real mix, and one where her undies are really showing. We see a sign, -1300 ft. incredible, Death Valley is for wimps by comparison! It is nice to just take a little break!! We then visited Qumran where the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered, and returned to the hotel, where Anita and I got together and walked around in Jerusalem, went over to the famous King David Hotel and talked-we e-mail every day so it was just like normal, except we didn't have to wait for a reply!! It was fun to spend time with her, I feel I will never get any sleep but when you are in the Holy Land ,you must live it, not spend time sleeping, writing about it, anything else but absorbing every moment!

JERUSALEM on Sunday: We got up and spent the day around the city of Jerusalem seeing historic sites but not the Old City which we are saving for the last day, a fitting end to this part of our journey. We started at the Hadassah Medical Center where the famous Chagall Windows reside. In 1962 Chagall made these windows and donated them, since Jewish art cannot have human images, Chagall designed around them, or hands with too few fingers or something not quite right, there are 12 windows commemorating the 12 tribes of Israel and one is named for each of Jacob's sons and their characteristics, in different colors and so many different images you cannot pick them all out; the guide says they only have 60% of the images figured out on Chagall's visits. He lived to be nearly 100 and did the windows in his 70s; they are painted on glass and very durable, though they are fingernail thin and some have 7 layers of paint; though in the 1967 War 4 windows were blown out and he came and fixed them. I remember my Chagall window stamps which I have had forever, I will have to look them up when I get home. They are 25 years old. We then drove a short distance to Ein Karem, a nice little village, arriving at 9:40 am where John the Baptist is from, where Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth when she was pregnant, we see the John the Baptist church and it has many, many interesting things including a painting inspired by El Greco, and the Spanish influence is felt everywhere. We arrive at Yad Vashem, it is remembrance day which is a holiday here and so the Army units come here as field trips, in fact people can choose working here as Army service, women teach here for their service sometimes, free, it is their duty, and men also-the women can be paratroopers, combat, do other national service, their choices, Michael's son is a paratrooper.. This is Israel where one should remember the Holocaust more appropriately than anywhere else. There are many buildings and exhibits; outside there is a Crematorium , and the children's exhibit, it is very dark and you hear the names of the children killed, and people don't ustd, it is said to kill 100 is a tragedy, to kill 1 million is arithmetic, so they say the names and to hear the same name again you would have to come back in 3 ¸ years, that makes it more than arithmetic! There are pillars outside, chopped in different lengths, shown the children who were taken down before their time, it is a totally black room and you have to grasp the railing as you cannot see anything in front of you but children's faces and hear scary music and the names. Michael said they went 2000 years without a State of Israel, without being united, or going to synagogue, but for 17 generations they had their faith, maybe this is what was needed to bring them together, if there can be any positive in this, and now we must be sure it is not repeated. Prejudice against anyone is something I don't understand, and I really don't understand how people can be prejudiced against Jews, we are all born of God, I think... We passed the Convention Center and took pictures as the Eurovision Contest will be there on May 29-I organized this trip with the dates in mind so that I could go to the ESC but they moved the date to the latest one in the 45 year history of the contest, just my luck!! At least I got a photo! We went to the Supreme Court and will walk through the gardens to the Knesset (their Congress or Parliament). The Knesset has 120 members, elected every 4 years and split by parties but for the whole country so you don't have your own congressman, for ex. like we do here. The Prime Minister is elected separately and can be from a different party. We visited the Israel Museum , we go first into the Shrine of the Book and see the scrolls that were pulled out of the caves we visited yesterday. The complete scroll of Isaiah is there, and there is another floor of stuff underneath, there are many old and amazing documents, they knew how to do a 364 days calendar, they have a Torah, they have a Psalm 151 that was found later, amazing stuff, and very, very interesting. There are special exhibits of wedding rituals, holidays, beautiful Torah scrolls, a Cochin synagogue from 1539, paintings, menorahs, special exhibit by Ethiopian Jews, Judaica, coins one of which has Pontius Pilate's picture on it, wow, they can alw tell how old the money is by which emperor, and the first banknote made by Israel, and many many other things I didn't really have time to look at. The next stop is Mt. Zion, we pass the cistern that became known as the Sultan's Pool, which is now used as a theater, and we then continue to the Upper Room where the Last Supper was held, which used to be attached to the old city but no longer is, outside the walls. It is also the former border to Jordan so you can see bullet holes all along here. We visited the Church of the Dormition, where Mary possibly fell into a coma and was spirited away, and from the top of this place you can see all over the city. There is different design in each of the columns and carvings, and the gold altars. We visited the Tomb of King David at 4:20 pm and there, it is a sacred spot for Jews particularly, and Muslims also think he is without fault, there are many people praying, it is very nice. We tried to soak up the solemnity of this place, it was really wonderful.

