Around Jerusalem

Saturday, June 11, 1994
Jerusalem

There is no way I can describe today's events in words that would do justice to them.

Following breakfast in the YMCA dining room we left for the Garden Tomb.
Breakfast in Israel is incredible as I wrote when we were in Tel Aviv. It is like a smorgasbord of sorts. Fish, salads, fresh fruit, fresh yogurts, vegetables, cheeses, eggs, humus and more.

We took a cab to the Garden Tomb. Our driver was Elias. He is a Palestinian Christian who is a member of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. He dropped us off and today's adventure began. We walked through the Garden to the Tomb. A few of the workers there named Daphne and Jean told us it would be perfectly safe to walk through the Damascus Gate to get back into the Old City. The Damascus Gate is the one Jesus walked out of to be crucified on Golgotha. Jean is a member of Overseas Missionary Fellowship which originally was the China Inland Mission.

I had heard that there is a way to walk on the walls of Jerusalem, This would be too strenuous for older people who are many times on a tour so I had not done it on previous trips. You can walk all the way from the Damascus Gate to the Dung Gate on the other side of the city. What a view from above!!!

We walked to the Jaffa Gate and came down to visit the Armenian Quarter of the city. In between those gates we saw all kinds of sights. Women feeding chickens, clothes on lines, vegetable gardens, fruit trees. In the Armenian Quarter is Christ's Church, the oldest Protestant Church in the Middle East.

The second half of our walk on the walls in the next post.