Walk around Jerusalem

We arrived in Tel Aviv at 2:30 AM on Tuesday. We got a couple of hours of sleep before our first day of class - orientation. Part of our orientation was a circle trip around the old city of Jerusalem First stop was the souq, where we could buy anything we needed or any souvenir we wanted. The streets are narrow and crowded; the sellers have many tricks to get our attention to bargain with us. Here is Trudy standing outside one of our favorite shops in the market.

Another stop ws the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the ancient church set on Calvary and the empty tomb of Jesus resurrection. Five churches have a part of this large building complex. you walk from an inner courtyard into a spacious building filled with people remembering Jesus' death and resurrection. At a side chapel, there is a pair of first century tombs, much like the tomb Jesus would have been buried in. It has an open room and a couple of niches in which the bodies of the deceased would be placed.

Needless to say, we were pretty tired at the end of day one. We couldn't take it all in at the Holy Sepulchre; we hope to go back for a longer visit soemtime next week.