Day 7 Masada, Qumran, dead sea, bethlehem
It was freezing cold in the morning! We drove along the Dead Sea to Masada-the last Jewish stronghold after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD. It took the Romans two years to breach it-there were 1000 Jews there. There Romans got through then went back to there camps at night and were going to take it in the morning. The leader of the Jews proposed they kill themselves. They picked 10 men to slay all the others then the 10 men drew the name of the man that would kill the other nine then fall on his own sword. Horrible. Two women and some children survived to tell the story. When we got to the top Joyce said this is where she's going when the zombies attack! Ha!
We went to Qumran where the dead sea scrolls were found. In 1947 a Bedouin shepherd boy looking for a lost goat and came upon a cave with jars that held the scrolls.
We had to be back early for people to go to the midnight Mass since it is Christmas Eve :)
Our last stop was the dead sea. We got to put mud our ourselves and float in the dead sea. So cool! Gretchen didn't come with the group today to I hung out the Bill, Joyce, and Aaron. Some people were having a lot of trouble trusting the water to hold them so they couldn't enjoy it. I Loved it! You just sit down and you float effortlessly. When you get out the water leaves this oily film on your skin. When it dries your skin feels amazingly soft.you stink though and I had salt in clumps in weird places like when I run marathons. Luckily the water wasn't nearly as cold as I thought it would be.
We headed back to Jerusalem and I took a quick shower. Our guide was Mollie who was great! Gretchen, me, Vivica, Anne, Bill, Donna, Bill, Joyce, and Arron all went in this group. We ran into Betty Ann on another tour. It was cold and rainy. we went to see the parliment building just from the outside. We went up to the Mount of Olives to see Jerusalem by night. We went throughh the Jaffa gate and went back down the Via Dolorosa to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It was much less crowded at night. We went into the church and got to go onto the place marked as His tomb. We didn't get to do that the other day. We had to drop Mollie off because she isn't allowed into Bethlehem. It was different tonight - soldiers everywhere! Our driver and guide tonight were obviously Muslim Palestinians. They kept emphasizing that we were entering another country, Palestine. We went back to the Olive wood store and had tea and I went back to the store for chocolate. I had also brought ginger bread men from Mumbai to celebrate Christmas :) I shared them with Gretchen and the Terra Haute family that adopted us! Aaron said we were taking his gig :)
We parked the bus and started walking toward Manger Square. Soldiers stopped us and said we couldn't go because the Prime Minister was on the move. We stood in the freezing rain for awhile until finally the soldiers found an overhang for us to huddle under. I heard soldiers yelling at someone near me-the dumbass had taken a picture of the Palestanian soldiers. I'd bet money they were American! Dumb dumb. Some of the soldiers covered the lower half of their face. Some people thought they were trying to scare us on purpose. I think they were actually just really cold. We were finally allowed to go to the Christmas Bells restaurant. It was warm and we got to sit In There and we could see the mass on the screen. We had hours to kill but we had a great time hanging out with our Adoptive family. I was the only one to venture outside to see if I could hear anything in Manger Square. I've seen guards in crowds before. They are usually standing a few yards apart from each other. In this case they were shoulder to shoulder with their faces covered and in full gear. It really was a little freaky. Once Mass ended and the Prime Minister left, the soldiers relaxed a little. As we were walking down the street many of them wished us Merry Christmas. Our guide got off at the border and we had no problem getting back into Israel. It was 1:45 am before we got back. I was exhausted and much of the night was boring, but I got to see the Tomb and I get to say I was in Bethlehem for Christmas Eve!
It was freezing cold in the morning! We drove along the Dead Sea to Masada-the last Jewish stronghold after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD. It took the Romans two years to breach it-there were 1000 Jews there. There Romans got through then went back to there camps at night and were going to take it in the morning. The leader of the Jews proposed they kill themselves. They picked 10 men to slay all the others then the 10 men drew the name of the man that would kill the other nine then fall on his own sword. Horrible. Two women and some children survived to tell the story. When we got to the top Joyce said this is where she's going when the zombies attack! Ha!
We went to Qumran where the dead sea scrolls were found. In 1947 a Bedouin shepherd boy looking for a lost goat and came upon a cave with jars that held the scrolls.
We had to be back early for people to go to the midnight Mass since it is Christmas Eve :)
Our last stop was the dead sea. We got to put mud our ourselves and float in the dead sea. So cool! Gretchen didn't come with the group today to I hung out the Bill, Joyce, and Aaron. Some people were having a lot of trouble trusting the water to hold them so they couldn't enjoy it. I Loved it! You just sit down and you float effortlessly. When you get out the water leaves this oily film on your skin. When it dries your skin feels amazingly soft.you stink though and I had salt in clumps in weird places like when I run marathons. Luckily the water wasn't nearly as cold as I thought it would be.
We headed back to Jerusalem and I took a quick shower. Our guide was Mollie who was great! Gretchen, me, Vivica, Anne, Bill, Donna, Bill, Joyce, and Arron all went in this group. We ran into Betty Ann on another tour. It was cold and rainy. we went to see the parliment building just from the outside. We went up to the Mount of Olives to see Jerusalem by night. We went throughh the Jaffa gate and went back down the Via Dolorosa to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It was much less crowded at night. We went into the church and got to go onto the place marked as His tomb. We didn't get to do that the other day. We had to drop Mollie off because she isn't allowed into Bethlehem. It was different tonight - soldiers everywhere! Our driver and guide tonight were obviously Muslim Palestinians. They kept emphasizing that we were entering another country, Palestine. We went back to the Olive wood store and had tea and I went back to the store for chocolate. I had also brought ginger bread men from Mumbai to celebrate Christmas :) I shared them with Gretchen and the Terra Haute family that adopted us! Aaron said we were taking his gig :)
We parked the bus and started walking toward Manger Square. Soldiers stopped us and said we couldn't go because the Prime Minister was on the move. We stood in the freezing rain for awhile until finally the soldiers found an overhang for us to huddle under. I heard soldiers yelling at someone near me-the dumbass had taken a picture of the Palestanian soldiers. I'd bet money they were American! Dumb dumb. Some of the soldiers covered the lower half of their face. Some people thought they were trying to scare us on purpose. I think they were actually just really cold. We were finally allowed to go to the Christmas Bells restaurant. It was warm and we got to sit In There and we could see the mass on the screen. We had hours to kill but we had a great time hanging out with our Adoptive family. I was the only one to venture outside to see if I could hear anything in Manger Square. I've seen guards in crowds before. They are usually standing a few yards apart from each other. In this case they were shoulder to shoulder with their faces covered and in full gear. It really was a little freaky. Once Mass ended and the Prime Minister left, the soldiers relaxed a little. As we were walking down the street many of them wished us Merry Christmas. Our guide got off at the border and we had no problem getting back into Israel. It was 1:45 am before we got back. I was exhausted and much of the night was boring, but I got to see the Tomb and I get to say I was in Bethlehem for Christmas Eve!
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