JERUSALEM on Monday: Today is the Old City, how can we be flying to Egypt tonight, just incredible, we need more time!! We started out at the Western Wall, which is 33 ft. high and a traditional place of prayer, and people put little notes in the cracks in the wall which they believe will help, prayers for different things, There are 2 sections, for men and for women, and we have the smaller part as usual! It is also the custom not to turn your back to it, some people I saw were very strict about it. This is one of the Bar Mitzvah days and there are a lot of boys having the ceremony, and mothers and sisters standing above watching as they cannot go down in the men's section. You can even put prayers online and people will deliver them. We had to get thru the next metal detector point, from the Jewish sector just above us is the Muslim Quarter, and there is a lot of security is fine with me. We are now at the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque are located. This is called the Morocco Gate. The Muslims have control over it quite strictly so they determine who is in and who is out, what the dress code will be, and when they open and close. We saw people in shorts being given long skirts to put on, even the men, some tourists are just so disrespectful. The Dome of the Rock is the 3rd holiest place in Islam, after Mecca and Medina, remember this is supposedly where Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac, perhaps Ishmael, this place was thought to be the axis around which the earth circles. It was built in 691 AD and ordered to be done in 2 years, and has been left as is, it needed roof repairs as it was leaking for people peeling off the gold through the earlier generations. In 1994 King Hussein gave a lot to help the restoration, he sold a home in London to donate to the mosque. It is also important to remember that this was Jordan not so long ago, and this is also the place where King Abdullah was killed in 1951, the bullet deflected off a medal Hussein was wearing and it saved his life. I really pause to reflect on His Majesty Abdullah I being there and imagining the square and thinking of all these things. It is a gothic mosque which was a church, and there are royal carpets with the Jordanian seal everywhere- I was marveling at the beauty of this place, the long inside area with the prayer carpets and everything, but not quite the feeling of the Omayyad Mosque in Damascus which we had visited earlier. It was a very interesting and spiritual place to visit, the Arabic inscriptions were gorgeous. Depending on your religion, you might believe that Abraham sacrificed Isaac here, or that Mohamed had his night journey here, or the temple of Solomon was built here, and possibly all 3 are correct, that is what I believe-it is such sacred ground, why didn't it happen in this spot? The first qibla was also made here and then later the qibla was redirected toward Mecca. This is also a sacred site for Islam, and we feel humbled to be here. It is great, and each pillar is a different kind of marble and a different design and as we look at it, we see that is right. The Muslims call this area Al Quds which means the furthest, so when you see this name, it is what we call Jerusalem. It is also called the Furthest Mosque as it is far from Mecca and Medina. The dome is 70 feet across, and Quranic verses are inscribed on the top, called the Ya Sin, Sura #36.There are separate rooms downstairs and where you can touch the rock through an opening, though it is not easy to see the rock, I am too short, but I get up on tippy toes and see it. Supposedly the footprint of the Prophet is there and the handprint of the angel Gabriel. The calligraphy all along the top is a tribute to Jesus, also a great prophet of Islam. I just tried to walk around and experience it, and I sat next to an old Muslim lady and prayed, it is very serious, and uplifting and amazing. We also visited the Monastery of St. Anne, dug way down in, remember all of the true places of the Bible time were at least 25 ft. lower because things have been built on top and on top. It was built in 1856 on top of the pools of Bethesda, where the miracle of Jesus curing the paralyzed man took place. There is a cistern here that we can see, and also we see barbed wire from the earlier time. There is a pool from 3rd C BC, 5th and 12th C AD depending on which section of history we are talking about. It is also thought the parents of Mary might have been outside Nazareth, but they are honored here. At the Ottoman time, Turkey offered the British either Cyprus or the Bethesda Pool and Queen Victoria took Cyprus. Saladin made this into a mosque school so it was not lost. It is still used as a school in one area. This is also the place where the acoustics are such that even bad singers sound good. We come out of the church and turn the corner to the Antonio Fortress which is the beginning of the Via Dolorosa. Right there is the marketplace of that time, and the 4 towers are the gate where Jesus would have been brought into the city. When we think of the stations of the cross we imagine these places where these events occurred, some have said there are 22, some 17, but now we say there are 14 stations. There is always a break in the stones to signify where one is, but you have to look carefully. The Antonio Fortress is where Pontius Pilate would have sentenced Jesus, we see the minaret as the tower. The hearing would have been fairly fast, probably not immediate but within a few days. We walk down this road, the 1st station, to the open courtyard where he was beaten and he is mocked, the soldiers put him in a purple robe and condemned him to death, the 2nd station. We walk down past the church of the Flagellation, we stand in the courtyard where he would have been sentenced, and continue on to the Sisters of Zion church and monastery. This is where we see the Ecce Homo arch where Pilate says, "this is the man" which of course is what ecce homo means. The sisters have excavated and you see wonderful things here, we have a demonstration and we can walk down below to the level Jesus would have lived.

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