Holy Lands Cruise, Jerusalem

We had a busy day today, being the first bus out from our port, and the last bus back.  Traffic was very heavy, so it took over 2 hours to get to our drop-off spot to walk into Jerusalem.

Our first stop was the church of St Anne where archeologists found the Pool of Bethesda underneath a Byzantine church. In this picture, looking down into the excavation, you can see parts of the church as well as the pool at the bottom.  We also went into the church, which has wonderful acoustics.  Our group sang the common doxology, pausing after every phrase to hear the echo.  It was marvelous!

Next we walked deeper into the city and started down the Via Dolorosa. Several times we had to clear the path for cars and other vehicles driving down it. It was a much better walk than the last time Mary and I were here, since we had time to look at the shops and observe things. 

The Via Dolorosa led us to the.Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which is the reported site of Jesus' crucifixion and burial.  The picture on the right is the entrance to what is said to have been the tomb of Jesus. We spent some time visiting a number of smaller chapels and viewing many of the icons before heading to the Jaffa Gate to leave the old city of Jerusalem and board our bus. We were delayed in leaving, though, since two people got turned around and were lost. A friend knew their cell phone number and eventually the tour guides found them and brought them back to the bus.

After an enjoyable lunch, we headed to Ciaphas’ house where Jesus was questioned and possibly held in a cell overnight.  One very interesting fact pointed out by Dr Maier is that these recently excavated steps (picture on the right) that lead to the Brook of Kidron were highly likely to have been walked on by Jesus as he moved to and from the Garden of Gethsamene. After this last stop we headed back to the ship, arriving just 5 minutes before the All Aboard time, mostly due to heavy traffic in Jerusalem.

After dinner tonight we attended a production show by the ship's singers and dancers, which we thought had a rather trite theme, although the aerialists were quite good.  We followed that with a talk by a NASA ambassador about space exploration. 

We are looking forward to not using the alarm clock tomorrow morning, and enjoying a quiet sea day!