Day 2: Garden of Gethsemane and the Garden Tomb

Today was another amazing day in the Holy land. It began with a nice morning run with my sister in law, Kari. We then spent the rest of the morning shopping for food at the market, enjoying delicious Middle Eastern pastries and grabbing a few necessities at the mall. Which by the way, is very similar in look and feel to those in the US including many of the same stores (Zara, Gap, Forever 21,American  Eagle... Etc). 

Around noon we headed to Hannah and Haydin's school to pick them up. Their campus is beautiful, so we spent some time enjoying the playground and the big grass hill.

We then headed to lunch in this amazing square which used to be the old train station. The food was incredible!

The rest of the day was spent visiting 2 of the most spiritual Christian sites in Jerusalem. Our first stop was the Garden Tomb. This is where most Christians (Protestants) believe Jesus was buried and later Resurrected. Other Chrisitians, including the Catholics, believe he is buried inside the walls of the Old City in the church of the Holy Sepulchre. This site was amazing... The tomb was hand chipped out of the rock.

This site actually had a scavenger hunt for the kids which they loved. It kept them entertained and they got a bookmark from the gift shop at the end.

At the end of our day we headed to the Garden of Gethsemane, the garden where Jesus is believed to have been arrested. The garden has some of the world’s oldest olive trees, a few of which have been scientifically dated as being over 2000 years old. 

Next to the Garden of Gethsemane is the church of the Agony aka the Church of All Nations. It enshrines a section of bedrock where Jesus is said to have prayed before his arrest and crucifixion.

A close to this day with one final view on our way home...

Day 1: Tour of the Old City.

After our first day in Jerusalem, we were so excited to sleep and try to trick our bodies into not suffering jet lag.  Stella did great, she went to bed at 7 and woke up at 7am. Sebastian on the other hand did not do quite as well. He woke up 3 times before midnight until finally Mike went in and slept with him. Then at 4am, Mike came in and we swapped so that he could get some good rest too.  Surprisingly, we both woke up feeling rested and ready for a day of touring the Old City.

My sweet sister in law, Kari offered to take the kids for the day so that Mike and I could go and enjoy the Old City.  She also set us up with a private tour guide which was an incredible way to discover the city.  While we were off on our adventure, Kari and the kids headed to the zoo.  She sent us these cute pictures of them feeding the birds nectar.

Our tour guide, Yossi spent a lot of time and detail on the history of the city which was incredible.  There is so much history of city rebuilt upon city, over and over. Destruction and rebuilding is a constant. There are 4 quarters of the Old City (which is only 1 sq mile).  We visited the Christian, the Armenian and spent a lot of time in the Jewish quarter (Yossi was Jewish). Unfortunately, because of recent events, our guide did not feel safe touring through the Muslim quarter so we weren't able to see any of the Muslim areas. But, fortunately for us, we have CJ and Kari to take us back through the Old City where we will be able to experience this area. It was really interesting to get a tour from a Jewish perspective, although he tried to be unbiased, we spent the majority of our time in the Jewish quarter learning about the Jewish history, customs and lifestyle.  The highlight of the tour for us was definitely, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Christian Quarter.  This is where many Christians, specifically Catholics, believe to be the tomb where Jesus' body is buried.

A panaromic shot of the city of Jerusalem from a museum in the Old City.

Mike and our tour guide, Yossi.

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Getting ready to head into The Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on our way to see the 

This is the alter of the crucifixion. Beyond the candles is a place where you can kneel to touch the site where the cross was placed. 

Also in the HolyMike laying his hand on the stone where Jesus' body was prepared for burial.

Walking past the shuk (the Arab market.)

The gold 7 arm candelabrum - residing in the Jewish quarter. This along with many other elements are being created by the Jews in preparation for the Messiah.

The entire Old City is connected via rooftop and you can walk over all 4 quarters.

Rooftop view in the Jewish quarter.

A mosaic of Old City Jerusalem.

Walking along. I love how the trees grow out of the stone and survive.

Had to capture this guy carrying this upon his head through the city.

The Cardo. Which was one of the 2 main roads in Old City Jerusalem. It was filled with open Market shops. This is where it is believed that Jesus walked down carrying the cross.

This is another area of the Cardo.

In front of the Wailing Wall. This wall is the only lasting piece of the original Temple Mount, it is the Western wall.  It's extremely Holy for the Jewish people. Mike and I had to separate here because there is a men's area of the wall and a women's area of the wall. This is one of the areas where women are required to be fully covered.

At the fountain used to wash your hands before touching the Holy wall.

Mike's hand on the Wailing Wall.

I wrote a simple prayer to place in the Wailing Wall. Each night, they take all of the papers that fall out of the wall and bury them on Mt. of Olives because once they are placed on the wall they are considered Holy and can not be thrown away.

My prayer tucked into the wall.

Mike rockin' the Yamaka (required to go near the wall)

Architecture from the time of the Crusades.

Our Arrival to the Holy Land.

All set to go! We had to leave our house at 3am in order to catch our 6am flight from LAX. I decided to stay up and pull an all nighter so that I'd be nice and tired to recover from jetlag.

We brought so much stuff to entertain the kids, we were really stressed about Sebi being awful so we had to pull out all of the tricks.

Grabbing lunch/dinner in Newark during our layover... kids stayed in their jammies so that they could get ready for sleep. The flight was 10 hours so we were planning on sleeping at least 8 of the hours.

Finally arrived in Tel Aviv. The kids were great and awful all at the same time. They were very well behaved, but Stella only slept about 3 hours total and Sebi slept for 20 minutes twice. It was a nightmare, we were all exhausted when we arrived at 9am on Wednesday morning in Tel Aviv.

In order to keep ourselves and the kids awake, we headed to the park with Kari and Brooklyn. The kids loved running around after being stuck on a plane for over 17 hours.

Our sweet little niece, Brooklyn showing the kids the ropes.

Here's CJ and Kari's house. This is the main living room, it's so beautiful and Kari has already set up Christmas. 

The amazing modern kitchen where Kari creates the most incredible meals. Homemade everything for us, bread and all.

Our guest living quarters. We have the whole bottom level to ourselves, including a kitchen, a playroom and Sebi has his own room too. (Stella sleeps upstairs with the 3 girls.)

Our guest bathroom.