Yerushalayim

While in Israel, we stayed in a town near Tel Aviv, but, as I mentioned before, we did quite a bit of traveling. We were able to spend three days in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a beautiful place mixing new with old...REALLY old. Ronen's father and his father's cousin went with us on our second time into the Old City. They are both knowledgeable about the city and its history. Especially his cousin, who was practically a private tour guide for us. His stories were amazing as he walked with us from the Mount of Olives (bottom picture) where he told us the history of Israel and all of its conquerors into the city walls where we walked the Via Dolorosa (side picture) and experienced all the stories of Christianity's beginnings. It was really unbelievable to be standing in places that are so important to so many people. Places that have been fought for over and over throughout history. We were so lucky to be with somebody who could point to something and actually know what it was and where it was from. On my own, I'm sure I would have walked right past a lot of this stuff without even knowing it! There are so many layers of history there that it would take years to get it all!

Of course, we couldn't spend all the time studying history. Too much at once can cause an overload or brain malfunction - especially in the kind of heat we were facing. (If you are planning to travel to Israel, try to do it in a month besides August!) So we had to spend a little time doing fun things like coffee, deserts, shopping, and camel riding.