Sorry for the wait, we've been so busy with work during the week and with our social life on the weekend (surprising, I know!) that I left you hanging with more info on the Jerusalem trip. I'll try to make the rest brief and only hit some of the best highlights. Overall, the trip was well worth it, and we're both very glad to have had the opportunity for this passport stamp. The people, food, and sights are one-of-a-kind. I think I left off the last blog having just spent our first night/day in Jerusalem. From there, we did a lot of walking around the Old City, and we even went to the Dead Sea!

The Old City is amazing. The architectural influence of all the people who conquered, immigrated, worshiped etc is clear. One can't miss religious site for Christians is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This one building includes the altar where Jesus' body was prepared for burial, the site of the crucifixion, and the site of the tomb. I'm no archaeological historian, so I'm not going to argue the possibilities that these three things are not what they are said to be. I just accepted it. And, they are certainly treated with the respect and sanctity that one might imagine. Here is a view from over the heads of the people there to lay their hands and objects on the altar.

And moving through the church, you can see how closely these events all took place. According to the layout of the church, the hill on Calvary is about from the garage to the front door of a big house. Here, you can see the temple structure that now encompasses the location of the tomb. They have dug out the earth and when you go inside, you are able to touch the stone that would have lined the interior. It's located in one particular rotunda of the church, and tourists and pilgrims line up to go inside.


And this is only one holy site in the Old City of which there are many. Pretty much the entire square kilometer is a holy place. What's interesting, in addition, is people live and work there as well. So they could spend the majority of their life living in one square kilometer if they so chose.

As I mentioned, we also went to the Dead Sea! It was awesome! I wasn't 100% that day, so unfortunately, I didn't get to enjoy floating around in the salty water as long as our companions did. But when I wasn't floating around on the water, I was hanging out on the beach people watching.


The weather was surprising cool and overcast for that area and that time of year. So, although I drank a couple liters of water while we were there anyway, I probably didn't need to.

And the last highlight I'll impose upon you is the food! (well, and the markets) I don't think that every street vendor was awesome and served the cleanest freshest food. BUT, when you have capable locals telling you where to eat, you really can't go wrong. We loved so much about what we ate while we were there, not the least of which were the falafels, aerated dark chocolate, lattes, halva and whiskey ice cream! The market was filled with baked goods, spices, vegetables, etc. I'll leave you with a couple pretty good pics from the market (shouk).

This is paprika!


Here are some baked goods (no - they don't use butter at all...).


Dried fruit!

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