Walking Where He Walked - Day 1 in Israel

We woke up our first morning and got ready for an overview day.  Steve (our tour guide) loves to give geographical and historical context right at the beginning of our 12 days together.  We visited 4 major sites today:

• We started by visiting the famous Israel Museum.  We saw a fantastic model of Jerusalem from right after the time of Jesus, and also squeezed in a visit to the Dead Sea scrolls. This visit helped us start to understand Jerusalem geography.

• Our second stop today was walking the Old City walls of Jerusalem.  When we speak of Jerusalem today, we speak of 3 different 'Jerusalems'. 

1.       West Jerusalem is Jewish Jerusalem.  It is very modern and the seat of Israeli government, the location of museums, and has trendy shops and coffee bars. 

2.       East Jerusalem is Arab Jerusalem.  It is also modern, but it is smaller and less developed. 

3.       Finally, there is the Old City of Jerusalem…where our hotel is located.  This is biblical and historical Jerusalem (with a couple of Biblical exceptions). We stayed right in the middle of all the action, right inside the Old City walls built in the 1500s.   The Old City is filled with Jews, Arabs, Christians, Muslims, Armenians;  and tourists and pilgrims of every stripe and color.  So we continued our day by walking on the Old City walls for a couple of hours.  We peered down into city life in the Old City as we walked around the Christian and Muslim quarters.  Every time I’m on the walls I think of Ezekiel 62:6-7 and being a watchman on the walls of Jerusalem.  Check out our walk with this video which lasts less than 4 minutes.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uzjgMqZQBI

• Our third stop today was the Mount of Olives.  This overview gives us a good chance to see all the Biblical geography of Jerusalem. This is the classic view of the Temple Mount, the old site of Solomon and Herod’s temples. 

• Our last stop of the day was the Church of Pater Noster, which is translated as "our Father" in Latin.  This convent was built over the traditional site where Jesus taught his disciples to pray what we refer to as "The Lord's Prayer".  A unique feature of this church is the Lord's Prayer written on large wall tiles in over 200 languages.